August 10, 2008
Whewf! Sunday and here I am, writing my note to you. It’s been a FULL week and I’m just now finding time to sit here composing a note to you. Hope you had a good Saturday. Mine was terrific!!!
As you see from the pictures, we had some big work this week. The Penland School does a huge auction every summer and we were delighted to be a part of it. Oh what fun it is… huge numbers (for us), big amounts of food, lots of organization, and all done very quickly – their main intent is to loosen people up so they will have a fine time when the auction begins.
Our kitchen crew started it all off, arriving early to cook and cook and cook everything for the two parties we were serving. We’d done this event before, though not last year, and so, while I felt pretty sure of everything, I paced around like a freak, sitting at my desk, hopping up to check on things, bounding back into the office…and on and on. I was in a happy mood throughout, which meant that I could be teased (and was). You know you’re being an idiot when everyone starts telling you to lay off the Coke.
We got everything loaded up and were off right on time. The day before I had driven to Atlanta to see if I could find some new serving platters. I HAD found some and was looking forward to getting up to the mountains and seeing how the food looked on them. But right when we got to Burnsville, still 20 minutes from our party, Jaime called me and said that Breanna had just been stung by a bee. INSIDE the van! What!???
Fortunately, we were right by Ingles and we piled in, got her some baking soda and some benadryl and some cortisone cream. Ingles on a Friday in Burnsville is not like Ingles on a Friday in Asheville. People move more slowly there, visiting, taking their time, packing bags with care, being deliberate, methodical. ACK!!! Finally shaking our heads, we piled back into our vehicles and kept going.
The set up was smooth, simple, fine. Jaime and I had done the party before and worked easily together. She set up the two buffets, I demonstrated how I wanted the food presented on our new platters. Breanna and Charlotte are aces, jumping in, taking charge. Breanna did not go into anaphylactic shock, thank heavens. And Michael, a helper from before, stepped up too, even joining in the “we’ve GOT this Laurey, you can relax” teasing. Right on time the buffet was set to go. The guests, all 350 of them, showed up, and in less than two hours we were on our way back to Asheville.
We did it all again yesterday morning, except this meal was for 425 people. No bee stings this time. Less nervousness on my part. Lovely food. Great staff. Perfect weather. Tra la.
And then, taking rare advantage of being the boss, I did not come back to work (we got back to Asheville at around 3:00) but went home and, though I had planned to nap, puttered, vacuumed, did laundry, petted the dog, watched the bees, straightened things out and then, finally, sacked out with the dog mashed up next to my knees at the bottom of the couch and the cat tucked in my arm.
Later on a friend came over and that was very sweet too.
It was, all in all, just a perfect, perfect day.
