Last Night

I tried to post another picture of our whole Academic Affairs office crew, but after trying the 21st and again today(24th), it will not let me add another picture...not even to a new post. It has been frustrating, but at least I added these two before it got tempermental :) By the way, the list of people that work in our office are Bud Bence (my boss), Connie Lightfoot, Jerry Pattengale, Don Sprowl (new guy for Institutional Research), Alleta Tippey, Pam Sempel, Kristen Willey, and myself.

Last night we went to Connie Lightfoot's house (our new interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences) and had SUCH a great time. We really don't get together as an office, and have not gotten together with families before either. We just sat around the dinner table chatting until like 8:30 and then headed outside to their AMAZING backyard. It was almost like stepping into a little private garden-world. Connie's husband, Paul, is a botonist, so their backyard was BEAUTIFUL.

They even had a zip line from their back porch to their woods which almost all of us, believe it or not, tried out (one person, who will remain namless (Bud Bence) did have a little mishap with the zip line and is a little sore today). I thought Jerry Pattengale described it perfectly in an email he sent to all of us this morning:

"Thanks for a refreshing moment last evening--it was so perfect it was almost surreal. Not to be too romantic about this--but there seemed to be magic in the air last night. Cindy commented en route home that we sure have a great group in our office. Although my arms are sore from carrying a 200 lb. load down an unbelievable zip line, I cannot imagine having been so close to youth without trying. If you hear a whizzing cable sound in the middle of the night it's Bud and I out perfecting our form. I did awaken this morning seeing the tree at 50 mph. In all seriousness, and with gratitude sincerely expressed, thanks for last night. It was one of those perfect evenings in which the planned and serendipitous moments made for one of those "happy thoughts" of Peter Pan lore. I suppose that we could say like the old commercial, especially since we have our own Bud, "It doesn't get any better than this." "