Coast to Coast

I spent Tuesday in Los Angeles where I used my iPhone to snap this photo of folks waiting for a fashion show to start at The Grove, an outdoor shopping center where I had dinner. I didn’t stay for much of the show because the music was too loud.  The coolest thing I learned is they hold down red carpet with red duct tape.  I never knew they made red duct tape.

I then flew cross country to Orlando for a conference I’m attending.  One of my business partners is here with me.  His parents happened to be driving through on their way from Fort Lauderdale to their home in Ohio so they stopped to see him.

If you want to get to know your work colleagues better, I suggest taking their parents to dinner.  The meal was a delight.  I heard story after story from my partner’s childhood, many I suspect he didn’t want me to hear.  My favorite was of the family vacation they took when my partner was twelve.  They piled in the car and started driving west from Ohio.  A week or so later they found themselves in an Idaho town near my home watching the evening news.   During a commercial, an announcer came on raving about a huge piano and organ sale going on at a local hotel.  My colleague’s parents didn’t think much of it, but it caught my partner’s eye. The next day on their way out of town a pelting rainstorm forced them to pull over into a hotel parking lot. It happened to be where the big sale was being held.  My partner begged his parents to just go in and look.  Thirty minutes later, they were the proud owner of a new organ, which incidentally didn’t fit in the trunk of their car.  When they inquired about shipping the organ, they were told they would have to construct a wooden crate to house it.  Instead, they rented a trailer and pulled the organ from Idaho to the Grand Canyon and back to Ohio.

Some people by T-shirts for souvenirs.  Others by large musical instruments.