Saturday, October 6, 2018

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2006. Mattie was four years old and that weekend we took him to Walkersville, MD. There he rode on vintage 1920's passenger cars past a 100-year-old lime kiln and then out into the picturesque Maryland farm country.  Given that Mattie was enamored with trains, this was an activity to remember.


Quote of the day: When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things not the great occasions that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness. ~ Bob Hope

Though we only live a couple blocks away from the Organization of American States, we have never gone into this building until tonight. This evening, the Georgetown Business School was hosting a reunion for Peter's class. The event was held in this beautiful building. 

When Peter was going to business school, I also was in graduate school. So I heard about his classmates, but for the most part never met them. In addition, though his classmates were the same age as Peter, many of them weren't married. Therefore, his classmates had a different social scene than us. Ironically, many of Peter's classmates actually married fellow classmates, and I can't tell you how many marriages I counted tonight. At least 8 that I can recall off hand. 

This is where the cocktail hour was served. It was a very lovely, almost Spanish style atrium. Filled with real trees. It was a magical setting. 

I typically don't like going to social events, especially with people I don't know. Mainly because the small talk drives me crazy..... What do you do? How many children do you have? So forth! But Peter encouraged me to come so that we could share Mattie Miracle with his classmates. That got me to think about the event in a whole new way, which actually worked out very well. 

The room was set up in different shades of purple. It was lovely and the purple roses on the table were simple but elegant. 

The roses were sitting on a velvety purple table linen. It was very inviting. 

We sat at a table of ten. Attendees were sat by class year. Initially during our first course, no one was sitting on my left. However, as we began eating our salad, a man came to sit next to me. He wasn't in Peter's graduating class, but decided to sit with us because there was no room for him at his own class table. I introduced myself to him and he assumed I was a graduate. I said no and that I was in a completely different field. So this intrigued him. When I told him about my education and background, he seemed pleased by this and wanted to share a problem he was having with someone he was working with. So this is how our conversation started out. We eventually moved into our Foundation work later in the evening. Needless to say, I got his business card and will be following up with him this week. It is my hope that from this evening, we will be able to introduce several new people to Mattie Miracle. 

After dinner was served, they had a buffet of desserts. 

A classmate of Peter's snapped a photo of us. The lighting in the room was simply awful! 

I tried to get Peter's class photo, but there were 60 of them in attendance at the event. This is the best I could do, while standing on a chair. Unfortunately Peter is on the far left and apparently I did not capture him in this photo. 

Yet getting these people on stage for this photo was like herding cats. It was Peter who organized this group photo because without leadership, this group was scattered all over the stage.