Timing is Nothing

(Chpt 2) Plan a Party

"Josie! Lunch today at 1pm please, I really need to talk to you about the upcoming party you're throwing together. There are some details that need to be discussed."
"Sure" I smiled politely at my boss, Marlene. She was in her mid 40's but still dressed like she were in her early 20's. She looked and acted young enough that she pulled it off rather well most times, but knowing her real age it creeped me out. Wearing barley there minis in multiple colors and textures with intense cleavage and excessive amounts of yellow gold accessories was not attractive at any age. She had large blonde hair that was only slightly dated as big hair was back in. Her make up with thick but it suited her and her nails were more like bright red claws. She's pretty in a way that only Marlene could be.
Marlene not only ran the company I worked for, she was part owner. Her husband Ben was the other half of the company. Ben just showed up when he was told to, smiled when he was asked and rolled over when commanded. They were an odd couple but their way of business or Marlene’s for that matter, worked very well.
I was employed by a small production company called Faceshots. The company hosted casting calls for TV and Radio bits along with the odd movie. It was growing rapidly, hence the rather large party I was supposed to be organizing. It was the 15th anniversary of the company and Marlene’s 40 something birthday, which Ben wanted included as a surprise. All the papers and news teams were invited as were any popular local members of parliament and well known personnel. To bad I hadn't started anything yet and there was only a week and a half to go.
This party planning thing was not in my job description! Answer phones, take message, direct people in and out the door, file stuff and book appointments. That was my job description. I worked only part time most of the year because I was in university still getting my degree in advertising. Marlene said that she feels she must lend a helping hand in applying my education, somehow party planning fell into this.
As 1 o'clock ticked closer I grew slightly nervous, I hadn't accomplished anything other than a venue since she handed the project to me over two weeks ago. I thought we could use the studio here as the party place. I literally had my fingers crossed.
Across the street from our office was an Earls where the staff ate regularly. I order a spinach dip appy, an ice tea and a chicken Caesar salad with garlic toast, I love food. One bite in and Marlene, as she always does, cut right to the chase.
"Ok honey, spill" Spill what? I wished the women would talk in complete sentences like a woman of 40 something should. Young talk doesn’t suit her because she doesn’t know what she's saying!
"Ok well... everything is progressing rather slowly but I'm keeping on top of things." Very general but not to vague just as I planned. I was looking right into her squinty green eyes as to convey the illusion of honesty.
"Invies?' she asked very seriously, staring back.
"I'm sorry, "Invies"?" I think she was speaking Greek.
"You know! Invies! Invites! Come on Josie, the party is a week away. I need you to stay focused and listen to me." She looked part offended, part humored and part impressed that she was more hip and with it than I was.
"Oh, those. Well, I sent out a broad e-mail last week to everyone in our directory. Customers, clients, close friends, news and other publications. Everyone is invited and most people replied positively"  No they didn't and no I hadn't but that's a minor detail. i would not allow my eyes to leave hers...this was war.
"Wonderful. Food?", she blinked.
"Haven't found the right caterer yet, but I will" ... eventually. I was starting to tear up my eyes were so dry!
"Decor?" This was becoming twenty questions.
"Doing it myself" This part was true, I loved to decorate. For me it was like assure that there would always be someway of entertaining myself if that party was lame. I could walk around and fix things if I was bored or stare at my handi-work instead of some guy standing right infront of me. It was a strange sign of assurance, but it worked for me and I would take what I could get.
"Date?"
"What?!" I choked on a crouton at this inquiry. I didn't see that one coming.
"No employee of mine is to attend stag. Especially you darling. You need a man in your life, maybe not a Ben, but someone. Let me set you up with someone, I know just the guy." I finally allowed myself to blink. I couldn't belive what I was hearing! My boss, crazy old Marlene wanted to set me up with someone she knows! I thought this was just lunch.
"That's really nice of you, thank you, but I'm ok. I'll be working the whole night anyways making sure everything is exactly what it should be. I’ll be running around so much that for this kind of function, having a date would be unfair to them. I wouldn't want to be rude to anyone, especially if its someone that you know." This sounded believable enough to me.
"No." She simply stated, "I've already called them and they said yes. You're stuck." My jaw instantly dropped. She was acting like my mother! "Now you really have to get your but in gear and start planning this party" She smiled a little wickedly. How did she know that I was totally lying to her face?
I blushed a deep red and looked away.
"Don’t worry Josie, I know it will be great but I also know you haven't done a single thing. If I didn't know you though, I would have believed you, it was presented very nicely."

--

Plan a party. That's all I had to do, no biggy. Invite some people, put out some beer in a cooler and some nachos, everything will be ok. f***, I'm so screwed. I was back sitting at my desk staring blankly at the computer screen attempting to find my way out of my current situation. I had approval from Ben and Marlene to use the office as our official location which helped a little but overall I was still stuck. Marlene had placed another girl in my position for the rest of the week so I had time to focus on this party. She is a wonderful lady, very understanding and generous but I wish she had stayed out of the whole "appling my education thing"; I have a family that interferes enough.
"I'm going out, back later I guess" I said unsure of what else to say to the new girl who kicked my out of my desk.
Vancouver is full of neat little shops that typically trigger some kind of inspiration so I headed towards Robson Street, which was maybe three blocks away, and began to wonder, 'Can I really do this?"
My prayers were answered though by a little store around Tiffany's. I walked inside the shady little nook and it was everything trendy, everything chic and everything party. I found the cutest little Invies ever made. They were white with a black square in the middle. On the inside the same black square appeared with a note above it that read "This is what your calendar will look like now that I've contacted you" and you filled in the black square with a lime green pen about the party. I liked it, so I bought like 200 hundred of them. I didn’t think 200 would be nessecary but better safe that sorry.
I also ordered multiple bouquets of black and white balloons with sparkly spindly things coming out of the weight at the bottom. I bought floating candles in black and white with some small fish bowl looking things. I was told to fill them half way with water, put a few sparkles in the water and just let the candles float. My final purchase was some white rice paper lamps to hang from the ceiling. It was all very simplistic, nothing extravagant but I didn't know what Marlene or Ben had in mind, they just said "We trust you."
After about 3 more hours of wandering aimlessly around Robson Street, I had successfully completed a whole party. I even threw together an outfit, not bad for 3 hours.
My entire night when I got home from work was spent filling out what seemed like millions of little, annoying, stupid, pointless, infuriating invies. In the end I filled out 178 invies but managed to use all 200.
The next morning I had them couriered to their various recipients around town. I was so relived that it was all done! I had nothing to do now until the day of, thank god!