we found out that art gensler's [the creator of the firm i work for, gensler] son, david, was coming to town. i've written a lot about how nicole and i get shoved in the library sometimes when we don't have a lot going on otherwise. the week before david was supposed to come, nicole spent a lot of time in the library, and we finally planned that the saturday before his arrival (which if this is confusing for you, that saturday was august 2nd) we would spend time cleaning the library. ironically, this was the very same day that jeff planned the "gensler family party" at his house.
nicole, dustyn, and i met up at the library at 10 am. we worked solidly until 2:30. i should have taken before and after pictures of the library because we pretty much turned water into wine. just kidding - we are certainly no Jesus. jeff's party started at 3:00, so dustyn and i hurried home, took showers, and headed to la jolla. i was pretty nervous - meeting co-workers outside of work can be interesting. and on top of that, they were bringing their spouses. i was anxious for dustyn to meet everyone, for him to be able to put faces to names, and for him to enjoy them just as much as i do. i think we finally arrived at jeff's party around 4:15 or so.
[note: almost all of the younger people in my office decided to protest the party and not show up. this party was happening the saturday after stephen got fired, so all of the young people were still upset and angry with the managers/associates. in hindsight, i think it was pretty immature on their part.]
it's always interesting to me to go a designer's home. i guess i naturally expect it to be amazing because we always try to design mainstream spaces. i couldn't have expected anything better than jeff's house. it was incredible. he and his wife renovated a lot of it when they moved in. the view from their back porch overlooks the entire coastline. when i interviewed for my job at gensler, jeff quizzed me a lot on the ipe and steel bench i built because he too was building one. i had the opportunity to see [and sit] on his beautiful creation. it was gorgeous. the thing is 25 FEET long! the decor in his house was very minimal, and the furniture all had clean lines.
i have to admit that i was worried everyone would be drunken idiots and their crazy side would come out. that didn't happen. everyone was sooo much fun to talk to. it was absolutely wonderful to get to learn a little bit more about the people i work with. i love conversations involving tom and his wife gillian (pronounced like gilligan, with a "g", not a "j" sound). they perfectly compliment one another and they're so humorous. tom always has something interesting and witty to say; he's extremely intelligent and his humor comes out despite his brilliance.
ralph is another guy i got to talk to a lot. he's probably in his 40s. he has two kids that are approximately my brother and sister's age. he and his wife were insightful and fun to talk to. they told us a lot of great stories about what they do, their kids, and we were able to share stories with them about texas. [when dustyn sent me the edible arrangement for our anniversary, i took a piece of fruit to jeff and ralph because they didn't know it was in the kitchen. ralph got into a long discussion with me about the difference between flowers and fruit. he said that flowers die after a while and asked me what happens to the fruit. i looked at him and said, " you poop it out." i turned and walked away after i said that. i was in disbelief that those words came out of my mouth - in front of the office manager and one of the associates. my face was flaming red, but i giggled to myself because i had definitely broken the ice with them. jeff said to me, "i cannot believe you just said that sentence." me either.] so ralph had established this relationship with me that was a little more relaxed and less "proper" than the typical office relationship.
i also go to know marc and his girlfriend tiffany. marc started at gensler a week before i did. he has had one of the most interesting lives. he graduated with an advertising/marketing degree, worked in new york for a few years, and went down during the dot com crash in the 90s. he went back to school later on and got his degree in architecture. his girlfriend is quite a bit younger than he is; she's right around my age, but she's a doll. i loved talking to her because she was so anxious for us to learn about san diego and experience great music and food. marc was fun to talk to because he and i have similar interests as far as the type of work we're interested in and the programs we know. marc is the secret, silent type that doesn't speak often, but when he does, he strings words together so brilliantly, it's dumbfounding.
era is a really sweet girl in the office that i like stopping by to talk to every now and then. she's extremely anxious to get married. [the stephen that got fired actually used to introduce era in a really uncommon, embarrassing way. instead of saying, "meet era baumer, an interior designer....blah, blah, blah...." he would say, "meet era baumer, she wants to get engaged before the end of 2008." i know, how embarrassing, right?] eagerness to be married radiates out of her though. her boyfriend, mike, is a really, really nice guy. i have to say that secretly, i had the idea that era was a christian because she tends to have more morals and values than most of the people in my office. i was pretty sad when i walked up on a conversation she was having with julia about how she had been staying at mike's house for over a month and a half and told him the night before that she just wanted to sleep in her own bed without him. mike is a computer guy and he and dustyn had a few things in common. mike was extremely easy to talk to; i liked that he and era enjoy going to the outdoor theater, where they put on shakespeare plays and they go to broadway shows often. not many guys enjoy doing this sort of thing, and i got the idea that maybe the four of us could do something like this together. era and mike have an extremely large circle of friends, so again, i'm not really sure where dustyn and i would fit in.
the evening went really well, overall. conversation never died down. people didn't really want to leave jeff's house because it was so beautiful. [sad thing is, around 5:00 or so, it became overcast, so we didn't get to see the sun set over the water.] we finally got ready to leave around 9:00. we made our rounds and told everyone good-bye. when i walked up to jeff, he gave me a big hug and said, "magan, i'm so glad you're here and part of our team. thanks for coming tonight." that made me feel awesome. i felt like i was walking on clouds after he said that. i love my job and the people, so it felt sooo great to hear that from him.
i am posting some pictures of my co-workers so you can put faces to names. enjoy!
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