Spring has sprung here in Charles Town, but that mostly
means that the clouds have sprung a leak. It has been raining for weeks here
and while good for the plants and garden, makes it almost impossible to get
everything planted. Cindy tried to dig six holes for tomatoes in the garden,
which I had already roto-tilled when the weather was good, they filled with
ground water almost immediately. Mowing
the lawn presents its own challenges what with the slipping and sliding on the
inclines, the clogging of the machine with super wet grass and the fact that
you have to go and do it all over again in two or three days.
As a respite from back to the earth existing, we spent three
days in Washington DC. Cindy and I were
co-chairs of a fundraising dinner for Her Majesty the Queen Mother of Bhutan. My involvement with the National Board of
Certified Counselors Foundation, has introduced me to several projects that we
partner with if their vision is consistent with ours. One of these is RENEW
which works to support women’s issues. The
Queen was going to be in the states for her daughter’s graduation so we managed
to squeeze in this dinner between events at the Gate’s Foundation in Seattle
and a reception in New York.
Cindy and I worked to find a good restaurant in Washington
that would have a private room available on Mother’s Day, not an easy task as
we discovered. We finally settled on a
restaurant called NOPA (North of Pennsylvania Ave. far too cute). We selected menus, wines, invitations and
programs and invited twelve guests who we thought might be interested in
learning about this project and contributing to its success. With seven members
of the Bhutan delegation, we were all set for an intimate evening.
Things went remarkably well and it was really a fascinating
evening, not only because the Queen is charming and a gifted speaker, but also
the other guests were remarkably well traveled and experienced in giving to
good causes. Everyone had amble time to
interact with the Queen and her advisors so that all questions could be
answered and all photo ops well managed.
We were really whipped when the final guest departed and we could
finally sit down and have a quiet glass of wine and review the evening.
The following Tuesday, we were invited to a cocktail
reception hosted by and at the National Geographic Society. The event was held in Hubbard
Hall, one of the smaller spaces in the building and perfectly suited for
this event. In order to get there we had
to walk though a lot of the exhibition space and I was once again remained what
a treasure the National Geographic Society really is. I think there were about fifty people there
and Cindy and I were far more relaxed since we were just guests and could meet
and greet. Lots of high rollers were at
the reception and while we’ll never know how well they contributed, I’m sure
the Queen was happy with the results.
Tomorrow we are off to Williamsburg for Colin’s graduation
from the MBA program at William and Mary, quite an achievement and we are
really proud. Cindy is off to Anoka on
Tuesday for the estate sale of the things in her mom’s house. This has been a long process and we are hoping
this will be the last task to accomplish before the sale of the house. I’ll be tasked with garden maintenance so I’m
hoping the weather cooperates.
With best wishes,
Cindy and Wm
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| The Queen |
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| The Queen's Vision |
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| Our Menu and Program |
