The Speechwriter - Part 3: Success
This will be an anticlimactic entry, and for that I apologize.
For the final installment of "The Speechwriter" I planned on going into detail about the corporate event, but every time I sat down to write it, something just didn't feel right. For one thing, I felt self-indulgent talking about a lot of details that only meant something to me.
From a business standpoint, the event was an unmitigated success. My speeches were praised, and after a lackluster reception in the West, my little "play" was warmly received by the Eastern crowd in Orlando. My friend Mark and his business partner, Ben, were roundly praised by the executives, thus guaranteeing them a good year financially and future business from the company.
I learned a few things, too, like the following:
* A cream silk summer suit with a lavender shirt and tie is an ensemble that looks good on me.
* Even if you wear a linen suit with no metal in it, you still have to remove your jacket at airport security and run it through the X-ray machine.
* Phoenix is fricken hot and dry, even at night.
* Despite its stately palm trees and elegant lobby, the rooms at Gainey Ranch are in desperate need of remodeling.
* It takes an incredible amount of equipment, trucked in by tractor-trailers, to put on a corporate event.
* No matter how many times you take the pile of pillows off the hotel bed, tacitly saying, "I DON'T WANT THE GODDAMN PILLOWS ON MY BED," the housekeeper is going to put them back on there.
* Hyatt properties all play the same languid background music and pump the same scent into their hotels.
* If you wash your socks in the sink and hang them on your balcony in the desert air, they'll dry in about two hours.
I'm sorry, but the other, deeper things I learned are mine alone. Part of being a good writer is knowing when to keep things to yourself.
And this is one of those times.