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the godfather, part IV

don craig-e-leone,
i am honored and grateful
that you have invited me to your office
on the day of your friend's retirement.

--

as some of you may know, all the bosses from all around the world came to hangzhou this past week to celebrate in the retirement of bray china's old boss. i won't say my personal feelings about this man or his ideas on a public domain. though if you buy me a beer and ask me to open up, i probably won't stop. anyway, the week has been hectic as hell, all the bosses floating around, all the dinners, meetings, and random other stuff.

on friday, we had a super fancy dinner. turns out it wasn't fancy at all, but somehow, there was a suit/tie requirement. so i got all dressed up. had my three piece custom thai suit (which i bought for a whopping $200). i even pulled out my pocket watch and chain. and i shaved. woah baby.

i was out in the warehouse with my boss and two nincompoops from our china branch discussing some shipping issue that isn't an issue at all when we got a call, informing my boss and me that it was our time.

i went up and waited in the waiting room outside the bosses' offices. the top dog of the company was in the adjacent meeting room. i waited patiently, though my heart was going at a million beats a minute (for reasons i also would only discuss over a beer).

i felt like ol' luca brasi, rehearsing my speech of gratitude for being invited to see the don on his busy day. there i was, wearing a three piece suit, waiting in a fairly nice place, with weird statues and everything, and other people waiting for their turn, to see the boss.

after about twenty minutes, one of his guys opened the door and casually waved me in. i walked into a room of the top dog (the don), the founder (vito), the top dog of china (tessio), the soon-to-be top dog of china (clemenza), the don's right hand man (my boss, tom hagen), and a bunch of beverages scattered about the table. i shook everyone's hand, though, since it was not really the corleone family, i did not kiss the don's hand and call him godfather.

and then i remembered that it still is a boring company with real business meetings, and we weren't discussing johnny fontane or enzo the baker. that's when the story fades.

--

and may your next fiscal year be a masculine fiscal year.

June 2, 2008 @ 8:34am . 82 views . 3 comments