Scribbles

Had two special visitors in town this weekend, one of my favorite December promotion peoples, and a we-go-back-before-the-dawn-of-time buddy.  What a treat, double treat at that.  As soon as I got home on Friday night, I shed my work clothes and flushed out all thoughts of work; just couldn't have the weekend tainted by thoughts of increasing profitability while avoiding office territorial disputes and no-nonsense methodology.  The task was clear: give our friends an authentic slice of our New York City lives.  It would have been a crime not to bring these out-of-towners to one of our favorite hang-outs, so we started right of the bat for some yummy Thai food, where we dined, Californian-wined, and practiced some rusty français before dissolving into the Friday night meat-packing district crowd.  Special thanks go to my white-jacket-styling colleague for making a normally amusing night a memorable one.

I always found the overlapping promotions idea at INSEAD a superb idea, and even better, I'm so glad I took out the time to get to know the younger promotion.  I caught updates on the latest whereabouts of some friends, current Montmelian generation, post-MBA job market situation, and even some juicy gossip.  Something extraordinarily precious about life's random blend of events, insomnia, spicy tuna rolls, uncertainties, and complications shared through a connection bridged by 2.5 academic institutions and 1+0.5+0.5 languages. 

One of my best buddies from INSEAD recently recounted to me a little story of being stranded in Paris at midnight, with no more trains to Fonty and bleak visions of sleazy French motels looming.  But what unfolded was a night of beers, pasta, and laughs with a few of our not-so-long-lost classmates.  At the end, softly landing on a comfortable extra bed, he concluded “this INSEAD network is no joke.”  I second that, and I know that I should get my act together and reach out to our community in NY.  Foreseeing the words coming out of PGuy, I'll just pre-emptively respond, “I'm on it already.”