Organic San Francisco Summer Party Headlines: Wine, Fencing, Dance Battle.

August 4, 2008

The San Francisco office celebrated the long days of summer with a reprise of last-year's trip  to wine country. Viansa was kind gullible enough to invite us back and this year the ante was upped a bit by virtue of familiarity. Highlights were many, but if you're reading this from another office or as an outsider, you probably only want to know who the "headliners" were. Sure, opening acts are interesting, but who held down the main event?

Well, for starters, engineering head Tom Tully--who is known by many to be an accomplished fencer--brought his épées. Apparently, with the intent of some light sparring. Add a little California grape and a modicum of protective equipment. Voila: Department Head Swordplay Showdown. After dispatching head of HR Tracy Coté with a couple of "uninvited touches," Tully squared of against the one and only Mr. Shane Ginsberg. Armed with an accent well suited to the sporting enterprise at hand, Shane stepped into the role with verve, deftly disguising the panic he was apparently feeling with his typical verbal repartee. Nonetheless, a well-timed belly shot from Tully was his undoing. After the match Ginsberg had this to say.

"I was scared shitless. That was really scary."

But wine-fueled swordplay was only the beginning. Going home was where the real action was. At least on bus number two, where an impromptu dance battle in a moving motor coach set a new standard for wine-tour motor-skills maintenance. Since neither of the parties involved are members of the executive committee, I will resist the urge to report their names in a document that is the subject of public record. As they may eventually need to apply for jobs elsewhere. But suffice to say, that with the irony-laden sounds of (erstwhile Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial stalwarts) Dirty Vegas' "Days Go By" as the soundtrack, moves were indeed busted.

The once and future prom queen from creative was very much on her game. But, a surprise shut-down move came from a more-than-game for the challenge member of the operations team: vogueing. Not seen in competition in more than 10 years, the surprise flurry of fierceness caught our prom queen off guard and it will have to be recorded here that she was, in fact "served." In all of the excitement, a small dog then peed on the bus.

Until next year,

Turman