Recovering from a near-miss (or how I survived last week)

April 18, 2008

Regular Buzz readers are likely very well aware of who Abby and Melanie are. What you may not know is that these girls represent my right and left hands. I can only do what I do because they steadfastly do what they do, day in and day out…and they do it damn well. And I have always known that on some level, but I did not realize quite how deeply I’d come to rely upon them until last week.

On Tuesday, I found out that Abby will soon be leaving us to start her family. While my heart is heavy with the sadness of losing my travel buddy, cocktail partner, consummate assistant and dear friend, I am over the moon with joy for her and all the exciting and wonderful changes this baby will bring for her. Abby is a special kind of pregnant woman- the kind who sailed right through the first several months without a single lost night of sleep, without a single morning of nausea and without even a hint of burgeoning belly. I was with Abby at the doctor last week when the sonogram revealed what she had started to suspect: Abby will be a mommy soon. Her baby girl will be here in mere months and she’ll be relocating in preparation. The void she leaves at Bella Luccè is sizable…Abby has accompanied me to the Middle East- twice. We’ve flown in a hot air balloon together over the Hajar Mountains of Oman. We’ve danced the night away both in some of Dubai’s swankiest digs and in varied Columbia dive bars. We’ve cried our eyes out together and celebrated many, many victories together. I love her both as a member of my team and as a dear friend and she will be sorely missed. Abby was my daughter’s Montessori teacher before she came on at my company and she’s nothing short of brilliant with children, so this kid is already some kind of lucky to call her “mommy.” I plan to be there when Abby Jr. makes her debut and we’ll soon be throwing her a Going Away Party/Baby Shower of ridiculous proportions. I have no doubt that I will lose my cool at such a gathering, but I am comforted to know that Abby will just be a short-ish drive away and that I can periodically draw her back to Columbia with the promise of Blue Moons and gossip.

So Tuesday was a hot mess in my office. I gathered my wits about me and returned on Wednesday, forcing myself to be optimistic about our future as Abby spreads her wings elsewhere. And I was doing a mighty fine job with that optimism, until Melanie walked in and let me know that her husband had accepted a new position within his company- one that required him to trot around the country for an ungodly sum of money…and she’d be following him. I kept it together fairly well, smiling all the while. And then she walked out the door of my office and I fell to absolute pieces. Really sad, pathetic little pieces with jagged edges that think all hope is lost. So I gave myself an hour to cry to various patient friends who have grown accustomed to this kind of behavior from me and then headed back to the office for a pre-scheduled round of staff reviews and a meeting with an insurance inspector (none of which is fun under normal circumstances…and certainly not under THESE circumstances). Melanie procures all of our raw materials, supervises all the production staff, manages inventory and places orders, handles a large chunk of the accounting, all of the various batch paperwork (MSDS sheets, Certificate of Analyses, raw material lot numbers, batch records, etc.), coordinates various freight and shipping vendors and controls the production schedule. Not an easy task. And she does it with a smile and sometimes way past closing time and even on some weekends. And she laughs at my jokes at the Monday staff meetings and helps me keep my sanity. Which is an even more difficult task than all of the above. And now she was leaving.

On Thursday, I fled to Seattle (on a pre-scheduled trip), into the open arms of Jennifer, our Marketing Director. The thought of losing both of our company managers (and two of my dearest friends) in one foul swoop was just too much for me. Luckily, Jennifer fed me exceptionally good food, consoled me with inappropriate amounts of red wine, let me sleep in on some mornings, placed luxury toiletries in my bathroom and promised me (over and over) that it would all be okay. While we weren’t running around chasing the Dalai Lama and Dave Matthews, we were busying propping each other up and crying until we burst with laughter. I am forever in her debt as I am certain that last week would not have been as wildly blissful and reinvigorating had she not been with me. I returned to the office yesterday to some truly fabulous news: Melanie can, indeed, be bribed to stay with copious amounts of eye-lash batting, extended vacation (so she can periodically chase her husband) and an insane raise…which she is certainly deserving of and I have no objection to. God love her. And a familiar face will be taking over Abby’s role…my old friend Jackie, who worked for Bella Luccè in roughly the same capacity for a good long while and is so utterly fabulous that just the thought of her back at the helm has me smiling. We’ve been flying solo without her for over a year, but Jackie and I have stayed in touch and made a commitment to monthly dinners out at Columbia’s finest dining spots, so it’s almost like not a day has passed. Everyone is excited to have her back among us and I count myself lucky that she’d even consider it. Jackie will be back in the hot seat beginning May 5th. Wish her luck…

So all is (almost) right in my world again. We’ll miss Abby more than I can articulate and I will grieve her departure for a long, long time, but she’s moving on to bigger and better things (and lots of dirty diapers!) and I wish her nothing less than abundant joy and success. And I know that Bella Luccè will be fine, too. This little bit of drama has reminded me that it is so much more about the journey than the destination. All of the gals that work with me day in and day out are the heart and soul of my company. And my dear friends, too. We cry together, laugh together, celebrate together, mourn together and (yes), sometimes squabble like siblings. But there is not a single group on the planet I’d rather be a part of. When my husband started to see me come apart at the seams last week, he launched Operation Save Lela’s Sanity. The details are scarce (since he made all the arrangements), but I do know that it involves a 10am departure for an undisclosed beach, where we plan to sleep in, order room service, frolic in the sand and fully restore my mojo. I’ll be back sometime next week…with more days of consecutive rest than I have had in FOREVER. Look out world!