I’ve been working at HP for a little over a year now. Nuri has been my manager since I started. Nuri has been at HP for about 12 years – the last 8 of which have been in the marketing department. She decided that she was ready for a change and a new set of challenges so, much to my dismay, she applied for a transfer to another department. Since she’s absolutely awesome, she got the job. About 30 of us from HP went to a restaurant in Sant Cugat last night to say goodbye. The night called for good food and good fun.

During the first half of the evening, we were treated to a delicious assortment of Catalan appetizers and meaty main courses. But unbeknownst to almost everyone there, I had hired two actor friends of mine to pose as a waiter and manager from the restaurant. The waiter was very unsure of himself, disorganized, and a bit clumsy while the manager was a hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners, grade-A bitch. The “show” started very small, only perceptible to the very few people who happened to be next to the actors when “situations” occurred, and grew over the course of an hour to an unbearable crescendo that had the manager screaming at (and hitting!) the poor waiter in the middle of the restaurant. The situation was so believable (and yet so absurd) that various members of our party attempted to intervene to save the waiter from this screaming fascist maniac. Someone went to the front of the restaurant to complain to the owner. Many were embarrassed. One girl actually started crying! But most people just sat there feeling uncomfortable and not knowing what to do. The entire room was about to go berserk when the actors finally let everyone in on the gag and, after a moment of utter disbelief, everyone exploded into a therapeutic round of applause. Nuri was mortified and relieved and swore to make me pay for my little going away present. Being in on the joke the whole time and watching people suffer, I wasn’t sure how everyone would react afterwards. But everyone was wholly impressed and happy to have been taken for a ride. A couple of people even asked me for the actors’ phone number so they could hire them for another party.

After emotions had settled down, the second half of the evening had us devouring desserts and celebrating Nuri. She was sat in front of a huge game board with photos of everyone from the marketing department when they were a child and a pile of photos of us today and Nuri had to match them with the help of three increasingly easy and personally-revealing clues for each person. It was hysterical seeing photos of product managers dressed as tiny cowboys and half-naked graphic designers in a paddling pool with inflatable animals. Here’s the photo that I supplied of myself:

Nuri needed two clues to guess it was me

After the fun and games were over, Nuri was showered with many thoughtful gifts, one of which was a wonderful magazine made by the people in our in-house design center filled with rare photos from Nuri’s 8 years in marketing and all of the people with whom she had worked. Creative people plus amazing printing technology usually equals some pretty nifty gifts. We all got to sign a little something next to out photo in the magazine. I wrote, “Nuri, my role will not change but my job will never be the same. Thank you for being not only a great manager but a wonderful friend…” and then I think I wrote something else, but this was very late in the evening and the massive quantities of wine that had been consumed prevent me from remembering many more details.

We all said goodnight, I got a ride home, crashed in my bed, and fell swiftly to sleep. The next day was Friday and I decided to work from home. I was woken at 10am by Jan who shook me and said, “Wake up! I think your dad’s here!”. I groggily answered, “That’s impossible. He said he wasn’t coming until Sunday.” “I know”, said Jan, “but he’s downstairs!”