Hello from the train!

Hi all--I have been a bad blogger recently and haven't kept up; my apologies. It is hard to find time to sit down and type. But I am on the train now headed to Darien, CT to see Gerdts and hit the beach with Attly. The weather is so nice and I cannot wait to soak up some sun.

What's new in NYC...

Like I mentioned earlier, the Hamptons trip was a blast. I got there Monday night after some delays while waiting for Raul (Creative Manager from Rugby in Dallas who is moving to East Hampton to work at the new store). We took the Hampton Luxury Liner from the city and it dropped off right outside our hotel. The ride was only about 2 hours. We got to the hotel and went to check in. It was a historic hotel above the restaurant The Palm which is really famous in the Hamptons...quite a scene. After that we went and checked out town; peeped through the barracade and saw the Rugby store. The store is immaculate.

We headed back to the hotel and ran into a bunch of RL people in the lobby and sat around til the wee hours of the morning drinking and playing poker. The bar was closed but they left the tap on so we floated the keg before the night was over. All in all a good time for the first night.

I reported early on Tuesday morning to get busy on making the store pretty. All day I worked in men's doing the merchandising and setting the concept tables, etc. It was a ton of fun to have free reign over the merchandising. I met a TON of people from corporate, a bunch of the concept designers who are all really cool. The entire team was really cool--they picked the best of the best associates and it was great getting to know all of them. For dinner that night I went out with the creative team (read: windows and interrior rigging) to a famous place called Rowdy Hall and had the famous Rowdy Burger and many-a-beer. It was a good time. After that it was time for bed. Exhaustion had already begun.

Wednesday was an early morning: 6:00am. There was a lot of work to be done, and they happened to be putting a car in the window that had been cut in half. It was really cool. We were kicked out for a couple of hours while they repainted the floor (for the fourth time) and after that reworked a bunch of the merchandising in men's and started women's.

Thursday was another busy day. I worked in women's all day and reworked some of the merchandising to get ready for the photos and opening on Friday. The photographer came and I directed the photo shoot telling him what to take shots of, etc. We were there til 2:30 in the morning and it was quite a scene when everyone showed up from the bar. It made things more enjoyable to see skateboarding down the main road by a bunch of drunk people.

Friday was the big day. We were scheduled top open at 10am, but Ralph was scheduled to stop by at 11, so we held off and made sure everything was perfect. Ralph arrived a few minutes late in his black Ferrari with yellow racing stripes. What a baller. He walked in and loved the store and said it was the most beautiful Rugby store he'd ever seen. When he was in the room he has such a commanding presence, despite his stature. Every word that he said was important; he wanted some changes made in women's to edge it up a little, so we held off opening the store and reworked some things and then the store finally opened it's doors around 1. The rest of the day was pretty busy, a lot of people in the store had never heard of Rugby and were really enjoying the store.

Friday afternoon consisted of long naps and nourishment. After napping, Raul and I had dinner downstairs and the hotel and fittingly celebrated with multiple Long Island iced teas. We had some interesting company at the bar, an 80 year old man and his fresh-off-the-Jitney russian prostitute. Made for some great laughs.

Saturday I stopped by the store and hung out for a while. In the afternoon, a bunch of us went on a trip to Montauk, at the end of Long Island, and some ventured into the water to do some surfing while others relaxed on the beach. It was nice to get away from the hype for a while. We came back and grabbed a bite to eat and then retired to bed. The sleep deprivation was really setting in.

Sunday was departure day. I stopped by the store in the morning and caught the Jitney out at 12 to get back to the city. I got back and did some cleaning up and got everything settled for my first day on the job.

I'll recap the first week sometime this evening. I am tired of typing..........

Hope everyone is well.

WTC