Cinderella (or Goldilocks?) at the Ritz

Seeing my daffodils unfurl reminds me of my twenty years in the floral biz. Don't miss the long days of the holiday calendar that stretched from November to May. Don't miss the pine tar that coated my fingers and nails from all the evergreen product --- and the trying to pay the cashier for my groceries during a quick stop on the way home when my money or credit card stuck to the stubborn residue on my hands. Do miss the glorious fragrance of the freesia, gardenias, plumeria, hyacinth, lilac, stock, ginestra. Do miss our yearly January and July buying trips to the Atlanta and Dallas markets. Do miss Dallas's own Bob's Steak and Chop House, Atlanta's Morton's, the Ritz's Strawberry Daiquiris.

But what's to follow is story of how lucky one girl can be when traveling with two guys while waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. PICTURE THIS: Your plane is late and you arrive at your hotel, the Ritz Carlton, which is comp'd each trip by a vendor you patronize, around 11:20pm. There are two rooms available -- a suite and a two-bed room. The guys opt for the later. The girl gets the former. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! YOU TWO DON"T WANT THE SUITE?? Well, then, outta my way boys, 'coz THIS girl is heading straight towards a dream-come-true!!!!

After the guys had come and gone with the aforementioned daiquiris to go over our game plan for our first day on the gift mart floor, I still so ecstatic with my surroundings that I decided to just enjoy. I lounged on all the chairs and the couch, watched TV in both the sitting room and my bedroom, I admired both bathrooms collecting twice the number of luxurious personal product goodies, read the magazines which included Veranda and Town and Country (which had been provided for my comfort, of course). Basically Cinderella had arrived at the ball and she was taking full advantage of her once-in-a-lifetime, all-expenses-paid night of fantasy.

About 4am the drowsy princess, now sweetly tucked under the cozy goose down comforter, fell into a blissful state of beautiful dreams. When she awoke she had to move her things to another room but that was all right with her. For she left a glass slipper tucked w-a-a-a-y under the bed to be collected at some time in the future.........