Gift Wrapping at Ghisallo Running

The entire staff of Ghisallo Running has been certified to wrap holiday presents after completing an arduous course offered through Washington University's School of Continuing Education. The course, which certifies one who completes it as a Gift Wrapper Specialist (G.W.S.), began with an overview of the art, quickly followed by an introduction to the arrangement and selection of papers, boxes and bows. The emphasis of the rest of this session was centered on "Presentation" with, as you can see, a capital "P". A specialist in spatial analysis was followed by a disciple of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ("Less is more") and the morning concluded with several pithy remarks made by Xi Li, a world-renowned expert in the art of Feng Shui. After a lunch of oysters on the half shell, the staff returned to the afternoon session. Two of us watched enraptured as Helmuth von Hoffman (H.v.H.), the "wrapper to the stars", gave a virtuoso demonstration as he simultaneously wrapped, ribboned, and bowed six gifts of different sizes to the strains of the "Blue Danube Waltz" while the rest of the staff attended a symposium on the ancient art of Malayan bamboo paper wrapping. Finally, it was time for the diplomas to be confered, several with honors and one with an oak leaf cluster, very rare indeed. We are now fully recovered and ready to wrap!