The night of the ceremony had gone flawlessly. They had brought each of the winners up on stage and let them wave for the camera. The lady from Oregon had her poem read aloud as she stood there and blushed. They’d gotten lucky with the girl from Brooklyn as she was cute as a bug.

Lydia stood in the back and watched. She sometimes liked the long view. It gave her a better idea of what the folks at home could see. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The after party was also fabulous. The cream of New York’s hippest crowd had all shown up. Someone started calling it BeautFest and the name caught on. There was a general expectation that this should become an annual thing.

Lydia got some strange thought of the Olympics in her head and she couldn’t shake it out. Every time they held one of those things there were stories about the Olympic village and all of the athletes romping together. Apparently hundreds of children were created each time. Maybe BeautFest would have the same kind of dynamic. Just think of it, hundreds of years from now the children would be noticeably better looking and in some small way she was to thank for it.

Of course they’d have to vary the question for next year’s contest. Not too hard to do. They could ask about ‘What is Beauty?’ or ‘What can we do to share more Beauty?’ or something like that. The response would be just as popular. No, she corrected herself. After word got out about how wonderful all of this was it was sure to be twice as popular. Maybe ten times!

As she was driven home that night she kept reflecting on the entire evening. It really had gone just about perfectly. The production was good. The people they had honored were very telegenic. All that and she had thrown a mean party. What more could she ask for?

Well, one thing. She picked up her phone and called her personal assistant. Everything had gone so well that she was going to treat herself tomorrow and come in late. They didn’t need her in early. For just one day they could fend for themselves.

As she went in to her apartment and readied herself for bed, she couldn’t help but congratulate herself again. Every part of this, from the Temple to the artwork to tonight’s silly promotion had been her idea. She had put it all together from scratch. As she got into bed she wondered if this was how the gods felt.