It was very icy out this morning. Normally that wouldn't be too much of an issue. as I have ice trekkers - cleats which you can put on over your shoes. But I wasn't sure if I could bring them on an airplane, so left them in my living room. That made the walk to the metro a bit, er, challening. Later on I realized I should have worn them and just left them in my office. Oh, well, I managed.
The main event of the day was the holiday party at work. Things started out early in the day with "reindeer games." What this really turned out to be was chair races. We had teams of four, each of whom had to do one leg down a course set up in one hallway. There were trash cans to provide a giant slalom, a spin zone where you had to spin five times around, and "threading the needle" between two chairs. The things I do in the name of teamwork! We did not, however, win the "Randolph the Brown-Nosed Reindeer" trophy, which I'd watch Jim put together out of an aluminum-foil covered box topped with a reindeer stuffed animal.
The main event was a potluck luncheon. Before that, one of the guys on the floor served up the Jones Soda special holiday flavors. These included turkey and gravy, corn on the cob, stuffing with herbs, and so on. The absolute worst was the salmon pate flavor. (Well, okay, I was not brave enough to try the brussels sprouts and prosciutto casserole flavor.) The pumpkin pie was surprisingly vile, too. You know it's bad when broccoli is the least offensive flavor.
The food was considerably better. My contribution was home-baked bread, which went over well. After lunch, a group of five people sang carols. They concluded with a very funny piece (to the tune of "Do You Hear What I Hear?") that was full of inside jokes. Then came the gift exchange. The twist was that you could prevent your gift from being stolen by drinking a small cup of the brussels sprouts soda. I thought I'd luck out and hold onto a Godiva selection, but it was stolen at the end. I took a 5 pack of the Jones soda, which I plan to contribute to a party at my company on Wednesday. All in all, tt was a reasonably amusing as these things go.
After work, I took the metro to Union Station, where I got a MARC train to BWI. Amtrak is faster, but also costs about twice as much, by the way. The pain in the neck part is that you have to take a shuttle bus from the train station to the terminal and there was a longish wait for that. I still had plenty of time. My flight to Phoenix left on time, but there was a strong head wind and got in about a half hour late. Given the time difference, I was pretty exhausted. It took a while to get a taxi, also, and I more or less collapsed as soon as I got to the Hyatt.
Copyright 2005 Miriam H. Nadel