The Wonders of Office Christmas Parties

So, as you all know, Saturday was the day of office Christmas parties for Austin and me. I was really NOT looking forward to mine especially, but it turned out to be at least entertaining. :) I will go into that in just a minute.

Friday night, Austin's brother came over to check out our new apartment, and we all grabbed some dinner at Boston's and then went to see Ocean's Twelve. Despite bad reviews from the crittics (what do they know anyways?!), we all really enjoyed the movie - of course, I thought Ocean's Eleven was great too and own that on DVD so maybe I'm just biased. If you liked the first one, you will DEFINITELY like the second one and maybe even more so than the first. If you've never seen the first one or didn't like it, then you may or may not like the second one. I personally thought it was great and would give it two thumbs up. Not that my opinion matters much because I also enjoy cheesy flicks like Princess Diaries and scary movies like The Others. I'm kind of a wide variety of movie type of person.

On to the good stuff..........

Saturday was a very LONG day. A decent day but long. Woke up that morning to shower & drop off my car to get the windows tinted - finally! Came home, got ready, went back to pick up my car, then dropped off Austin's truck, and headed to his Christmas party which was from 1 to 3 at Brookhaven Country Club. It was very nice and not too far from our apartment which we liked. :) And the food was great - turkey and sweet potatoes and green beans and salad and pumpkin pie. We had a good time, got to see his family, and people he works with. And I only had ONE instance of baby being brought up, and at least it wasn't directly at me. The girl was talking to his mom saying that Austin had told her we were going to wait three years and she said no way. Yes way! Don't get me started on that one! Anyways, that party was pretty uneventful - Austin got his usual bonus and we were on our way. Went home and laid in bed and watched tv and bummed around the rest of the afternoon. Then had to get all dressed up and fancy for my party.

Our firm party was held at Beau Nash at the Crescent Court. For those of you that don't know, this is a very swanky, pricey, 5 star restaurant/hotel in downtown Dallas. So boys in suits or tuxes and girls in long or formal dresses. We arrived about 7:45 (we had to stop off at Men's Wearhouse to grab Austin a pair of black socks because we are still in the unpacking process and although he frantically search for about 20 minutes, he could only find ONE black sock) and headed in to grab a drink at the bar and talk with Sara & Logan. About ten minutes after we got there, my boss decided that he needed to come over and say hi. Here's how our conversation went (and no I wasn't drunk - just feisty because it's fun when my boss is drunk because I can get away with it and it irritates me that he pretends to be a nice guy so I look like an idiot to my husband):

B=boss
M=me

B: So you know you can say hi to me?
M: I could yes. I don't think you've ever met my husband right?
B: No, that's why I came over here. I know you, I wanted to meet him.
So introductions are made and he introduces his girlfriend who looks NOTHING like what I pictured but not in a bad way. He proceeds to explain to her that I work for him and work with some of our other co-workers which she had apparently already met. So I say:
M: Yeah, we're the ones that get to put up with him on a daily basis (big smile)
G: Oh, I feel sorry for you then! (Yay, she's on my side!)
B: Hey, I need to get out a pen and paper and write this down......actually I made the mistake of telling M that she could let me know one time when I made her upset and I guess I opened the door (girlfriend agrees to this).
Then he proceeds to compliment me saying how I work on his most difficult docket and that I do really good work for him, etc. So I say:
M: I try. But I think you better pass the pen and paper to me now so I can write this down.
B: What do you mean?
M: Well, I don't get to hear it very often so......
B: Well, you know that I don't give compliments at work. Just as long as I am saying nothing at all to you that means you are doing a good job.

Then later.......he comes up to us while we are sitting there after dinner and asks why we aren't on the dance floor. So I ask him why he's not. He tells me he doesn't dance. I tell him that's not what I heard from our co-worker about him last year. He says it's all lies. I tell him to take his girlfriend out on the dance floor and prove it wrong then. He says she wants to go so I tell him that would be the nice thing to do and then he proceeds to say well maybe later and walk off. Thank goodness that was about the extent of my interaction with him for the evening.

Other than that, we had a better time than expected. The food was good although I was already pretty full from our earlier meal. And a free glass or two of wine never hurts. I am a big people watcher so it was entertaining to me. We got to sit with the attorney that just came back from Iraq last week so that was cool to see him back home and safe. And we witnessed the incident which Sara described where one of the secretaries (an older lady I might add) apparently had had a bit too much to drink and COMPLETELY missed her chair when trying to sit down to eat with us and then acted like she meant to sit on the floor and spent most of the night staring down people because she was trying so hard to concentrate. She ended up on the dance floor later and I'm sure she woke up with a bruise on Sunday morning and wondered why. I was very proud of Austin for not laughing because he saw the whole thing and that's normally something that would entertain us both (she wasn't hurt or anything so it's ok to laugh) but he kept himself together and I think Sara & I were so shocked by the time that we looked over that we just sat there in awe. My other co-workers which normally want nothing to do with us were super friendly, giving hugs and talking our ears off. I just wish everyone would be nice and normal on a daily basis instead of just when they are drunk, but at least it was entertaining. About 10:30, we decided we'd had about enough because we weren't going to hit the dance floor with the drunkies and we were tired of watching people be stupid so we left. It was interesting times for sure! :)

So that's about all of the Christmas festivities. Now, need to find a few more presents and we're supposed to get our bonus on Wednesday so I guess I'll find out then how much it is and what my raise will be for the first of the year (if anything). Good times! :)