Chaos Attraction

In Person Office Party

2021-12-11, 3:02 p.m.

recently on Chaos Attraction
Love Actually - 2021-12-16
Prisoners of Love - 2021-12-15
The Weather Outside Is Frightful - 2021-12-14
Family Lunch - 2021-12-13
Paranormal Holiday - 2021-12-12

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Cast list as of November 2019

Friday:

Work party day went well. Three of us actually dressed up--me in a Christmas tree dress, one of our temps in a Santa poncho (I was impressed) and Hope came in in a "Tis the sea-sun" Hawaiian Santa sweater. I'm very impressed she had that. A few people got giant light necklaces and almost all of them didn't work, sigh. I went in and did a bit of work for the first few hours--mostly "oh, we're now supposed to charge 100+ $3 apiece," which kept making me think of the obnoxious "I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS" kid from Better Off Dead--and then it was party time!

I did make one wardrobe mistake--as did my entire team, actually--we all wore spiffy boots and then, well, everyone's feet hurt. I actually picked out large usually padded comfy boots I haven't worn in 2 years because it was 40 degrees out when I left the house, but one foot started feeling slightly uncomfortable upon walking outside. I know better. I should have IMMEDIATELY changed shoes or brought another pair or something, but noooo, I went with "I'm too cold to put on other shoes" and then was in pain all day and had to hike back and forth across Giant Org 3 times (I did get a ride on the 4th trip). My coworkers did similar :P

Anyway, Hope and Dianna and I got to hang out together for the first time IRL EVER--we've only been in the office 2 out of 3 at a time. That was fun. Sat at a table with them and the temps and Hannah, my old buddy who moved to scheduling and I've barely heard from a few times. She immediately sat down, held my hands(!) and apologized for being depressed and disappearing during the pandemic. We proceeded to happily chat and catch up and try to get together next weekend--hope that comes off. I would have gone for this weekend but I'm not sure how this weekend is going to go to try to squeeze it in.

I'm surprised at how many people weren't there--I was told one of them felt ill (eek), I don't know on the rest. It was kind of funny to meet (well, at least see, not really having formal intros so much) some people in person. Two of them had much longer hair from behind than I would have expected. Some turned out to be taller/shorter, according to my coworkers. One person turned out to be pregnant :P You get the drift.

They did give us awards/gift cards, and a set of dishes to use at work, followed by box lunches, which were...okay. The chicken was good, vegetables/potatoes were fine, nobody was quite sure what the heck the cake was (pumpkin/carrot was my guess), salad could have used more toppings, but whatever. Some folks brought in brownies and Krispy Kremes. One person brought in a giant collection of animal and park themed 2022 calendars she'd acquired for anyone to take, I think I ended up with a bunch, grabbed 2 for Dawn though.

As for The Stealing Game: most people stole food and coffee, two people both ended up having the most stolen from them and stole from each other. One of them is a student and someone snarked, "You know he's a starving student, right?" when his food was stolen.
My boss drew #1 and picked out the biggest box...and some clever bugger who's clearly been here before did a Russian nesting doll package thing and had several wrapped packages before finding a tiny game.
Justin opened mine with the baby Yoda wrapping and people yelled at him not to rip it, he did anyway. That was later stolen from him, so a gift of mine got stolen! By a manager I would never have guessed would have gone for it, no less.
Someone had some kind of care package, with a label on it saying it's intended for the day after people don't pay their money.
Someone got jingle bells again, which I recall was a thing in 2019, and one person was all, "I think I brought these last year, I think they're a returned gift."
Direct quote: "All's fair at the Christmas party. What are you gonna do, fire me?"

I ended up with a smelly candle, which is fine, but I would have preferred the "When Turkeys Attack" game (WHY DID I NOT OPEN THAT PACKAGE?!?!) or the Legos, darn it. There's nothing quite like the "I got a candle, so I'm out of the stealing game" feeling since I was in the middle of the numbers. Ah well.

As for Grandboss and her lack of vaccination: I ended up at a table in the middle, she and Interim Big Boss sat together alone on one corner. Yes, her mask was off. I .... tried not to think about it too much and put my mask back on the rest of the day after that. What else can you do. Wait and get tested and try not to freak out.

After the official office party, we had a team meeting, which turned out to also invite whatever other coworkers were still around in the office, i.e. our retiring coworker, Hannah, and her supervisor. AND IT WAS A CRAFTING TIME EVENT, which made me so happy. My boss had us decorate um....gratitude snowflakes which everyone wrote stuff like "love" and "family" on, and I just drew a picture of a theater and wrote "theater." She put them up in the hallway later and showed them to me. After that, grandboss taught everyone (well, except me, I know how ;) how to wire wrap rocks and make paper beads, and a good time was had by all. I made four rock pendants and one paper bead to demo to others.

I must recount the stories I heard today about cremation. Now, I am 100% NOT IN FAVOR OF CREMATION, because of all the crazy shit that happens to ashes. I usually assume that's just shit you see on television, but according to my coworkers, this stuff is REAL.

Hope said her mother's ashes are in her closet, but she disposed of some of them in the ocean and just ended up with ashes in her face.

And Grandboss then said that her father "had quite an interesting afterlife..."
(a) She had to go pick up his ashes and then go to work, which she dubbed "Bring Your Father To Work Day," and since she thought some of her coworkers wouldn't be okay with that, "I didn't tell them."
(b) Later, her brought brought them to a bar and got free drinks.
(c) Then her brother's car go impounded and the ashes were impounded with the truck, so they had to bust dad out of impound.
(d) They ended up in the garage for awhile, until his wife said, "It's kind of creepy to have your dad out in the garage..." They were finally disposed of in the ocean.

Sorta on topic, Lioness said today that she wants people karaoke'ing at her funeral, "and if you really love me, sing "Pour Some Sugar On Me."
After that I had to go get covid tested and the rest of them left--well, everyone who works a 7-4 shift, anyway. My boss said once I finished with the test, I could leave early myself, so I got off at 4:30 :)

After I got home, we had rehearsal for Shanna's unicorn play. Kelly was feeling ill so she didn't go, but we ran it a few times. At one point I asked a question and Shanna said, "It's so weird it doesn't matter," which sums it all up, I suppose. And after that, more Lucifer with my TV gang.

So far my weekend plans are:
(a) Saturday 9 a.m. rehearsal for the Demon Turkey play
(b) Presumably after that, try to drive to the Capezio store in Sacramento and get all the required dance shoes.
(c) After that, lunch with Ashley and Rae and her mom once Ashley's done with work.
(d) Midafternoon, there's the paranormal holiday festival, which um....seriously, I have forgotten to invite people to. Not sure if there's much point in that one (I'm not sure who I'd invite since this is pretty weird, so no relatives, other folks are likely to be weirded out or flake....Jess thought it sounded good so I sent invites there tonight) and I'm going to record it anyway, so.
(e) Sunday, I'm told we're doing lunch in effing Danville "to make it easier on your mom!" at 11 a.m. because there's going to be a storm, argh. I'd like to get the hell home before that happens, but my driving far away kinda jinxes that, doesn't it :P I'm really not thrilled at an hour and fifteen minute schlep just for lunch, but I guess if the shoe shopping doesn't go well Saturday I can go through Walnut Creek on the way and hit that dance shoe store.
(f) Eventually, rehearsal that night, old lady dancing. We'll see if I can keep track of it all.


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