Sunday, December 17, 2006

Behind Enemy Lines

I went undercover last night at one of our competitors' company Christmas party. Oddly enough, I skipped out on my company party to go to this one. What happened was, Jane got two tickets for the party at her new job, but at the last moment Ian wasn't able to go. So I said "I am willing to eat free steak at Ruth's Chris." I wanted to help her out, since it is the holidays and all. Actually, their party was free - my company charges $25 a head now. So, I talked it over with Sarah on Friday, and she agreed to give me a full report on our Christmas party, if I turned spy and gave her the lowdown on our rivals' party.
It was a lot of fun. Mostly because they avoided the unpleasant parts of many company holiday parties. No speeches; no dancing (I don't want to see my retirement-age coworkers doing the Electric Slide); an open bar; and good food. What made it especially good was the company - I got to sit at the Cool Kids table (a relative term, since the room is filled with engineers). I hung out with Jane, obviously, but also Megan, her date Richford, TatooGirl, Skunk-Nut and his russian mail order bride*, my old coworker Jon, and his filthy, awesome wife Jodie.

Jane, TatooGirl, and Meg

Jane in her chinesey dress from China

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that the bartender was making extremely stiff drinks. I'm glad Jane was driving. Hell, I wrote a text-message to Sarah as an update, and I had to have Jane spell-check it for me. Thanks for the help, Jane.

Somehow, I ended up being in the last group of people to leave from the rival company's party. Not my usual M.O., in a lot of ways. We adjourned to Jon and Jodie's for another few hours, and had a fantastic Cool Kids After-Party. The details of which are not suitable for public consumption. It was very memorable.

Jane's Party Post

[edited to change "russian girlfriend" to "russian mail-order bride." Thanks, Jane]

1 comment:

enjanerd said...

Oh, you know it was a good party when you have grainy cellphone pictures to post up afterward. And, btw, that was Skunk Nut's mail-order Russian bride, not his girlfriend. ;)

THE MIND IS NOT A VESSEL TO BE FILLED BUT A FIRE TO BE KINDLED