Department managers at my day job elected to have the holiday party after the holidays for a number of reasons. One of them was that “everyone is too busy to get together before then.” A second reason was that it would avoid a conflict of cultural celebrations, if we held it at the end of the first week in January.
The department wag concluded that it was held after the holidays because it was the equivalent of an after-Christmas sale. Prices are lower then. We’re not sure that was really true, given the hotel dining room at which it was held yesterday. But his comment gave us a few chuckles. There’s usually more truth than poetry when statements such as that pop out of someone’s mouth.
We more or less enjoyed ourselves, considering that it can be difficult to make small talk with people you work with all day long. Most of us left spouses and significant others at home, due largely to the $50 cost of taking them along. However, company dinners are seldom an exciting event for the non-employee forced to suffer through them.
Most of the young folks weren’t happy with the beautiful, quiet music the DJ played during the meal, and most of the older folks weren’t happy with the Disco music blaring out after dessert. So it “ekal’d out” as the saying goes. I must say one of the older supervisors could moonwalk with the best of them. Lots of applause! Guess what she did in the 60s?
My only real complaint was the salad. If one more waiter approaches me with dandelion weed, arugula, tender radish leaves, and bitter vinaigrette, I will wave him away from the runway. You cannot land here. Horrible, horrible. If you are going to serve salad, then please serve a salad. Thank you, M’sieur Chef.