Work Christmas Party

Our work Christmas party was tonight. I was a tad skeptical about going, because 119 people had RSVP'd "yes," and lately I've been getting really anxious (ok, more anxious than usual) about big social gatherings. Ok, social gatherings of any kind. I decided to go, though, because I LOVE Christmas, work parties usually end up being fun, and I could just hang out with Katie the whole time. We ate some delicious food for dinner, and then we exchanged white elephant gifts with the other people at our table. I got an awesome giant mug/bowl, some hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and peppermint bark. When I opened the bag, I kinda felt like someone had bought the gift specifically with me in mind, because I was so in love with the things inside.

After the dinner, white elephant gifts, and some words from the owner, we played a game. There was a comedian there (side note: Comedians make me nervous. They'll say pretty much anything in an attempt to make people laugh, and they always call people out when the poor, unsuspecting person least expects it.), and he was the emcee of the game. The game was "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" holiday style, and everyone had their own little paddle-thing where you pressed A/1, B/2, etc. to select the answer to the question. They kept score for each individual, and for each table. As we were beginning the game, the owner stood up and said that he was so positive that no one would get all 10 (I think there were ten?) of the questions right, he would give $500 to someone if they actually did it. We began playing the game, and the questions were pretty hard/random. A few questions in, the owner stood up again and said that it was even less likely than he thought for someone to answer all of the questions right, so he'd double his initial proposal and give $1,000 to someone if they could do it. Using a small amount of random knowledge and a giant amount of luck, I was one of the last few standing. When there were about ten of us left, they made us all stand up, and we could only sit if we got the questions wrong. I was nearly having a heart attack, and was extremely tempted to just get one wrong so that I could sit down (I was at the front of the room, and being in front of people is one of the very worst things ever, so I was literally shaking a bit as I was standing there). I'm too competitive to knowingly sabotage myself, though, so I kept on playing. When there were only three of us left, the comedian man made us all go stand next to him in the very front of the room, right next to the screen where they were showing all of the questions. He was making all sorts of jokes and asking all sorts of weird questions, and I'm proud to say that even in my panicky, anxious, heart-attacky, shaky state, I was able to think of all kinds of retorts to his questions and comments...let's be honest, though, I have no idea if I actually said them.

The other two people missed a question, and then it was just me. All alone. At the front of the room. Playing for $1,000. Question 9 (I think?) was something like "What makes people the most stressed during the holidays," and the answers were A) crowds/lines, B) family, and C and D were something about debt and something else (I don't remember those two...they weren't important). The obvious answer to me was crowds/lines, because who wants to deal with those, but then I remembered that back when I was a Psych major I'd read something about how family is a huge stressor, especially during holidays, so I chose B. Unfortunately, A was the correct answer. I'd lost, but the feeling of loss couldn't really sink in, because I was still on the brink of having an anxiety attack from the situation. And then, the best thing imaginable happened. They said I could still have the money!!!!

Two hours and one (near) anxiety attack later, I'm $1,000 richer. Thank you, Dad, for giving me the ability to remember seemingly useless information. Look at all of those beautiful Benjamins!

After we finished the game (they had another part where the next 3 people with the highest scores had to act out a scene and then we voted on who did it best, but my heart was still beating too fast/hard to be paying too much attention), we wrote some notes to the men and women serving in the military.

Sentimental note (skip over this if you'd like): In these hard economic times, I'm SO grateful for my job. I love the people I work with, I love the work I do (most of the time), and I love that I don't have to be constantly worrying and wondering about how I'm going to pay my bills and make ends meet. Even when I'm working a million hours during the summer and am stressed out of my mind, I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have to learn and grow, and I'm so blessed to be able to pay for school and everything else. Ok, sentimental moment is now over. It just had to happen for a minute.

After the party, Katie and I cleaned the dentist office, ate some ice cream with the toppings that she'd gotten as her white elephant gift, and watched a couple episodes of Storage Wars. In the Texas Storage Wars episode, one of the guys said "make like a shepherd and get the flock out of here," and we both basically died we thought it was so funny.

In closing (haha I feel like I'm giving a speech or a talk in church), I just want to let you all know that while I do have some uses in mind for my newly acquired dollars, if you feel that your cause is worthy of it and you can make your case convincing enough, I'll consider sharing. But your cause would have to be pretty dang good to convince me to change my plans.