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December 16, 1998

Work Hard, Play Hard

Company Christmas Holiday Party today! I was very nervous about it. I mean, I've had company parties before at NCSA, but they were all really small. Not all of NCSA, just our own little division of it. I work with those people regularly every day and since they were often during work hours, I didn't get to meet their partners. Khook's company party will be held at a place called "The Crane Club". It sounded pretty fancy and everyone's been talking about what we should wear to the party for the past few days. I decided to wear something nice, but not too fancy. Relaxing clothes, especially since I wouldn't be able to go home and change like most of my coworkers. I must have had something in my brain turned off the past few days, since I completely forgot to paint the nose red for rudolph. EEK! So, I had my lunch hour to search for an appropriate nose for rudolph. I called several costume places and I discovered that one place was selling red clown noses pretty cheap down at 23rd street. I decided that I should go there and hoped that I would get back quickly from my quick excursion. The place that I got the red clown nose was called.. um.. M Gordon something. It didn't sound like the place that I would get a red clown nose from, but the minute my taxi cab pulled in front of the place, I knew I had hit jackpot. The front of the dilapidated building had large windows crowded with masks and wigs and other costume stuff. It looked like a fascinating place and I should take Mike down there someday. I might buy a feathered mask there just for the heck of it. I went in and quickly found a lovely nose for Rudolph, purchased it, and zipped back up to work. I stopped working a little early and began putting together the props for tonight.. woo woo! I met Mike at Port Authority with the directions to the Crane Club in hand. He looked adoribly spiffy, wearing a gorgeous green sweater with a small red bow over his left breast. We hung out at Port Authority chatting for a while, since we didn't want to show up at the club too early. We took the train up, carefully following Liza's (the receptionist at work) directions. Once you exit the subway, walk one block south to Amsterdam. Well, we walked one block south and we hit... 78th. <scowl> hmm... we proceed to get very lost, discovering that Amsterdam was one block east of the subway exit. We finally get to the club and discover that it is very dark. And very loud. I think Mike is completely rubbing off on me because my tolerance for dark, smoky, loud clubs is decreasing. Mike and I checked our coats in and nestled ourselves in the corner that is farthest from the crowds and the music. It was also much lighter where we happened to sit and less smoky. I introduced him to as many people as I could, but I have such terrible memory that I didn't really make too many rounds. We quickly got food and settled ourselves down. Nudge. Hey, iko. Don't forget the pop incident. Oh yes, the pop incident. <grin> After Mike and I got foodwarez, I put it to myself to get our drinks at the bar. Most of the people were clustered around the bar so I thought it would be difficult to get the bartender's attention, especially in the low light. Surprisingly, the one fairly good-looking bartender noticed me standing there and went to the far end of the bar where I stood. "Hi! What can I get ya?" "I'd like two pops please, Pepsi if you can." He looked bemused and picked up a large glass. "Coke ok? Large?" "Yeah, sure!" I said cheerfully. I noticed he had a large grin on his face. As he grabbed two large glasses and filled it with ice he asked, "So, where are you from?" "Umm..." I couldn't help but grin back. "I'm from Jersey but I lived for several years in Illinois." He nodded, understanding, as he squirted pop into the two glasses. "Did you know they call everything 'soda' in Boston?" He placed two napkins on the counter and laid the two filled glasses on top. "Here you go!" I paused awkwardly. I didn't know if I should pay or not. I looked down the table and noticed dollar bills on the bar. Thoughts ran through my head. Should I ask to get for my purse to get out my money? Before I could say anything, the bartender thankfully cut in. "Come on back if you ever need anything else, ok?" He smiled and promptly left me. He began helping other people with their drinks and it suddenly hit me that it was an open bar. Wow. That must have cost a pretty penny! I picked up my drinks and went back to my table where I munched on delicious crab cakes and yummy salad. Raj and his wife sat next to Mike and I and we had a fascinating discussion about how they met. They were introduced through their families and although their marrage wasn't "arranged" in the sense that their parents chose their mates for each other, they were introduced to people that their family found acceptable and they were able to chose whom to marry. Mike found it fascinating and we had quite a long discussion (and speculation) on the culture here vs. in India. Would our children, if we brought them to India, start accepting such arranged marriages? Why is the practice still preserved in America where arranged marriages are in the minority? Very fascinating. I don't think I could ever be in an arraged marriage. I'm too independent, and my tastes in men are very different from my parents' taste. Fast forward to the actual singing... Well, remember how yesterday I was complaining about the lack of people for the choir? Well, we had about twice that number actually singing! Tons of people just joined in! It was almost frightening. Our first song of "Deck the Halls" was fine, but "Carol of the Bells" was way tenor heavy and the sopranos and tenors were off about two measures. They ended early. We all sang in a tight circle instead of a nice arc, so our sound didn't project too much. "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was completely improvised. It was pretty bad, but we all had a great time so, I'm not complaining. <grin> Mark did his top 10 of Kinderhook 1998. One pertained to me... StarLink (the project I am on) was able to bill our clients over a million dollars without writing a single line of code. Wow. While Mark was talking, Linda, Sarah and I put on our reindeer bands and twigs and put on our reindeer noses. We handed Joe his stuff but then he disappeared and we totally didn't know where he went. When Mark was finished and Mike handed out the music for the sing-along, Joe appeared on a small balcony of steps in his Rudolph nose and ears. He said loudly, "Who's the man?!" and we all burst out in song and laughter. It was great! We sang Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, White Christmas, and Jingle Bells. Yay! Mike and I were one of the first people to leave that night. That was ok, since we got to home a lot earlier than we expected. We were very dirty and smoky from all the cigarettes (and cigars!) being smoked at the club. I could smell alcohol on my jacket. So, we decided to wash it all off with a good shower. Woo woo! Cold showers can do wonders for one's libido... <wink>

© Copyright 1998, Eileene Coscolluela
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