It was time for the office party and there was a considerable dispute about who would ride with whom. B confided that M had mentioned that she thought she was getting sick, so I did my best to avoid riding in that car. As it happened, I rode in the back seat of T’s car, and his two other passengers were my favorite co-workers, B and J. J rode in the front on the way over. So far so good; no sickies or bores to be cooped up with for that five minutes.
K’s house is lovely and has a wonderful view of the lake. No time for that, though, as soon as all were present and accounted for, the gift exchange commenced. For White Elephants these looked pretty good; I just grabbed a novelty salt-and-peeper set off the shelf and stuffed it in a gift bag on the way out the door. I scored a pair of Bailey’s commemorative cups, swiping them from J. On to lunch.
The seating arrangement was not so congenial here. P to my left, D to my right, the boss across. The interesting talk seemed to be happening at the other end of the table, just out of earshot. There was birthday cake after.
Everything wound down. We spent ten minutes lining up for the staff Christmas photo and figuring out how the self-timer on the camera worked. For some inexplicable reason, we all went back to the office in the cars we’d taken. this time B sat in front and J in back. We looked out at the houses along the lake.
I think I have spent too many years with these people.
