Christmas Parties

I am done working for 2004. I have these great plans to finish work on my house, Christmas shopping, get all organized. Blah. Ain't happening. Today...I got my cats and dog their Christmas presents. That's it. Period.

Last Friday was my Christmas party at work. I'm not going to get into it. I'm not the world's best drunk. But a few non-specific things. First, undertstand, I went to lunch Friday (a partner, our secretary, and I) and we had 2 glasses of champagne and three glasses of wine. So I was drunk BEFORE the Christmas party began. The night just got better...

This cracked me up: "The quickest way for a young professional to wrech a budding career is to mess up at the office Christmas party."

Umm....does revealing that I call Yoda "Yoda" count?? D'oh! Realistically, I probably did one...or two...or three...or four...or...of the 10 Things Not To Do.

(Though what is this "introduce self to the senior manager?" He knows who I am. For Pete's sake, he knows the damn color of my kitchen. I know the color of his. We are well beyond the "my name is so-so" point. I feel sorry for those types of work places. But how do I count those?)

This list confused me. I can go through each one and explain why I disregarded it. But, for example, take the first one. I arrived to the party over half an hour late. And there were plenty of people there already. Was that wrong? Somehow rude? I, however, was coming from a bar with a named partner, one of the three partners on the managing committee (have I ever mentioned that Yoda is on the management committee?), and two other partners, two paralegals, and three secretaries. So...was that right, or wrong??

I think I just have to conclude that our office is a little...odd... But this was the view from the party. Breathtaking.



(For the record, that blue bridge is my favorite in Cleveland. The one to the far left.)

After the office party, we all end up at some bar. (The managing partner drove me to the bar. Again, I didn't need to introduce myself. I just needed to say, "who is driving me there?" Seriously are there people who *don't* have that type of relationship with their managing partners? I am kidding, obviously. I know we are unique. I like it. It fits me. It really does. As much as I complain about my job, and I will, I do work in a great atmosphere.

And I want to get back to the other day when I got my bonus. We have our actual reviews in January. I'm sure I will be a nervious wreck. I was nervous just to get my bonus, and that is all money and none critical. The bonuses were given to us by two parthers, Yoda (as a member of the management committee) and a named partner. Anyway, Yoda tells me that I have done a great job this year, and that I have a lot of potential. I turned to named partner and say, "___, did you hear? I have potential." And Yoda tells me that yes, I have potential. Then the OTHER partner tells me that "when he thinks of you, he thinks of someone who has potential, who is a hard worker and willing to help people out when they have a tight deadline. He told me that I have areas that I need to work on, such as not taking things personally (I think he means when opposing counsel makes me cry, or I get frustrated with settlements and go around irritated about "justice derailed" when they did nothing wrong but it costs too much money to defend the case. Or more money to defend the case than it takes to settle.) THEN he tells me that he DOESN'T think that I have potential to be a good researcher or writer. At which point I'm stunned because those are the only things I thikn that I *am* good at rightnow. And he continued "those are things that I already am." "When he thinks of you, he thinks of someone who *is* those things, not has the potential to one day be them." So that's really cool, BUT I swear to God, Yoda telling me that I had potential was the highlight of my day. It was even almost cooler than getting my bonus. YODA said that I have potential. Oh my! One day I might be able to be a Jedi knight as well!!! ;-)