Party Up

Once again, back after a multi-week absence. Where to start.... I feel it necessary to do a quick re-cap of my work holiday party.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures there.  I really am sorry about this because there was a lot going on.  I am also really sorry that it took me three weeks to finish writing this.  Since there are no pics related specifically to this, here's a picture of a Christmas tree:

A quick back story: I work for a very large firm with a reputation for throwing really killer holiday parties.  I'd heard about them from employees and a few lucky people who somehow were allowed to attend (this was the first year employees were allowed to bring dates) and L and I were excited to see what they were like firsthand.  (I especially was because this is the first time I've worked somewhere that actually hosted a holiday party.)  Because of the size of my firm, it would be logistically nearly impossible to have one holiday party for all of the employees in the national capital region to attend because there just wouldn't be a place big enough for everyone to gather, not to mention that we have employees coming from all over Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland.  As such, my firm hosted four holiday parties and allowed employees to decide which one they would attend.  My friends all managed to snag tickets to the event in DC, but by the time I logged in to get mine, there weren't any left.  So L and I decided to go to the event in Arlington in mid-December. 

Theme: General holiday festiveness

Attire: Cocktail/black tie (except I didn't believe this for some reason)

The party started at 6:30, but we had a busy day and didn't end up arriving til closer to 9:00 (semi-on purpose - who wants to be the very first person to the work party?? - and semi-accidentally... there was a big Cowboys game on that L wanted to see part of).  The party was in full swing and there was quite a show going on with regards to attire.  Sadly, I followed advice from a friend who went to the DC event that required a business casual attire, so L and I were on the more casual end of party-going attire.  Not inappropriately dressed, I just wished I'd worn one of my more fun dresses.  But oh well!  We saw everything- sequins, feathers, beads, lace, short dresses (like, too short for a conservative company's holiday party), long dresses, tight dresses, full dresses, tuxedos, suits, military dress uniforms... the works.  Seriously, there was some of everything.  Including a dress that wasn't fully zipped up.  And not one of that girl's friends said anything and I know they saw it, so that leads me to believe this girl was okay with her dress being partially unzipped and exposing her bra.  Or maybe the whole group was hammered.  Either is entirely likely.

Anyway, we rolled in to the hotel where the event was, checked in and got wristbands for the bar, and then entered the ballroom to scope out the scene.  The room basically looked like a wedding reception, just no cakes, bride, or groom.  There were food stations scattered around the perimeter of the room and there was a dance floor with a DJ in the center of the room, and instead of the bride and groom's monogram gobo projected on the dance floor, the company logo was projected onto the wall behind the DJ's platform.  Tables with seating were on each side of the dance floor.  When we walked in, no one was dancing and lots of people were sitting down eating.  At this point, I was surprised; there had been a lot of people at the bars, at the check-in table, and at the photo booth, but that number plus the number of people in the ballroom only maybe added up to about 400-500 people.  Not many considering a few thousand tickets were available for this event.  Confusing, but what do you do?  We grabbed food and seats and ate our dinner, all the while watching two middle-aged couples dance on the dance floor.  You know what's awkward?  Two middle-aged couples on the dance floor who are not slow-dancing. 

Eventually we grabbed more drinks and L went to check out the dessert selection.  We both were surprised by the number of people in the hallway and how loud it was out there (it was loud in the ballroom; they were not joking around with the speaker systems).  We decided it was about time to check out what else was going on.  GOOD THING WE DID. 

We walked down the hall and suddenly it opened up into lobby of sorts where there were seriously hundreds of people, all under the age of about 35, milling around talking and getting drinks from the bar stations set up in there.  And then we realized that there was another ballroom.  One where more people were.  One that was twice as big as the room where we'd eaten dinner.  We grabbed more drinks and made our way into the bigger ballroom and it was PACKED.  Every seat at every table was taken and you couldn't even see the dance floor because there were so many people dancing.  It just looked like a billion people packed together dancing and jumping around.  L's assessment: "This is where bad decisions will be made later this evening."  And I know he was so right.  It was the perfect setting for anyone to take action on an office crush.

The people-watching alone in this room was fantastic.  Quite a few tuxedos with ridiculous cummerbunds, military dress uniforms, and dresses that ranged from questionable to truly gorgeous.  The music was super fun - lots of party hits from college and high school, which means late 90s and early 2000s if you don't actually know me.  L almost spit his drink out when DMX's "Party Up" started.  His response upon recovering: "HOW IS THIS AT ALL APPROPRIATE FOR A WORK PARTY?"  A point well made.  My point: no one in that room didn't know that song.  L also was reminded of an important fact about me, which is that I know every word to Mo' Money, Mo' Problems and I'm not afraid to sing it, no matter where we are.  And now, a random picture of people dancing:

So that was my work Christmas party, aka, Stuff White People Like (holiday parties, buffet stations, DJs, cocktail/black tie dress codes, late 90s/early 2000s top 40 rap hits, and the list could keep going but I'll stop).  As white people, we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and we're already looking forward to next year.