Everyone at work is currently in celebration mode. The staff folks have gotten their bonus amounts, the freelancers are getting gifts of appreciation. There is candy and food and junk galore. You can almost hear the carols... and chances are if you swing by my desk, you'll hear me humming some.
I did a good amount of gift giving first thing yesterday. I wanted the presents to be a surprise, so I got to work an hour earlier than usual and placed the gifts on everyone's desks. My bosses' had said given their gifts out on Friday so I figured that it would be nice to start off the week with gifts -- especially since folks would be taking vacation days later in the week.
I gave my team members and bosses some fun / funky appreciation gifts (e.g. portable mini bar) and got my direct reports mini-Swiss army knives, which were a surprisingly big hit. They kept walking around all day asking if they could "shank" people on the train. Webbies.
Of course, I realized much later in the day that I had forgotten our Traffic Manager and that I needed to get something for the ever patient mailroom guy -- who brings me tons and tons of packages of yarn and books from Amazon -- so I'll buy them something today or tomorrow.
We had our "Celebrate the Holiday of Your Choice" (aka, "Secret Santa") gift exchange yesterday and without fail I was disappointed. It seems that I always go way out of my way to find out what the person I have selected likes and hunt down something appropriate for him/her, sometimes going over the agreed upon price range. The person who gets me doesn't find out dick about me and bags out by getting me the cheapest token gift they can. This pattern has repeated itself year after year (with one notable exception -- but Sherine had me that year and she's a close friend).
I mean, come on? Who doesn't know I like knitting? I lead the office knitting circle for chrissakes! Get me some ghetto yarn instead of the six-pack of Bath & Body works shower gels which I can't even use! At least ghetto yarn would have shown that you actually tried to find out who the fuck I was or what I was interested in. Meh.
We didn't find out who our Santas were, mainly because there were 8 gazillion people in a packed conference room all talking at once while comparing gifts. All sense of order and control was completely out the window. Which, in a way, was good, cause I didn't really want to find out who the lame ass who had me was.
Can you tell that it kinda bothers me that this happens to me year after year? Am I that hard to get to know? To love? Wait, don't answer that...
Today I have the Nuchal Translucency screening. On the one hand I'm happy because it means I have another ultrasound that will confirm that the sea monkeys are indeed alive and well. On the other hand I'm terrified that they will find a possible indicator for Downs. Ah, the joys of being pregnant over 35...
Mark won't be coming to this appointment with me since he has a follow up for his own medical care so I'm on my own on this one. I'm not sure if I'm scared or not but I am a little disappointed. He gets such a humongous kick watching the sea monkeys swimming around that I'm sorry he's gonna miss it.
Keep growing sea monkeys!
