BEST. PARTY. EVER.

It was last Friday [December 9th], at the aquarium! SO amazing. The banquet hall was jaw-droppingly beautiful for Christmas - I really regret not having brought the camera. The food was amazing - the chef even prepared a vegetarian dish for me - and the company gave away probably thousands of dollars' worth of prizes [which of course, did not reach G and I - heh]. We all got to take home a beautiful glass dolphin keepsake though, so everyone was able to take home a timeless souvenir from a fabulous company event.

The coolest thing was walking around with a glass of wine [or two] and looking at all of the displays totally in private! No hordes of screaming children, just about 200 adults all decked out in our evening holiday best, taking it all in at a leisurely pace.

It was really neat when it got to be a bit later, because most of the tanks were turned off and switched to "moonlight" mode. You'd think this would be a real bummer, but it was actually quite cool in an unsettling sort of way. When the lights went off, a lot of the fish that tend to hide during the daytime came out, and all swam closer to the front of their tanks when the "night cycle" was on. G and I cupped our hands around our eyes to look into the tanks and since it was so dark, all depth perception was lost, and we both felt like deep sea divers on a secret mission. It seriously felt like we were snorkeling under water, and it was creeptastic...especially when suddenly, a fish would swim right up to the glass out of nowhere. Imagine my reaction when the 98 pound catfish's face was suddenly *right there,* looking me in the eyes!

The shark tank was most amazing at night. When I first walked into it, I was a little unnerved because again, the depth perception factor was really "off." I kept feeling like the sharks were swimming right at me, rather than past me. Totally fucking cool...especially since I'd also gotten quite tipsy.

It was very encouraging knowing that our corporate offices not only paid for this party, but certainly did not skimp on us this year. It seems that Tulsa being the "hick bastard stepchild" to the L.A. elite is finally over. I believe that the reason is that our new head hancho has worked in offices all over the world, so he seems to have less of a "zip code discriminatory" attitude. He's all about wireless communications and quite a forward-thinking kind of guy. It seems that he's devoting equal respect, attention and budget to all of the offices - from London to L.A. to Denver to Tulsa. G and I also received word that our departments are going to grow a bit next year, so it's nice having the ability to celebrate the holidays [finally] without a sense of impending doom concerning our company's local longevity.

And Now For Something Completely Different

I just got over a migraine about a half-hour ago. Had to stay home today. One thing about the I.B.S. is that the only medicine I can tolerate now is enteric-coated aspirin, which isn't nearly as powerful as ibuprofen. So...yeah...that's sort of a shitty new development in the health situation. I tend to suffer from these once a month [yes, it's related to The Crimson Tide], so I gotta figure out what I can do to overcome that now too...which I will. I always do.

M O O D:

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