43 (Or Officially Middle Aged)
Well, in theory I was going to have a combined bday/holiday party in early December. But then I caught a cold. And I decided that I didn't want infect my guests, so I cancelled it. Instead of having a ton of people over sampling my newest alcoholic delight (Elderflower Cosmos), I was sucking down herbal echinacea throat soothing tea. Lovely.
Now, my party wasn't actually on my birthday. My company's holiday party was on my real bday, so I wanted to have a party that was fun, with my friends at it, but instead, I ended up celebrating with my "friends" at work.
And did I mention this was the first time I was bringing LawyerX to a work function. So it's like a 2fer of fun!
Now mind you, everyone loved him. Of course. And we did have a fun time. And even though we had an open bar (but no top shelf liquor), we didn't get too trashed. Which isn't to say that I didn't have an adult beverage or two before my speech.
Oh yes, my speech.
There were several people there who knew it was my birthday, so I decided to take control of the situation. After dinner, I grabbed the mike from the DJ and said: "First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming to my birthday party. It's not every day that you turn 39, well I guess technically it's the 4th time, but I still want to say thanks for coming out to help me celebrate. I especially want to thank D (my CEO) for hosting the party, the open bar. D, you didn't need to wear a tux, but it was a nice touch. And I want to say thanks also for the great gifts (the door prizes that were being raffled off). Not sure how I'll get a 52" TV in a cab back to DC, but I'll try. And while I really do appreciate the gifts, would it have killed you to get them gift wrapped? I'm actually not on vacation next week, or on travel, so I'll be in the office next week if you want to stop by and say Happy Birthday to me personally." It was really funny and everyone was laughing. I got several high fives as I walked back to the table.
Back to the liquor. Let me tell you two words you never want to hear together. Smirnoff cosmo. Ugh. It was really awful.
And I did actually win one of the door prizes. Not the 52" television of course. By the time my name was drawn, the options were a Snuggy (no, I'm not joking), a chess set, or a $50 gift certifcate to PF Changs. So I went for the PF Changs gift certificate.
After the door prizes, there was dancing and LawyerX and I had a good time. Despite the DJ's attempt to hit all of the one hit wonders of the 1960s and 1970s, we did request some songs from this century. To include Beyonce's "Single Ladies" which was an homage to the recent engagement of our HR director. But I'm not sure anyone got it.
Anyways, it wasn't a bad way to celebrate #43.
Two Very Different Flights
So LawyerX and I just returned from France. He got to meet my sister and her family. And he had never been to Paris, so it was really a great trip. But before I go into details on the trip, I've got to describe the very different flights we had coming & going.
I used miles to upgrade LawyerX and myself to business class. He does seem to whinge a bit about flying overseas in economy seat, something about being 6'5". What-evs. Just to keep him quiet I figured I would do it. Plus, what a great way to start the trip.
We got onto the flight and we found our very large, comfortable seats and presto there is a flight attendant with a glass of champs. We both took one and it was a great way to start our vacation. I ended up shifting to vodka & cranberry (to help me sleep!), but Lawyer X, who can't/doesn't sleep on the plane stuck with the champs. Well the little menu that describes the dinner for the flight also mentioned that there were two different kinds of champs. So he decided that he wanted to sample the other type of champs. Well, they only had the one type, so the flight attendant actually went up to First Class to get one of their bottles so he could sample another type of champs. And that was really cool. Needless to say, he had a really good flight.
On the way back to the US, we upgraded again and got settled into business class. I was excited because there were several movies I wanted to watch. I decided to avoid any alcohol (cause it's not like we didn't have enough wine in France!) and as we watched the movie a flight attendant would come fill up our water glasses. I started to get a headache and thought I would ask for a Diet Coke. Sometimes caffeine will help stop a headache. So when the flight attendant came around, I pulled one of my headsets off and said, "Can I get a Diet Coke?" She said something to me that I didn't hear, so I took my headset completely off and said, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you." And she replied, "Can I get a Diet Coke, *please*." Lawyer X, hearing this exchange looked at me incredulously. I said, "Can I get a Diet Coke, *please*." She said of course and when she brought it to me, I said thank you. Now I say thank you all the time. I really do. And I should probably say please more than I do. But I really don't think it's appropriate for me to get chastised for not saying please by a flight attendant when I'm just asking her to do her job. The whole thing was a bit surreal and just very unprofessional. It kind of ruined the rest if the flight for me and put a damper on the end of a really great trip.
Oh, and LawyerX isn't a big fan of my airline, so this didn't sit well with him at all.
It really is amazing how different our flights were based on the actions of the flight attendants.
Labels: flying, travel
World AIDS Day
I woke up at 4AM today. Still recovering from the jet lag from the Paris trip (more on that later I promise). I got up, turned the Mac on and started to get my blog fix. My first stop was Joe.My. God and I had forgotten it was World AIDS Day. But Joe didn't forget.
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/12/membership.html
And I cried. And it would be the first of many times I choked up today as I read story after story about AIDS.
I fled the gay blogs and went to one of my favorite Episcopalian blogs who was remembering the death of Harvey Milk 31 years ago and I watched this:
And there is hope. Hope for the fight against AIDS. Hope for the fight against discrimination, intolerance, and violence. Hope for a better tomorrow.
And today there was a small sliver of that hope shining here in DC when the City Council voted to approve same sex marriage.
And there was a sliver of that hope shining in Clevelan, OH where their City Council voted to approve a transgendered rights bill.
And there was a sliver of that hope in Massachusetts where the Episcopal Bishop authorized the clergy in his diocese to solemnize marriages for same sex couples.
Know Hope!
Labels: AIDS, Episcopal Church, equal rights, gay, gay marriage
