tonight is my holiday christmas party for work. why oh why did they schedule it on a thursday night...i don't know but, sadly, i will be missing chrismakuh!
(yet another reminder that i need tivo!)
I was a bit stressed out over what to wear to this party largely because my boyfriend and I have procrastinated with our dry cleaning. With his dress shirts (he has a trillion of them) and all of my stuff (a substantial amount) our bill is well over $100. It will be done on SATURDAY so I had to find something CLEAN in my closet to wear TODAY...hmmm
there is no doubt my closet, while a disaster area, is always full regardless of how large my laundry pile is. (it really does seem like a never ending selection) but i always struggle with the definition of "business casual" i can wear jeans and heels and look better (well i always look better--i mean more "pulled together") than some of these people in their beat up khakis & polo shirts. in my law firm most people stay true to the conservative style of dress. Women flock to Ann Taylor & Banana Republic and such and the Men flock to Brooks Brothers & BR, or in many cases the Gap and Polo or Lacoste. I like to mix it up a bit so my wardrobe isn't boring. I dress pretty conservatively the way it is so I'm definitely not the one wearing halter tops to the office, but I will try to press the envelope with unconventional skirts, sweaters, and if i'm really lazy i'll try to wear cords with heals (it is as close as i can get to wearing jeans and i always get away with it!) So the struggle today was to find something that was holiday appropriate but something that would also be suited well in the office. I decided that since black pants were definitely not an option (dry cleaning) i would try to wear one of the new items i purchased at urban. i chose to wear the black lace trimmed 3/4 sleeve cardigan over a long black stretch lace camisole underneath (so a bit of black lace peeks out underneath) and a light red velvet skirt I purchased last year during a sale at anthropologie. I have worn the skirt to work before...it is kind of hard to explain but it has four chiffon ruffle inserts on the "corners" of the skirt to give it a feminine flare. It is really pretty, so I'm not really sure if my description is doing it justice. so I'm wearing the cardigan with the red skirt with black calvin klein pumps:
front detail:
back detail:
very similar in color & style to the skirt i am currently wearing
so despite missing the o.c. tonight i am getting kind of excited for our christmas party. it is going to be held at the providence on 57th between 8th & 9th and should be a good time. hopefully i'll get some good gossip while i'm there. my holiday doesn't quite feel complete without a "secret santa" but my office isn't having one. I was really hoping I would snatch up the video ipod like the one "Michael" (Steve Carell's character) from NBC's "The Office" gave as his "secret santa" gift. I found today's "daily candy" especially amusing since I had office holiday antics on the brain: "secret santa seeks professional help"-daily candy everywhere edition my boyfriend's law firm was having a secret santa gift exchange until things got out of control. one of the girls demanded that the gifts remain completely anonymous meaning that you were not to reveal the name of your person at all costs. if you've ever participated in such an exchange in the workplace or in college you'll know it is pretty easy to figure out who has who...i mean, on the elevator up to work you can easily make a mental note of how your coworker wraps their gift. From there it is all about a simple process of elimination. you know who gives the crappy gifts, you know who the cheap skate is, you know who tries to show everyone up with their gifts, and you know who puts the most thought into their gifts...that is what secret santa is all about, right? Well, because of this the people in my boy's office told the girl she was being a bit ridiculous, so she responded that she didn't want to do it at all. Everyone rushed to find out the real reason why she all of the sudden decided she didn't want to participate, and when someone asked her, "Is it because you don't like who you got?." She quickly and quietly answered in the affirmative! My boyfriend knew instantly that it was him, so being a good sport, he told the others, you know what, I know she has my name and the easiest way is to take my name out, I don't care, I didn't want to do this anyways, so there aren't any feelings hurt and everyone is happy. Of course everyone refused to do that because they thought he was being ridiculous. They approached the girl privately and found out that she indeed did have his name. Everyone was shocked and stunned so they canceled the "secret santa". They all felt bad for him, not realizing that he honestly didn't care and it was no surprise to him that this girl had something against him. The funny thing is that same girl had the audacity to ask why the others why they weren't doing the secret santa anymore after she had single handedly brought it down. The girl is clearly immature and unprofessional, but i think the story is probably not all that uncommon. I also find the story to be particularly amusing given the fact that my boyfriend is probably the nicest person ever! (i know that sounds biased but seriously it is true!) He brings coffee, chocolate, and apple cider to the people in his office all the time on a whim just to be a nice guy.(trust me sometimes i get jealous that he works downtown & i work in midtown. my theory is that this girl really just thinks there is an ulterior motive behind his gestures. I think her plan was to A)keep his name & B)not buy him a gift so he would be the only one without a gift and since it would be anonymous her thought process would be that it couldn't be traced back to her.
Anyway, for the 3 years that I've known him, he has always been all about random acts of kindness so I really don't understand how you can't like a person like that.
If you have other secret santa stories do share! It is office politics at its best.
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