There were no prizes this year (we were probably lucky there was actually food) BUT I did get the one piece of news I've been waiting for. MY VACATION TIME HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR THE SQUEEEEEEE ODYSSEY!!!!
This means I can go to London and Birmingham to see Burn Gorman in Oliver and John Barrowman in Panto without risking my job in the process. Since I booked the tickets back in MAY this has been a long time coming. I booked everything on a leap of Barromaniac faith, and I never really thought it would come down to calling in sick for five days from London, but there was always the possibility that someone with more seniority would want the same days and that Bubbles would have to say no.
Luckily that didn't happen. One person in the region wanted one of the days, but apparently when she was told about my needing that week, she was willing to give it up.
Massive relief. Seriously. I still would have gone, but putting my job on the line in this economy wouldn't have been the brightest move of my life.
Anyone in the areas who we haven't already planned to hook-up with who's interested in meeting, please let me know.
After the company shin-dig, I grabbed a cab to Ben's place (bartender from the Mint) for his holiday/birthday soiree. In spite of the E-invite saying "Straight to Bed" I hadn't quite picked up on the fact that this was a pajama/lingerie party so I was significantly over-dressed for the ocassion. I hung out a a bit, gave a present, had some club soda and went bye-bye, because hubby was home waiting and I was kind of beat. But Ben, if you're reading this, I really appreciate you asking me.
If you do it next year, I promise to come in my moose jammies.
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RIP-Van Johnson, among many other things, The Minstrel on Batman, but I love this scene from Till The Clouds Roll By, the MGM Jerome Kern bio-pic. (With Lucille Bremer)
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Check out David Schuster on Countdown last night going into FULL KEITH MODE over Bush refusing to let the Obamas move into Blair House before the innauguration so the kids can start school and everything:
