Out in Columbus (dot com)
Dec. 15th, 2002 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
judecorpYou ever have one of those days where everything just seems to fall into place? It's almost like you're in one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books, and you never choose the pages that have you fall off a cliff or lose the million dollars or whatever? Last night was one of those nights for me - where you build something up and worry and create "Alternate Plan Bs" and things just work out. I've had a lot of those this year, but this was one of the best, I think.
Yesterday evening, Jennifer and I went from her work's holiday party to mine. Hers was a "cocktails and hors d'oeuvres" party at the (very expensive) home of one of the partners of the company. Mine was a large, semi-formal dinner/dancing event at a hotel. (Think wedding reception.) I was /nervous/. The only person in her workplace that I'd met was one of her bosses who'd accompanied her to the emergency room after her accident (great circumstances, I know). This was a wine and cheese function at a richy rich rich home along the Scioto River in Dublin. The house was exquisite (and people kept traipsing muddy footprints on the white carpet). And then mine - well, I didn't know over half of the people (because it was for all of Lutheran Social Services, not just Faith Mission), and it was dressy dress-up.
Let's top this all off with the fact that I have never (and I do mean never) gone to a work holiday function with a significant other. I went to one or two of them alone (due to singleness, or long distance, or lack of interest, I forget), and have never been asked to accompany anyone else. The only time any SOs have met bosses of mine was when I invited several of my old bosses to my wedding. I've never really cared to bring someone to a work function of any kind, let alone a stuffy holiday shindig. I tend to downplay my relationships, making jokes and downsizing how important they are to me, or just am mostly emotionally detached from my SO and preferring to keep my life as separate from the SO as possible.
What surprised me this year is how flattered and excited I was when Jennifer asked if I'd accompany her to her work's party. I accepted immediately and probably thanked her four hundred times for asking me. We talked some about how I've never been invited to a work function by someone before. I remember thinking that it was something big. Even still, I debated asking her to mine, because I wasn't sure we could attend (due to hers - same day and all). A week ago, I learned we could jive the times and I was excited all over again, because I could ask her to mine and parade her around and introduce her to those coworkers of mine that I really like.
I was fairly quiet at her party. It was somewhat of an uncomfortable social scene for me, what with all of the wealth and opulence. This private party had a catering employee! And everyone seemed to have known everyone for years and years and years, and I kept getting introduced as Judie, and there were people who didn't introduce their SOs at all, and then there were the questions about how many piercings I had and such from the owner of the company, whose daughter "is just like me, with all of those things in her ears" or somesuch. BUT, I amused myself with free wine, and talking with this guy Etienne who looked like a Puerto Rican John Travolta but was very personable (and I tried to get him to unbutton his shirt all the way down). And I had shrimp!
By the time we got to my party, I was more than a little tipsy (hooray for free wine and no food for 24+ hours!) - I was all giggles and big smiles, and we ran into the people I like right away. They laughed at my tipsy ebullience, and I got to meet the SO of one of my favorite coworkers (Shannon). I plopped down next to him and flirted with him all night (but he was playing footsie with /me/, dammit!). Anyway, I had fun with Shannon and Sandra and Shayne and Jenise and
Jeff and Shannon's SO and Vicki and Tyrone and Esther and Coworker Jennifer and Tiff and everyone. But I am getting off track, I think.
I was so happy and so tickled and so proud to have my Jennifer with me. I'm usually really quick to say that I'm totally out everywhere, because I am entirely to all of the people I care about and spend time with, and because I spent the last couple of years working in and volunteering in the LGBT community, and because everything I do is Big Gay this or Big Gay that. But there's sure something about being in a room with 250 or so people and being the only same-sex couple, especially when I'm only acquainted with 50 or less of them. And there's something about watching your coworker and her "sweetheart" being all cutesy-wootsie lovey-dum-dum, hands on knees, hands holding hands, shared giggly whispers... and then realizing that you're doing the same thing. There's something about introducing your girlfriend to the Executive Director of your organization, and your boss, and the RAs, and everyone. There's something about putting a face to a name, and something about the way she was kissing my ear that let me know that there wouldn't be anyone, ever again, asking me how my "friend" is doing. (Why /do/ people call their female friends their "girlfriends," anyway?)
I was so proud to share the girl that I love with the people that I work with. I would like them all to know that one of the reasons I can be so calm and so peaceful and so devoted and so dedicated to my sometimes chaotic job is the lovely soothing presence I get to come home to, the one who always has a smile and warm arms for me. I'm becoming one of those people that I used to hate and puke at. Somebody stop me!
So last weekend my mother came and stayed with me, and Jennifer spent the nights at my apartment with me and my mother. And this weekend we paraded each other around our respective work parties. And next weekend we say our goodbyes for the holidays, and I know I'm going to wish she was there to open presents with me on Christmas Eve. My mom asked what she should get Jennifer for Christmas. Color me touched. I guess it's officially Pretty Fecking SeriousTM.
Yesterday evening, Jennifer and I went from her work's holiday party to mine. Hers was a "cocktails and hors d'oeuvres" party at the (very expensive) home of one of the partners of the company. Mine was a large, semi-formal dinner/dancing event at a hotel. (Think wedding reception.) I was /nervous/. The only person in her workplace that I'd met was one of her bosses who'd accompanied her to the emergency room after her accident (great circumstances, I know). This was a wine and cheese function at a richy rich rich home along the Scioto River in Dublin. The house was exquisite (and people kept traipsing muddy footprints on the white carpet). And then mine - well, I didn't know over half of the people (because it was for all of Lutheran Social Services, not just Faith Mission), and it was dressy dress-up.
Let's top this all off with the fact that I have never (and I do mean never) gone to a work holiday function with a significant other. I went to one or two of them alone (due to singleness, or long distance, or lack of interest, I forget), and have never been asked to accompany anyone else. The only time any SOs have met bosses of mine was when I invited several of my old bosses to my wedding. I've never really cared to bring someone to a work function of any kind, let alone a stuffy holiday shindig. I tend to downplay my relationships, making jokes and downsizing how important they are to me, or just am mostly emotionally detached from my SO and preferring to keep my life as separate from the SO as possible.
What surprised me this year is how flattered and excited I was when Jennifer asked if I'd accompany her to her work's party. I accepted immediately and probably thanked her four hundred times for asking me. We talked some about how I've never been invited to a work function by someone before. I remember thinking that it was something big. Even still, I debated asking her to mine, because I wasn't sure we could attend (due to hers - same day and all). A week ago, I learned we could jive the times and I was excited all over again, because I could ask her to mine and parade her around and introduce her to those coworkers of mine that I really like.
I was fairly quiet at her party. It was somewhat of an uncomfortable social scene for me, what with all of the wealth and opulence. This private party had a catering employee! And everyone seemed to have known everyone for years and years and years, and I kept getting introduced as Judie, and there were people who didn't introduce their SOs at all, and then there were the questions about how many piercings I had and such from the owner of the company, whose daughter "is just like me, with all of those things in her ears" or somesuch. BUT, I amused myself with free wine, and talking with this guy Etienne who looked like a Puerto Rican John Travolta but was very personable (and I tried to get him to unbutton his shirt all the way down). And I had shrimp!
By the time we got to my party, I was more than a little tipsy (hooray for free wine and no food for 24+ hours!) - I was all giggles and big smiles, and we ran into the people I like right away. They laughed at my tipsy ebullience, and I got to meet the SO of one of my favorite coworkers (Shannon). I plopped down next to him and flirted with him all night (but he was playing footsie with /me/, dammit!). Anyway, I had fun with Shannon and Sandra and Shayne and Jenise and
Jeff and Shannon's SO and Vicki and Tyrone and Esther and Coworker Jennifer and Tiff and everyone. But I am getting off track, I think.I was so happy and so tickled and so proud to have my Jennifer with me. I'm usually really quick to say that I'm totally out everywhere, because I am entirely to all of the people I care about and spend time with, and because I spent the last couple of years working in and volunteering in the LGBT community, and because everything I do is Big Gay this or Big Gay that. But there's sure something about being in a room with 250 or so people and being the only same-sex couple, especially when I'm only acquainted with 50 or less of them. And there's something about watching your coworker and her "sweetheart" being all cutesy-wootsie lovey-dum-dum, hands on knees, hands holding hands, shared giggly whispers... and then realizing that you're doing the same thing. There's something about introducing your girlfriend to the Executive Director of your organization, and your boss, and the RAs, and everyone. There's something about putting a face to a name, and something about the way she was kissing my ear that let me know that there wouldn't be anyone, ever again, asking me how my "friend" is doing. (Why /do/ people call their female friends their "girlfriends," anyway?)
I was so proud to share the girl that I love with the people that I work with. I would like them all to know that one of the reasons I can be so calm and so peaceful and so devoted and so dedicated to my sometimes chaotic job is the lovely soothing presence I get to come home to, the one who always has a smile and warm arms for me. I'm becoming one of those people that I used to hate and puke at. Somebody stop me!
So last weekend my mother came and stayed with me, and Jennifer spent the nights at my apartment with me and my mother. And this weekend we paraded each other around our respective work parties. And next weekend we say our goodbyes for the holidays, and I know I'm going to wish she was there to open presents with me on Christmas Eve. My mom asked what she should get Jennifer for Christmas. Color me touched. I guess it's officially Pretty Fecking SeriousTM.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-12-15 08:13 pm (UTC)Awwwww...
(Mine said: Jasmin - SERP* infiltrator)
*Science and Environment Reporting Program (I took a SERP class over the summer, where I met the boyfriend.)
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 09:44 am (UTC)I refer to you as Jude to people here at work I swear:)
AND.....I love you a lot. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 03:24 pm (UTC)I'm puking!
Date: 2002-12-16 12:48 pm (UTC)-Crena
Re: I'm puking!
Date: 2002-12-16 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 02:57 pm (UTC)Owned by the kind of people who get to keep shopping in Saks Fifth Avenue after it "closes", I presume.
*EXACTLY*
Date: 2002-12-16 03:23 pm (UTC)party
Date: 2002-12-16 06:50 pm (UTC)I have to ask, though: was the Work Stalker there?
Re: party
Date: 2002-12-16 08:31 pm (UTC)And no, Stalker wasn't there. He had to work Saturday night.