Victory is sweet

I won, I won- he caved first! Hahahaha!!! Er, um, I mean…Chris finally said something about the bed. He actually told someone else, but in my presence, so he had to ‘fess up that he knew. We were having dinner at my company Holiday party on Saturday night, & the conversation turned inevitably to gift shopping. I had said that I was nearly done, but I hadn’t bought anything for Chris yet; my friend Lorri, who was sitting next to Chris, said to him “She must be saving the best for last, since she has bought your gift yet”, and he replied, “Oh, yes she did- she bought us a new bed & hasn’t told me about it yet!” The entire table busted out laughing & talking, asking how long he had known, saying how strange we are & even a few exchanges of cash- I guess there had been a pool going on. I think he was relieved- now he could play with the settings on the bed, without worrying that I would catch him at it.
The party was quite nice. It was held at Bartoni’s, a small Italian restaurant located in our downtown area. The owner is a member of my church, & he had reserved the whole place for us. Friday, I had celebrated my ninth anniversary with the company, & I was pleased to see that, for the first time in all those years, every employee attended the party. That may have had something to do with the fact that the CEO was handing out bonus checks that evening, & if you weren’t there, you wouldn’t receive yours until next payday. After appetizers & a buffet dinner, the boss called up people, said something about his or her contribution to the organization & handed them their envelope, along with a hug or handshake. The comment he made about me, after congratulating me on my anniversary (I’m the senior non-management employee by at least 5 years), was that I’m the “invisible woman”, that you never know where I will be from one day to the next, & that I was the one most grateful for all the new employees, so I could actually work at my own desk. I understood he was referring to the fact that I will cover anyone, any department, & any branch at short notice, while still completing my workload. But Chris got a little annoyed, because the CEO wasn’t expressing his specific appreciation for all the work I do (particularly since we had spent an hour that morning at the branch, going over it with the police, because the alarm had gone off & I’m the closest employee on the call list.) Chris is my biggest & most enthusiastic cheerleader, as well as my chief sounding board when I’m frustrated about my job, so he expects other people to think I’m as great as he thinks I am. Ah, isn’t love wonderful?
After dinner & dessert (an excellent cheesecake with raspberry sauce), we had dancing until 11:00 pm, with a fairly decent selection of music. I got a lot of compliments on my outfit, which was a last minute purchase; I went over to Dress Barn to look for a scarf or necklace to go with the dress I was planning on wearing, I saw a beautiful Asian style top, dark green with black trim, on the clearance rack. Worn over black slacks, with a pair of green dangly earrings & a couple chunky gold tone bracelets, I must say I looked pretty snazzy. Lots of pictures were taken, so I promise, if there are any decent shots, I will post a photo of Chris & I in our finery. Along with good company, an open bar & a $1000 bonus check, I would have to say it was a successful evening all around.
Sunday was spent at home, doing the housekeeping stuff that got put off all week. Sam spent most of the afternoon writing his last book report & studying for finals that start tomorrow. (BTW, he didn’t pass his belt exam, but will be re-testing in a month- his sensei said he was really ready, but made some errors in the beginning & got flustered. He has committed to working out a lot harder this month- he’ll be teaching at every beginner class, except when we’re on vacation, which will help him review his earlier katas.) Chris spent most of the day working on Jessica’s car; it broke down just outside of town last Saturday, while she was on her way to EMT training in Manteca (a town about 15 miles from here), & she had it towed to our house. We lent her Chris’ old car to use, while he tried to figure out what was wrong with hers. After 8 hours of work & conferences with a couple of mechanic friends & our neighbor who has the same car, the general consensus is the car is toast. I’ll be trying to get a hold of her in the next couple of days to give her the bad news; I’m just glad we decided to hold on to the old car (with the plan of Sam eventually using it) so she’s not having to miss her training sessions or going to work in the rain. I have to convince her the best thing to do is let me take her to one of the local used car dealers, find her an inexpensive but reliable car, & get a loan for it. She’ll holler she can’t afford it, but she really can’t afford not to do it- she has a lot of trainings & exams that need to be done before she can get her EMT certification, & she can’t have our car forever, since there is a slight possibility we would need it.
A former co-worker, who is also a cat lover, sent me a list of “Cat Haiku”, author(s) unknown, which I would like to share over the next few posts.

You must scratch me there!
Yes, above my tail!
Behold, elevator butt.