Friday 21 September 2007

Pressing problems for trousers

Thankfully the preoccupations that have plagued me this week are fading into the background, at least for now: the very fact of publishing the previous post - cryptic as it was - helped a little, as did actually talking to someone: and, not least, being a little easier on myself.

Besides there are far more pressing problems to deal with: The Staff Party.

This takes place tonight, and I'm wondering whether to go or not. Aside from the whole concept of office parties, the first question I'm asking myself is, do I really want to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary at my workplace? Given that I'm inclined to paraphrase (or steal from) dj kirkby and rename it The Chateau of Despair, do I really want to spend my Friday evening there?

Here are a few pros and cons:

There's free food and booze (though apart from a couple of exceptions I've not really been bothered about drink lately).

Regardless of my feelings about work itself, I do like many of the staff, overall they're a good bunch (regardless of their feelings about me).

I'm still shaking off a few residual symptoms of the bug I had earlier this week.

I don't really want to get pissed in front of my work colleagues. I'd be happier acting(?) like a boring old fart. Plus if I do drink more than I should, I might start speaking The Voice Of Truth and find myself treading The Path To A P45 (however long it takes, I'd much rather leave work than be sacked). Chances are if I did get pissed I'd speak unintelligible rubbish, but the possibility still remains.

I've got so many other wild and amazing things I could be doing (well, that's technically true, if not especially likely).

Advice is welcome, though by the time anyone reads this, the probability is I'll have already set myself on a course of action (or inaction). I'll report back. And who knows, before the month is out I might even have delivered on my threat to post my "Landscapes of the mind" scribblings.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just GO !
Fuck 'em all......
book a taxi to get away before you start to dribble and leer........

Anonymous said...

I tend to avoid office parties like the plague. It's work. I tend to have better things to do than spend my spare time there.

Like sit at home miserably peering at the computer and pondering the meaning of life.

Lavenderblue is right. Go there and get drunk on free booze, sit on the copier with your bare bum and tell your boss like it really is.

Did that help?

Anonymous said...

Beautifully put,Ario x

Anna MR said...

Hello housut (and Ario, and LavenderGirl) - my personal preferences are very like Ario's, it has to be said. Booze is evil, and I'm sick of it (fucking finally, it might be said), and peering at the computer pondering the meaning of life is actually my idea of a good night out and time well spent.

Plus, in my experience, the food at office parties is rarely anything to rave about.

But I hope you have a fab Friday whatever it is you've decided to make of it (this goes for you too, Ario and LavenderB).

x

Anonymous said...

Thank you all.

I agree completely with ario - and therefore, by extension with anna and lav.

Amazingly, given my concerns, it's been very nice. I think that says a lot about my expectations (which were just below sea level), but thankfully I've been sensible enough to quit while I'm ahead.

And while work is not my favourite thing in the world (far from it), tonight has reminded me that some people there are absolute diamonds.

DJ Kirkby said...

Erm...I suspect you went and had a tiny bit of fun but not enough to have made it worth the effort of going...and if everything was paid for then we sure as hell don't work for the same Chateau despair!

Anonymous said...

Hi dj, I'd say it was just good enough to make it worth the effort of going: in the sense that it was nice to see colleagues who I like, in a social setting. I had a few drinks but plenty of water too so I got the balance right in that respect, and I left at the right time.

Needless to say I shan't be going to any others, should they arise, for a long long time.

Oh, and perhaps if they paid us better wages they wouldn't have money to spend on parties :)

Anonymous said...

I just got a party invite which contained the immortal quote :

"I want to give a really bad party. I mean it. I want to give a party where there's a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. You wait and see."

- Dick Diver, in Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it should be interesting...

Caroline said...

Glad you had a good time. I avoid these things ... but perhaps this year I will learn by your example and join the celebrations. My problem is that I get drunk far too easily and make a tit of myself with absolute ease. It's a life skill of sorts.

x

Anonymous said...

Hi cas, that's always the fear really, which was one of my disincentives. I don't usually get drunk that easily but these things can catch you unawares...