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I’ve never really gotten into holiday parties. When I lived in Florida, my whole life was one big party so the holiday party thing never really got me. Well I can now tell you that I have survived two POLAR OPPOSITE holiday parties so far this year. On we go.
Since my whole world now revolves around doing new things, when I heard that there was going to be a holiday gathering at the Frat Palace, I was elated.
Owen to Lauren: “be festive.”
Lauren to me: “um, ‘festive’ is kinda broad.”
Me: “I’m wearing moose pants!”
I walk into the frat palace wearing my moose pajama pants, boots, a USF hoodie and the most RIDICULOUS HAT EVER. And, I brought the Grinch with me.
That's me (duh). Happy holidays!
There are like three people in tacky sweaters, and everybody else is dressed up all nice and pretty. Like, leggings, big sweaters, boots, party hair, all that. I AM WEARING PAJAMA PANTS. Clearly not everyone was in the holiday spirit. So I tasked myself with getting everyone on board with the holiday spirit thing. I was the party.
When you’re the only person at a party wearing pajama pants, it’s kind of freeing. No matter what I did or said, it was hilarious because I was the girl in the moose pants. With a stuffed Grinch hanging out in my hood of my hoodie (see the Last Week in Pictures section for some Grinchy-goodness).
So that’s party number one in a nutshell: PJ pants, ridiculous hats, taking pictures like sorority girls every 30 seconds and lots of fratty fun.
Yeeeesterday we had our company holiday party. First of all, talk about stress. Totally opposite from Moose Pants because I HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO WEAR. Are people wearing dresses? Should I wear something festive? What do you do? And the whole “plus-one” thing? I didn’t even bother. Too much pressure. And I’m not about to go asking my guy friends if they want to go bc then they’ll think I want to date them and then they won’t want to be friends anymore and it will be a big fat mess and OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO PUNCTUATE.
Anyway, so I’ve done the whole “party with your colleagues” thing for years because I was a bartender and EVERY NIGHT had party potential. Service industry holiday parties are a complete and total shit show, by the way. I was thinking about this on my way to this holiday party. Last year we took a bus to Orlando, and had a party with all of our sister restaurants.
Think: bartenders and waiters. Open bar. That alone, assuming you’ve worked in the industry or know someone who has, should be enough to make your skin crawl. Add to that, new faces because we were from Tampa and everyone else lived in Orlando. Put it all together, mix on medium to low-speed for five hours and what do you get? Lots of debauchery because we’d probably never see those people EVER AGAIN.
My how the scenery has changed.
Last night we had our party at Carnivale in the West Loop. Snazzy place, good apps, FAB sangria and mojitos, blah blah blah.
Snazzy bathroom, eh? You should see the rest of the place!
In comparison to any other work-related party I’ve ever been to in my entire working career, it was really tame.
And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s awesome.
I think the fact that there wasn’t a dance floor is why it was so tame. Oh, that and it was a Tuesday.
I was fully expecting to see an absolutely ridiculous amount of debauchery, because, you know, PR people work REALLY hard and from what I’ve heard, like to play hard too. But there was none. It was the most fantastic holiday party I’ve been to in a long time because it was just all kinds of conversation, and not like “oh-my-God-I-have-to-YELL-BECAUSE-I-CAN’T-HEAR-YOU-OVER-THE-MUSIC” conversation. Good stuff.
So it’s like this. Holiday parties with friends? Life of the party. Holiday parties with colleagues? Keeping it classy.
So now I wanna know your BEST (and/or worst) holiday party story. About you. Or your colleagues. Or one you had at your friend’s house – I don’t care where it happened or with whom, I just want to roll around laughing after I read it. READY GO.