A good day, a good dinner
Oct. 21st, 2003 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, the Club MCI dinner event went rather well, considering. And I won a bit more money...but let me go over it from the beginning.
First of all, I went to work today. Before going in, I stopped off at the Kmart where I used to work, right near MCI, for a bit of breakfast...and as I was waiting for it, I overheard snatches of the conversation of a couple sitting nearby, involving "square dancing." I introduced myself, and found that they were a couple of members of a local square dance club with whom the club I used to be in had danced a couple of times; I'm sure I shared a square with them a time or two, though with my memory for people they only seemed slightly familiar to me. They invited me to their club's Plus lessons in February as a way of refreshing my memory of the dance steps; however, my work schedule will conflict unless I find a way to shift it a little earlier. I went ahead and gave them my name & address so they could add me to their club's newsletter, though.
At work, I found that I'd won a bit more money than I'd expected. I'd expected the $500 for Top Representative and the $50 for Top Bay, but not the $150 for #1 Quality. All in all, I won (after taxes, 58% of) $700. Not bad at all.
Work was a little frenetic today with folks watching the clock between the occasional call that we usually had to forward on to somewhere else. It let out at 4:30 p.m. to give us time to go home and get ready for the dinner at 6:30. I withdrew as much of the $700 as the bank's daily withdrawal limits allowed ($500 per day) and stuck $430 of it into savings to hold it until I'm ready to buy my new computer with it. Then I came home and got into some nicer clothing, since the dinner was a semiformal event. I'd been planning to wear some navy blue suitpants, shirt and tie, and a black suit jacket, but when I tried to put them on I found the zipper on my pants had more or less exploded, so I was forced to fall back to my secondary option, a decent pair of brown dress slacks. Of course, I couldn't wear black with brown, so I left the suitjacket behind and just wore a white shirt and tie. As it turned out, it was a good decision...it was warm enough I'd have taken the jacket off anyway.
Nor was it my only inadvertant good decision of the night. Since MCI was providing free cab rides home, I figured I'd go ahead and take the city bus in and the cab home, rather than worry about driving my car. I wasn't sure how much I was going to drink at the beer-and-wine bar, and figured it would be better to be safe than sorry. And besides, if they were going to give out free cab rides, I might as well take advantage and leave the driving to them. I'd like to be able to say that my decision was partly based on remembering how bad parking was around the downtown area with the restaurant in it, but the truth is that never even crossed my mind. All the same, hearing tales from co-workers at the dinner about how bad it was finding a parking space, I soon had more reason to be glad of my decision.
The first part of the evening was a "social hour" that was actually a half hour, from 6:30 to 7, where we all hung around in the art gallery part of the Gallery Bistro restaurant where we sampled hour d'oeuvres ("Try the stuffed mushrooms," my supervisor said) and sipped wine or Budweiser (For some reason, Budweiser and Bud Lite were the only malt-and-grain-based beverages—I refuse to call them "beer"—that were available). I stuck to the wines, having a dry Chardonnay. For that half hour, we all wandered around the gallery, socializing, getting pictures taken by a professional photographer, and peering at sculptures and paintings that looked like either something or nothing much in particular and had price tags surpassing the cost of my car. I was vaguely witty, (She said: "Whenever I see you walking, it always looks like you're going somewhere." I said, "That's because I'm usually headed to either the bathroom or the computer.") moderately sociable, and not too impressed by the art, but it passed the time.
At 7 or 7:05ish, one of the manager types made a little speech about how awesome we all were, the Springfield center was #1 in the country, yadda yadda, then we all trouped downstairs, took seats at tables, and started on our salads. I continued to be moderately witty, ("I didn't know you drank, Chris." "Doesn't everybody? After all, we have to get our fluids somehow...") getting a few good laughs (and groans) from my co-workers and enjoying the salad and subsequently the fresh bread and butter. I had another glass of wine, a merlot this time (I always think that's what you say when you want to say "hello" to Merlin: "Merlot!"), and would subsequently nurse that through the rest of the evening. It was too expensive (at $5 a glass), and not enough to my liking, for me to want to have much more of it.
Shortly thereafter, the awards for top representatives started, and I was called up in my turn to where they were giving out the awards to get a heavy trophy and to have the little numbered leaf-shaped ticket I got when I came in interpreted into how much cash I was getting from it (as it turned out, $25). As part of the award, we had to draw a slip from a plastic pumpkin and it contained a trivia question that could net me more money or another money ticket, or a "getting to know you" question (of the "If you could do, then what would you do?" sort). Mine was "If you could go back in time to any period in history, when would you go and why?" Caught off-guard, I managed to mumble something about the Old West because it always fascinated me. I then took my seat again.
We had dinner (4 oz beef tenderloin medallion, cooked rare-ish (though it was rather hard to tell since the restaurant was one of those places where the lights are so low you can barely see what you're eating) and balsamic-marinated chicken breast, garlic mashed potatos, and mixed veggies) followed by dessert (either turtle cheesecake or some sinfully chocolate torte cake; I took the latter). At one point, there was briefly much laughter at the table, over one of my co-workers' delighted exclamation upon discovering the little dollop of potatoes in the midst of the plate, reminding me of the old joke where the waiter asks the customer how he found his steak, and the customer says, "I just looked under the mushroom, and there it was!" The dinner was great, and I contented myself by thinking how much the whole thing would have cost if I'd paid for it out of pocket. Probably at least $25. And the icing on the cake is that we were all still on salary for the evening, too!
After that, more awards (for reps who'd gotten awards for doing something particularly well) were handed out. Subsequently the awards for reps from the Top Bay came up, and soon it was my turn to go up again for a smaller trophy and another draw on the plastic pumpkin. This time it was a trivia question about whether one of the managers had played an instrument in high school band ("Yes," another manager coached me) and I got another $30.
Now at that point, I was pretty happy. All things considered, I'd done decently for myself, what with the $700 plus the $55. Since all that money was already earmarked toward my new computer, and the $700 was much more than any of the other people there had gotten, I thought that the evening could just end right about then and I'd be cool with it. Imagine how I felt, then, when they started drawing names for $100 door prizes, and mine was the first to come out. And my manager apprached me wondering if I would be interested in moving up to PCS (for which I really don't feel ready or capable), and I suggested I'd be more interested in tech support. He said to talk to him on Thursday when I'm at work again. We'll see what happens there.
There wasn't much more to the evening after that. They handed out a couple of other gee-gaws—a silver picture frame into which to put the pro photog's pictures when they come out in a few days, and a disposable camera with a Club MCI wrapper on it (which might come in handy on the weekend trip to K.C.)—and then I asked them to call me a cab ("Okay, Chris, you're a cab!") and headed back here to write this. Tipped the driver a couple bucks on a $6 trip (for which MCI was paying) just in case MCI didn't cover tips (they probably did, but what the heck, I was a driver for a short time and I know that you don't ever get enough tips in a job like that) and came on in here to write this.
All things considered, the evening turned out very well. Counting the $30 I won earlier this month for something unrelated, I have 58% of $885 to spend on the new computer, which comes out to about $515...more than enough to get the kind of system I want. That, plus the adulation of my peers (who kept congratulating me...it's weird, I still don't feel like I ought to be Top Rep), makes today definitely one of my red-letter days...enough so that I'd better watch myself over the next day or so to make sure something doesn't kick me out of manic and into depressive mode.
It's been a very good day.
First of all, I went to work today. Before going in, I stopped off at the Kmart where I used to work, right near MCI, for a bit of breakfast...and as I was waiting for it, I overheard snatches of the conversation of a couple sitting nearby, involving "square dancing." I introduced myself, and found that they were a couple of members of a local square dance club with whom the club I used to be in had danced a couple of times; I'm sure I shared a square with them a time or two, though with my memory for people they only seemed slightly familiar to me. They invited me to their club's Plus lessons in February as a way of refreshing my memory of the dance steps; however, my work schedule will conflict unless I find a way to shift it a little earlier. I went ahead and gave them my name & address so they could add me to their club's newsletter, though.
At work, I found that I'd won a bit more money than I'd expected. I'd expected the $500 for Top Representative and the $50 for Top Bay, but not the $150 for #1 Quality. All in all, I won (after taxes, 58% of) $700. Not bad at all.
Work was a little frenetic today with folks watching the clock between the occasional call that we usually had to forward on to somewhere else. It let out at 4:30 p.m. to give us time to go home and get ready for the dinner at 6:30. I withdrew as much of the $700 as the bank's daily withdrawal limits allowed ($500 per day) and stuck $430 of it into savings to hold it until I'm ready to buy my new computer with it. Then I came home and got into some nicer clothing, since the dinner was a semiformal event. I'd been planning to wear some navy blue suitpants, shirt and tie, and a black suit jacket, but when I tried to put them on I found the zipper on my pants had more or less exploded, so I was forced to fall back to my secondary option, a decent pair of brown dress slacks. Of course, I couldn't wear black with brown, so I left the suitjacket behind and just wore a white shirt and tie. As it turned out, it was a good decision...it was warm enough I'd have taken the jacket off anyway.
Nor was it my only inadvertant good decision of the night. Since MCI was providing free cab rides home, I figured I'd go ahead and take the city bus in and the cab home, rather than worry about driving my car. I wasn't sure how much I was going to drink at the beer-and-wine bar, and figured it would be better to be safe than sorry. And besides, if they were going to give out free cab rides, I might as well take advantage and leave the driving to them. I'd like to be able to say that my decision was partly based on remembering how bad parking was around the downtown area with the restaurant in it, but the truth is that never even crossed my mind. All the same, hearing tales from co-workers at the dinner about how bad it was finding a parking space, I soon had more reason to be glad of my decision.
The first part of the evening was a "social hour" that was actually a half hour, from 6:30 to 7, where we all hung around in the art gallery part of the Gallery Bistro restaurant where we sampled hour d'oeuvres ("Try the stuffed mushrooms," my supervisor said) and sipped wine or Budweiser (For some reason, Budweiser and Bud Lite were the only malt-and-grain-based beverages—I refuse to call them "beer"—that were available). I stuck to the wines, having a dry Chardonnay. For that half hour, we all wandered around the gallery, socializing, getting pictures taken by a professional photographer, and peering at sculptures and paintings that looked like either something or nothing much in particular and had price tags surpassing the cost of my car. I was vaguely witty, (She said: "Whenever I see you walking, it always looks like you're going somewhere." I said, "That's because I'm usually headed to either the bathroom or the computer.") moderately sociable, and not too impressed by the art, but it passed the time.
At 7 or 7:05ish, one of the manager types made a little speech about how awesome we all were, the Springfield center was #1 in the country, yadda yadda, then we all trouped downstairs, took seats at tables, and started on our salads. I continued to be moderately witty, ("I didn't know you drank, Chris." "Doesn't everybody? After all, we have to get our fluids somehow...") getting a few good laughs (and groans) from my co-workers and enjoying the salad and subsequently the fresh bread and butter. I had another glass of wine, a merlot this time (I always think that's what you say when you want to say "hello" to Merlin: "Merlot!"), and would subsequently nurse that through the rest of the evening. It was too expensive (at $5 a glass), and not enough to my liking, for me to want to have much more of it.
Shortly thereafter, the awards for top representatives started, and I was called up in my turn to where they were giving out the awards to get a heavy trophy and to have the little numbered leaf-shaped ticket I got when I came in interpreted into how much cash I was getting from it (as it turned out, $25). As part of the award, we had to draw a slip from a plastic pumpkin and it contained a trivia question that could net me more money or another money ticket, or a "getting to know you" question (of the "If you could do
We had dinner (4 oz beef tenderloin medallion, cooked rare-ish (though it was rather hard to tell since the restaurant was one of those places where the lights are so low you can barely see what you're eating) and balsamic-marinated chicken breast, garlic mashed potatos, and mixed veggies) followed by dessert (either turtle cheesecake or some sinfully chocolate torte cake; I took the latter). At one point, there was briefly much laughter at the table, over one of my co-workers' delighted exclamation upon discovering the little dollop of potatoes in the midst of the plate, reminding me of the old joke where the waiter asks the customer how he found his steak, and the customer says, "I just looked under the mushroom, and there it was!" The dinner was great, and I contented myself by thinking how much the whole thing would have cost if I'd paid for it out of pocket. Probably at least $25. And the icing on the cake is that we were all still on salary for the evening, too!
After that, more awards (for reps who'd gotten awards for doing something particularly well) were handed out. Subsequently the awards for reps from the Top Bay came up, and soon it was my turn to go up again for a smaller trophy and another draw on the plastic pumpkin. This time it was a trivia question about whether one of the managers had played an instrument in high school band ("Yes," another manager coached me) and I got another $30.
Now at that point, I was pretty happy. All things considered, I'd done decently for myself, what with the $700 plus the $55. Since all that money was already earmarked toward my new computer, and the $700 was much more than any of the other people there had gotten, I thought that the evening could just end right about then and I'd be cool with it. Imagine how I felt, then, when they started drawing names for $100 door prizes, and mine was the first to come out. And my manager apprached me wondering if I would be interested in moving up to PCS (for which I really don't feel ready or capable), and I suggested I'd be more interested in tech support. He said to talk to him on Thursday when I'm at work again. We'll see what happens there.
There wasn't much more to the evening after that. They handed out a couple of other gee-gaws—a silver picture frame into which to put the pro photog's pictures when they come out in a few days, and a disposable camera with a Club MCI wrapper on it (which might come in handy on the weekend trip to K.C.)—and then I asked them to call me a cab ("Okay, Chris, you're a cab!") and headed back here to write this. Tipped the driver a couple bucks on a $6 trip (for which MCI was paying) just in case MCI didn't cover tips (they probably did, but what the heck, I was a driver for a short time and I know that you don't ever get enough tips in a job like that) and came on in here to write this.
All things considered, the evening turned out very well. Counting the $30 I won earlier this month for something unrelated, I have 58% of $885 to spend on the new computer, which comes out to about $515...more than enough to get the kind of system I want. That, plus the adulation of my peers (who kept congratulating me...it's weird, I still don't feel like I ought to be Top Rep), makes today definitely one of my red-letter days...enough so that I'd better watch myself over the next day or so to make sure something doesn't kick me out of manic and into depressive mode.
It's been a very good day.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-22 07:49 pm (UTC)Shadofax66