Office Party

Tonight was the School of Business Christmas party, hosted at the home of one of the long-time professors. The address was in the most upscale neighborhood of the city and on arrival Southern Man was impressed; a mansion designed for entertainment in which the fifty or so of us were not at all crowded. Turns out that the professor's husband is a successful architect and builder. All of the deans were there so Southern Man was on his best behavior and hopefully performed the appropriate amount of elbow-rubbing and schmoozing with his various bosses. Much food and drink were consumed (a hostess and bartender were on hand to keep us well supplied) and then the main event was a rousing game of Bad Santa, a party game at which Southern Man and his ex once excelled. Without a capable partner it was tougher but Southern Man drew a good position and ended up with one of the best gifts - a bottle of locally homemade green-apple wine (the label is "Red Neck" in French and has a picture of two - well, rednecks in a pickup-truck swimming pool), a loaf of summer sausage, and a big slab of chocolate. Much hilarity ensued when he revealed that the Red Neck and summer sausage would be consumed in a FEMA trailer out in the sticks. To tell the truth Southern Man isn't much of a wine drinker but it will make a nice addition to the wine rack as a conversation piece. A surprise was what turned out to be a roll of George W. Bush toilet paper which was quickly stolen twice by two female professors who were evidently both proud and unashamed to show their disdain for #43.

But the best moment was when Southern Man spotted the Dean enter with a striking young woman that he didn't know and the following conversation ensued with one of his colleagues:

Southern Man: Who is that with the Dean? His wife?
Colleague: I don't know if it's his wife or his girlfriend.

It turned out to be less scandalous than we thought (it was his fiancée) but that wasn't surprising; we're really a fairly boring bunch. But we had such a good time that the party ran nearly two hours past schedule.