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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas

Picture the quintessential high society party — sipping champagne and snacking on caviar. Looking out on a city 60-some storeys above the ground. Catching snippets of smalltalk about business partners and recently closed deals while a piano man plays jazz in the background. Congratulations, you've just pictured the Google Christmas party. If it sounds a little pretentious, well, it wouldn't be New York if it weren't. Relax. You obviously need to grab a couple dry martinis from the open bar. Then leave the wine- and cheese-tasting room and hit the dancefloor.

It turns out that there are benefits to long distance relationships—wait, I should rephrase that. There are benefits to other people's long distance relationships. It's good luck for me that Jasper is in one as I was his replacement girlfriend for the party.

In terms of being his invited guest.

Not afterwards.

Who would have thought that people who sit in front of computers all day long would attend an event in elegant evening dresses and stylish suits? I suppose it's understandable that people will make the effort if you rent out the entire Rainbow Room at the top of the Rockefeller Center, but I wasn't expecting it. I wonder if the case is the same in California, or if people there show up to formal office parties dressed in shorts and sandals.

3 comments:

Mom said...

I can speak to the Yahoo! holiday party in San Mateo, CA. People dressed. Not everyone was in a tux. I wore a little black dress, for example, but everyone made some effort.

Nigel said...

I didn't think the casual work ethos stopped for parties. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Haha, thats great. I did the same when a friend had his work christmas party - officially for the networking, but more for the free drinks.

I hope Jasper was aware of the risk he was taking. My "date" spent months fighting off rumours of a gay boyfriend.