Yesterday was kind of fun.
On Wednesday after weight loss class I stopped by Big Lots and bought $80 worth of Christmas lights and a small fake tree. Years ago Jim and I built these big star frames that we covered with lights. They look really cool and you don't have to climb up and down a ladder all damn day to put up Christmas lights. You just plug in six stars and the place looks great. But you do have to replace the lights every five years or so. So, I bought a ton of lights and a little tree to put up at work. When I got home I just left everything in the car.
On thursday I loaded up a bunch of decorations that I had bought at the after Christmas sale at Beverly's (75% off!) and took it all to work. Since I'm not doing much decorating at home (kittens!) I got my ya-yas out making the front office look cheery. It looked very pretty. Just as I was finishing I heard Tanya and Patti down the hall setting up tables and chairs and talking about how to make it all fit. Huh?
Now, I work in a great office with wonderful people. Communication isn't one of our strong points. Sometimes I'm seriously out of the loop. I found out that they were going to be having meetings on our office for a couple of days with a big dinner that night and a luncheon the next day. They needed to set up tables and chairs and somehow make it all look special and pretty. I heard Tanya say, "Too bad we don't have some lights." Lights? Did someone say lights?
I went out to my car and brought in the big bag of lights I had just bought. I also brought in some decorations I had decided not to use in the front office. Patti said, "Wow, it's like she's got a Mary Poppins bag!" I spent the rest of the day decorating the eating area. I hung three huge glitter balls from the ceiling, one over each table. Then I ran a string of lights to each one and bunched up the excess to look like chandeliers over each ball. Then I draped gold ribbon on each one so it went from the ceiling and cascaded down over the balls like gold tendrils. For being such a simple thing the effect was actually pretty stunning. Once Food Services got there and added the table cloths the whole place looked really nice.
Yesterday we had our luncheon. I spent the morning getting songs off the web and putting them into a song book. I designed a cover on Publisher and made 23 songbooks with red and green covers. I spent some time on Chordie getting songs into the right keys and printed them out for my own songbook. After lunch we had a big sing along with me on ukulele. I had also brought my big bag of rhythm instruments (another Mary Poppins comment from Patti) and passed them out to everyone. Har! Those administrators played like kindergartners. It was quite a hoot.
Then Monica suggested that I sing a couple of my songs. I sang Middle-aged Woman. It killed. They were laughing and cheering so much at the end I couldn't finish the song! Then I sang Bosom. At first they didn't quite know how to react to it but as it went along they started to enjoy it more. At the end people were laughing. I think it actually made the men kind of uncomfortable. We finished the party with Silent Night.
Afterward, one of the women from Health Services came up to me and said they want me to come to their Christmas party and entertain. Seriously! I'm going to go to their party on the 22nd and do exactly the same thing!
It feels a little weird that the luncheon turned into the Doni Show, but people seemed to enjoy it and Dr. Debbie was pleased, so I guess it was ok. And hey, I got a gig!
9 comments:
This could be the turning point of your career.
Fabulous!
Yay for fun times at work. And being known as the one who can produce magic right there in front of everyone!
BABoR- Ah yes, I'll make a million entertaining at community college Christmas parties. Call my agent if you want to book me.
Being known as the one who can produce magic? EEK! Now I have to deliver! Throwing up a few lights is one thing, getting up and being the headliner is another, even if it is just an RCC Christmas party. Yesterday's thing was spontaneous. The stakes were pretty low. Now expectations are higher. What have I done???
Actually, I think it's pretty funny.
Are the lights still up? Take some pictures.
-dean
I have no doubt you'll deliver!
Well, I'm going to do my best but I have bombed before. Dr. Deb took all the songbooks to use at her family's Christmas gathering so I'm going to make some new ones, this time with a better selection. I chose the wrong key for some of the songs so I need to redo that. I'm also going to take my small amp so I can bump up the sound a little. My uke isn't that loud and in a room full of people it can get drowned out. Also, I'll ask what the room will be like and if there will be a microphone available. I want to know as much as I can about the whole thing before I get there. I think they're having the party off campus someplace.
Dean- The lights are still up but we moved them to the side. With the tables gone people would have been bumping their heads on them. I'll take pictures on Tuesday.
Oh yeah, I got three of my stars covered. I worked on them on the front porch this afternoon while the kittens played outside. The stars are looking good so far. Three more to go.
I've been letting the cats play outside for a couple hours at a time. Lio loves it. He thinks being outside is the coolest thing. Ivy is afraid to go outside. It took her a long time to work up the courage to go through the door. She didn't stay out for very long. At one point I had to stop and go get something out of the garage. While I was poking around in there I saw Lio come walking into the back yard. He was walking slowly and totally fluffed. The dogs just stood there not knowing what to do. Lio was like the sheriff walking into town surrounded by gunfighters. It was really funny.
I know Gracie and Boz would be ok with him but I worry a little about Lady. She's not good with cats. Fortunately, she's so old she's not very fast. I was also worried about the neighborhood dogs but the people next door have moved out (2 big dogs there) and the new people behind us have chiwas. That leaves only one set of close neighbors with big dogs. I feel better about the cats being outside on their own.
Pretty soon I'm going to install a cat door. Yay! No more litter box!
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