{"id":119,"date":"2005-12-23T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-23T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sararosso.com\/wordpress\/2005\/12\/23\/holidays-festive-drinking\/"},"modified":"2011-04-25T12:22:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T10:22:47","slug":"holidays-festive-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2005\/12\/23\/holidays-festive-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Holidays = Festive Drinking."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than any company I&#8217;ve ever worked at, this advertising company is very concerned about image, and rightly so. This therefore spills over onto their parties as well &#8211; the more lavish and extravagant, the better. <i>And I am there to gladly accept.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>This week had a downhill slide of productivity starting Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n<p>Since our staff meeting in November was in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.formafoto.it\">Forma Centro<\/a>, International Photo Gallery in Milan, complete with buffet and drinks, I knew the company Holiday party had to be good. By the way, the Martin Schoeller show is interesting with very close-up pictures of different celebrities. My favorite was Joseph Fiennes. *purrr*<\/p>\n<p>Our Christmas party (yes, the P.C. concept hasn&#8217;t really hit here) was even better. Starting with the title, &#8220;Bloody Merry Christmas,&#8221; it was an indication of the debauchery to come. It was held at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milanotonight.it\/locale.php\/566\/Divina.html\">Divina<\/a>, in the Ticinese area of Milan.<\/p>\n<p>This is probably my favorite thing about that night. Before you click on this link, it may offend some. But I thought it was a very interesting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milanotonight.it\/grandefoto.php\/5171\/Divina?locale=566.html\">mosaic<\/a> and it&#8217;s mainly on the ceiling so you don&#8217;t notice it right away. The rest of the body isn&#8217;t shown in the picture. I guess the photographer was only interested in certain &#8220;parts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I couldn&#8217;t give my full participation in drunken debauchery since I had to take the train home and had to leave relatively early. But, I will use one of my coworkers as a barometer &#8211; he says &#8220;che figura&#8221; (what a fool-spectacle) several times a day about himself. I figured he would fill me in on the worst-case scenario. Two quick highlights he blogged about that night (in Italian, I will summarize).<\/p>\n<p>Two words: Open bar.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Episode 1: He asks a colleague how old she is, and upon her response &#8220;the Martini answers for me&#8221; and says, Oh, you look older. She fakes throwing her drink at him. He fakes it, too. Except his glass is full. And his fake, was more like a bunt. It spills all over the woman. Two insults at once.\n<li> Episode 2: The next day, he arrives at work. A colleague asks him, &#8220;Is this your cell phone that was at the bottom of the toilet?&#8221; Ouch. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure this is a pretty good indication of the rest of the office. I was 30 minutes late, and still the first one in.<\/p>\n<p>But luckily, I made up for missing out, today. It was kind of a company party take 2, but more casual &#8211; baguettes, salami, cheese, and WINE. And then spumante for a toast. (By the way, drinking at lunch while working is not viewed as it is in America. It&#8217;s no big deal) We had those tiny plastic cups. 1\/2 a glass later, my head was already spinning. Stuffed two small pieces of baguette and (che puzza!) some goat cheese that stayed with everyone&#8217;s breath the rest of the day. <\/p>\n<p>I put on some Christmas music, and all the exertion heated up my cheeks. Or maybe, it was the wine. And everything got really funny after that. The phallic-symbol piece of pandoro my colleague cut, the spumante corks being shot at and hitting people, everything. The cheeks were flaming.<\/p>\n<p>Then we played a Christmas gift game, which everyone thought they knew. Except they didn&#8217;t know about the stealing, which I showed them. <\/p>\n<p>Afterward, we all returned to our desks, and I angled myself and my monitor so that I wasn&#8217;t seen. I had to answer an urgent email in Italian. The rest of my body was impeding my progress, though. My eyes were having the most trouble.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t that they couldn&#8217;t focus, they just made a conscious decision not to. Just absorbing the colors of the pretty, pretty screen were enough to make them happy. Finally they focused in on my two meager lines of text, including about six errors. A little teeny voice said, maybe I should ask someone to look at this before I send it, and a football team answered, that looks good to us! Just send it already, you control freak. <\/p>\n<p>I hit Send. Done. <\/p>\n<p>I have to stop worrying about getting everything so &#8220;perfect&#8221; and just let it out. Strangely, my revelations when I&#8217;ve been drinking seem to be epiphanies. At least, at the time. Like now.<\/p>\n<p>I looked at the top of the water bottle in front of me with what seemed a wide angle lens and it looked like a great place to rest my chin. Just for a moment&#8230;or two. In fact, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ll do now. No worries if the angle that my head is at makes it virtually impossible to see the screen. No one will notice. That&#8217;s ok, I&#8217;m a good typer. I&#8217;lla juset look at the eky s. It&#8217;sll be fine. why doN&#8217;ti do this more often^? So relaixing. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, I could close my eyes for a bit. Just a little bit. If i ptuh my heat here no oen can see me. THuehs is geting harder. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coffee?&#8221; My colleague shouted directly at me, or maybe he didn&#8217;t, and I opened my bleary eyes with a well-executed jump. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sounds great!&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Happy Holidays&#8230;I&#8217;ll try to keep up the blogging, if you keep up the reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than any company I&#8217;ve ever worked at, this advertising company is very concerned about image, and rightly so. This therefore spills over onto their parties as well &#8211; the more lavish and extravagant, the better. And I am there to gladly accept. This week had a downhill slide of productivity starting Wednesday evening. Since&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2005\/12\/23\/holidays-festive-drinking\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,10,2,5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-advertising","category-holiday","category-italy","category-milan","category-work","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-1V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":441,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/20\/milan-duomo-at-christmas-and-namaste\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":0},"title":"Milan Duomo at Christmas and Namaste","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're reading this, I'm already on a plane to India. After a brief stop in Zurich, we'll be arriving in Mumbai (old name: Bombay) to spend time with some good friends and take part in a wedding. First I want to encourage you to donate to the Menu for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Christmas 2007","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2064\/2123791888_7e6fcce17b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3932,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/23\/unusual-christmas-decorations-in-milan\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":1},"title":"Unusual Christmas Decorations in Milan","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One thing that may not be very known about Milan is that it is a city of cranes. And not the feathery, flighty kind. The ugly, disrupt-the-skyline because I'm building something kind. And they are building quite a lot in Milan. This is some of the beauty I can see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Holidays&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Holidays","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/holidays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/whatisee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/IMG_3408-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/22\/saturday-photo-scavenger-hunt-lines\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":2},"title":"Sightseeing in Milan during the Holidays","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks, I'm ending my Post-a-Day for a Menu for Hope on a great feeling - we've made a difference!! I hope whoever wins my prize enjoys it! On Sunday we head to Puglia to visit my in-laws and eat way too much great Italian food. I'm taking a break from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Holiday&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Holiday","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/holiday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close-up","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/136\/323980950_9aeaaa375c.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2190,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/22\/milans-white-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":3},"title":"Milan&#8217;s White Christmas","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A snowstorm struck yesterday in Milan, one that sent my colleagues scurrying home at 4pm (we're usually in the office until 7pm) and none of them arrived home before their normal 7.30-8.00pm return time - there was that much casino craziness and traffic due to the 30+cm (10 inches) of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little yellow car covered in snow, Milan, Italy, December 22, 2009","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2564\/4206069808_c2f9a8dfcd.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":264,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/19\/three-christmas-trees\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":4},"title":"Three Christmas Trees in Milan","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"[Funny video] I found this yesterday but didn't think it fit with my post - SNL was hilarious this weekend with Justin Timberlake hosting - check out his skits - D in a Box is my absolute favorite (warning: language may offend) [Wine tools] A very cool \"Octopus wine aerator.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Holiday&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Holiday","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/holiday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Our ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/138\/323980790_e82be62476.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/14\/creative-cost-cutting-the-company-christmas-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":5},"title":"Creative Cost-Cutting: the Company Christmas Party","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"[Tour del Gelato] Three more posts for the Tour del Gelato have been added to the blogroll page!!! Keep 'em coming! [Menu for Hope] A Menu for Hope has raised over $15,000 so far! But I can tell you that several prizes (including mine, code EU15) have very good chances\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3239,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/3239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}