Happy Halloween!

This year I didn't do much to decorate my office, but we did celebrate Halloween in a couple different ways - a costume contest and a pumpkin carving contests. I loved the pumpkin carving contest. See all the pictures here.

My favorite:

Our office winner:

What a fun way to get some seasonal spirit in the office!

Holding back

Since I started working at my new job, I have won two weeks of the football pool, spent a couple weeks atop the season-long football pool standings, and won a coworker's baby pool. We also alternate weeks bringing breakfast for the office on Fridays and my first entry garnered many comments that it would be a serious contender for the breakfast award at the annual holiday party.

While participating in these office traditions is a great way to get to know my coworkers in a more social manner, when I picked up my picks sheet for the football pool last week, someone made the comment about how I seemed to be winning everything.

Every day this week I've looked at the list of contests we're doing in our office for my favorite holiday--pumpkin carving, costumes and office decorating. I had a very clever idea for pumpkin carving this year--perfect for an Angineer--but I keep thinking of what my coworker said, and I decided not to spend this evening up to my arms in pumpkin goo. Instead of getting up early on Halloween morning, I'll go with the quick and easy costume option and keep my more elaborate costume for the evening festivities. So I'll keep my celebrations more limited to my house and participate without going the extra mile. I think I'll miss going all out, but I will enjoy having extra time during my evenings this week and joining in the camaraderie at work on Friday without standing out.

What I've Learned This Week

I must be pretty cool.  Just this morning I've received emails from one presidential candidate, one former president, and one current senator trying to influence my vote.  It make me feel so special to live in a swing state during this election.

One more reason to love my new job...

...they've already put up their Halloween decorations!

 

P.S. I've always loved decorating my cubicle for Halloween!

Rationalizing

Have you seen the latest feature from Google Labs?  Mail Goggles.  I think Google should work on something similar for our blogs because I know, I know, I know I shouldn't write about certain things here. 

But I want to.  I really really really want to.
 

Fairy tales

For some reason, only the female employees in my office seem to congregate at the table in the break room to eat lunch. Not surprisingly, since many of them are mothers, the talk often turns to kids. Today the talk started with a discussion of the going rate for a tooth by the Tooth Fairy. Appallingly the concensus was $3-$5 per tooth.

Talk of this friendly figment soon turned to that of Santa. One coworker complained about a tradition that her husband's family has where two elves leave gifts and a note a couple days before Christmas. Everyone agreed that you have to be quick on your feet to answer questions about why Santa might have given a gently used bike, the gift labels from Santa are in your handwriting, or Santa uses the same wrapping paper as Mom and Dad. I laughed along, sharing stories from my own childhood and empathizing with my coworkers.

It was a great lunch hour, furnishing some overdue bonding. I didn't realize that I'd been taking mental notes on kids and family traditions until I was walking away, and I skipped a step when I realized that I might never be one with my coworkers in hiding Santa's wrapping paper and mixing up reindeer feed.

Is Area 51 in your cites?

If the aliens are studying us, I hope at least that they are collecting systematic data, taking good notes, making interesting graphs, and publishing their results.

-Female Science Professor