Watershed Christmas Party 2010

Tonight was the company Christmas Party in

Corvallis this year. Several months ago we had all discussed how great it would be to have the party at The View upstairs in our building because of the great view over the city and the bar we could set up there but after several rounds of emails from Karen most of the Portland people could not make it the days the venu was

available so we had to look for other options. Karen found out that we could rent out the

MU basement on the OSU campus. I had never been to the basement before but heard stories that it was a lot of fun and had many things to do including shuffleboard, billiards, bowling, video games etc. When I heard this I was a little reluctant but when we actually got to the place I was blown away.

On Friday afternoon we all left work a little early to go home and get ready for the big night. Once Emily and I had cleaned ourselves up after work we piled into Danielle’s car with Kevin, Alexa, B.D., and Carrie and headed downtown to our office for some pre-party drinks. I was super excited to show Emily our new office because despite telling her that it was brand new and very modern and

trendy looking it was hard to describe without seeing it for yourself. When she walked in she was instantly impressed. I gave her the tour and showed her briefly what my job entails there. I made us both a few

drinks and we hung out with Cooper and Amanda for a while until the Charter Bus (yup, you heard that right) of Portland peeps showed up. They actually went to the wrong floor at first and ended up at the HP Christmas party at The View above us. They are all really nice people but I can never remember everyone’s names just seeing them once a year. It was getting close to party time so Russ ushered us out the door into the Bus for the short trip to campus.

Doug took charge as navigator at the front of the bus telling the poor driver to take the back roads (some tight turns) to get the MU. We eventually came to the one-way street getting into campus and Doug casually told the guy to “just ignore that sign” and continue onward in the massive bus up the tiny street! Hilarious! When we went downstairs we were truly impressed by the effort Jenn and

Karen had put into the

place. They had decorations, a snowman to sign, photo skier cut-outs, a very nice buffet of food, and even a friggin’ chocolate fondu fountain! The bar had a variety of beer and wine for us and as far as I heard it lasted the entire night. We all had fun taking turns between pool, shuffleboard, and the other games but we spent most of the night bowling. When it came time for the company photo I was a bit tipsy and found myself in the bar with Erin trying to help her dig out

a

piece of angel food cake that had gotten lost in the chocolate fountain. When I left the bar I saw camera flashes and everyone standing together! Whooops!! missed it this year!

At 11 the bar closed and we all made our way outside. The decision was made to head to the Peacock of course while the Portland Crew headed back North. Fortunately our bus driver was willing to

head back into town with us before taking them all back to Portland. We got dropped off back at the

office and headed the few blocks to our favorite dive bar. By the time we got there we were all feelin’ pretty good and I jumped at the opportunity to put my name down for the song “Summertime” by Will Smith with the karaoke guy when I saw it in the booklet. Unfortunately I was three sheets to the wind and could barely pull it off. Thankfully, Amanda and Danielle came to my rescue as the backup girls so

people had something to pretty to look at besides dealing with my horrible singing. The girls then all took

off for the “top of the cock” upstairs which us guys didn’t want to fight to get into through the large waiting crowd. By the end of the night Alexa was telling Kevin that they needed to leave and they vanished before we knew where they had gone. It took Scott, Danielle, Emily and I a while to find a cab after that but we successfully got home between 2 and 3 I think..?? Emily had searched and searched for her jacket only to find that she had put it in Alexa’s bag.... our bad! What a fun night... a night that would take a couple days to recover from!