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!

Civil War Rock Band Fix

Saturday was Civil War Day at OSU this year. The Beavers who have been having a tough year were up against an undefeated

Ducks Team who play each play like it’s the last one of the game. If they defeated the Ducks they would go to a Bowl game at the worst but at the best if

the Ducks won they were headed to the National Championship. I was really hoping for a crazy upset... but I was hoping for too much. Emily and I decided to watch the game from home because we didn’t have any tickets and sneaking in would be nearly impossible with the increased security. It was actually nice to watch the game on our big screen to hear all the commentary we miss being

at the games. The game started out with a bad omen when our quarterback took a really hard sac and was very, very slow to get up. The first quarter actually wasn’t bad as we got a couple breaks from the Ducks and capitalized on them taking the lead at one point. But, the 2nd quarter and especially the 2nd half certainly did not go our way and we got crushed.

The game of course put all Beaver Fans in a poor mood because it marked the end of

our season. Danielle and Scott’s usual solution to this is to drink until they don’t feel sadness and play Rock Band with friends. Emily and I were going skiing the next day with Chris but decided it would be fun to hang out for a while with everyone and jam out with the people who had been drinking since 7am! We had a great time and I actually ended up drinking a bit more than I had planned but thankfully their house is only a couple blocks away. The best part of the night was Lindsay who was a bit tipsy after a day of drinking jamming out on the drums to Beatles Rock Band with Tim cracking up at how much she really got into the groove of the music! Ha! Fun times, but after several rounds of Kings Emily and I had to leave around 1am to get some sleep before skiing.