Last night was the Inbound Auction that I'd been planning back in September. We cancelled it in light of the terrorist attacks, then again after 1/2 our department was layed off in October. Well, I'm happy to report that it went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. To throw a wrench into the plans, Gardner decides yesterday morning that it would be funny to have a roast of Devil, who will be leaving to Glasgow in a few weeks. He'd watched the Hugh Hefner roast on Comedy Central & thought it would be a great idea. Anywho, he gave me 2 hours to come up with a speach detailing Devil's life and accomplishments.
What I wrote was a complete act of fiction and I'm quite proud of how it came out. I started with how he wet his bed until the age of 15, then went on to tell of his experience as a stunt double for Lee Majors on the Bionic Man. He was married to Farrah Fawcett and Daisy Duke. He was a rodeo clown. His prison friends call him Babyface. I went on and on, making it up as I went along. I'd thought that either myself or Gardner would be reading this, but he went one step further by asking the sales witch IceQueen to read it. I got real lucky that she was in a good mood and thought the idea was funny, or I could have kissed my job goodbye. As she's reading this blatant mockery, Devil was dressed in a prom gown & blonde wig and had lipstick and purfume applied. It was a hoot and everyone laughed and I didn't get fired, so I call it a success!
We had a few drinks setting up the meeting room, then a few more during the actual auction. All of the employees were pretty psyched to be bidding on prizes like a $100 Ticketmaster gift certificate, cash prizes and a DVD player, among other things. After all was said & done, we drank a few more cleaning up then went over to the local watering hole to have yet more booze. I even took a little walk with Dino & some other managers to smoke up - quite the bonding experience. You have no idea just how many people out there shmoke. Youngster was shut off by the bar owner for being too loud & several managers/directors etc were there buying drinks & boozing it up.
As a result of the evening, I'm all out of sorts today. I'm not 100% sure that lunch is going to stay down & my head is pounding. All of us are in rough shape & hanging pretty low. I haven't hurled yet, but it's early.