Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Office Hype, Bitches.

I don’t think people get excited enough at work. In your office what happens when you do something great? Maybe a pat on the back, or a drink at the bar, but no real emotion. So I suggest we all take a cue from the sports world and bring some excitement back in to the office. Here are a few suggestions of things you can do to hype up your office mates.


1. If you show up to work on time set off a smoke bomb and run through it yelling ‘let’s do this bitches’. Apparently in the sports world simply showing up is enough to cause a commotion.

2. If at any point during the day you send a particularly good email stand up and pound your chest and yell ‘you can’t stop my punctuation mother f*cker’. It is important to celebrate simply tasks that you are expected to do. Its like watching a football player tackle a running back after a 3 yard gain, it may not seem like an event worth dancing 20 yards down the field for, but trust me a well worded email is just as valuable.

3. Win a big project, announce the win to your boss then run at him throwing your brief case to the floor, untuck your shirt and jump on him (or her). “We did it, oh my god we did it!”

4. We have all seen the celebrations on the football field, whether it is the ‘mixing bowl’ or the high step dance they are all overly obnoxious and have nothing to do with football. So I propose that your celebrations be a little more appropriate to the office. There is the ‘air email type’, the ‘copier paper reload’ and my personal favorite the post power point presentation move in which you slam down the slide show clicker, rip open your shirt and make the slitting your throat gesture…’I just killed that presentation bitches, dead!’

So if you happen into J Crew and see me sell a particularly nice shirt, or happen to fold some pants really well you might just see some amazing celebrations. “That’s right sucker, your cant handle my skills! You don’t even want that shirt, but you are going to buy it because I am that good. Customers got nothing on this sales giant…J CREW!”

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I Go (went) Commando!


Have any of you (men only) ever received this phone call from your mother…”honey what size underwear to you wear? I am at Kohls and they are having a great sale on underwear.” I have not had to take one of these phone calls in a long time, but it reminds me of the last time I did. I think it was the summer after my senior year of high school. I can remember telling my parents I was going to go play football or something with some of my buddies and then spend the night out. I have no idea how I was able to get away with this, but I wasn’t about to argue. The truth is we were all going to the park to have a cook out and drink…football was not on the menu. By late in the afternoon I had a pretty good buzz going when my cell phone rang. Figuring, rather hoping, it was one of the many girls we had invited, but didn’t come, I answered. The female voice on the other side asked…”what size underwear do you wear”. Buzzed and intrigued, I answered with something like…”I don’t wear underwear”. The reply on the other line was not what I was hoping for…’this is your mother, what the hell kind of answer is that?’


Needless to say my mother never asked any questions about my underwear again, and I never get underwear for Christmas or my birthday. So besides the strange looks the next morning at the breakfast table the whole thing worked out pretty well.

So now every time I see a middle aged women standing in front of the underwear section at Target with a bewildered look on her face I always think…’just call him, I am sure now is the perfect time to discuss your teenage son’s underwear’.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Holiday Party Advice


Most of us, me included, do not have the skills to be social mavens. In fact I would suggest that if you care to avoid social humiliation you should stick to the basics. This is even more important this time of the year when we are bombarded with company and family holiday parties. These situations provide all of the necessary recipes for a complete melt down. Free food, free booze, fancy environment, the nervous non work banter with a co worker or boss…it is a stick of dynamite ready to explode.

We have all heard the horror stories, whether urban legend or truth, they have been passed around for years as a verbal warning to over consumption. So here are a few tips to keep you out of trouble this year.

1. Avoid the camera. If there are not pictures of you looking wasted it is much easier to deny any wrong doing.

2. Stick with what you know. If you are a beer drinker, keep that half full Bud Light close in hand. Just because your boss is a Dewar’s on the rocks guy doesn’t mean you have to follow.

3. Avoid shop talk. An awkward conversation about how bad the Bears are this year is much better than accidently telling your boss’ wife that every female in the office thinks he is hot, and you are starting to agree with them.

4. No dancing, no singing and for God’s sake do not start high fiving people. All of these are normally great party starters around your friends, but you don’t want to have to apologize to your IT guy on Monday for kicking him in the face while trying to do the worm.

5. And lastly, I can’t even believe I have to say this, DO NOT sleep with a co worker before, during or after your holiday party. A 2007 survey says that close to 44% of men admit to having an affair at a holiday at some point in their career. Even if you are both single, at least try to leave separately so people do not get any funny ideas.

So my suggestion for avoiding trouble this holiday…stay sober at your office party, come late and leave early and if she isn’t your wife don’t bring her to the party.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Balloons


Remember when we were kids and once or twice a year at school we would write little notes and tie them to balloons and release them? As a kid I can remember imagining some child far far away sitting outside at recess and this balloon falling into his lap and reading my note. My message would be so inspirational that kid would grow up to be a great leader and change the world. But now as an adult I like to picture a much different, more realistic outcome.

About 30 miles south of the school there is a farmer that wakes up at sunrise and makes his way out to the fields to tend to his crops. As he approaches his fields he sees something out of the ordinary, thousands of tiny little pieces of rubber and string in all sorts of colors strung throughout the rows of corn. He approaches one of these objects to see that a small note is attached to one of the strings, he reads the note…”I hate this place, someone get me out of here”. He then reads another and another, “the food here is horrible”, “Mr. Smith made me run laps today” each one worse than the next. “Billy and Tommy caught me in the bathroom alone again”, “I pooped my pants today, but didn’t tell anyone”. Naturally the farmer is shocked by these messages and fears the worst. “The balloon factory has enslaved its factory workers and they are sending these messages out as cries for help”.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Mothers.

Yesterday I was standing at an intersection waiting to cross the street. As I started into the intersection I saw a car approaching out of the corner of my eye so I stopped to make sure they weren’t going to hit me. Well I guess the red light and the giant white stop line in the street weren’t enough as the car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the cross walk (a huge pet peeve of mine that normally sends me into a rage). For whatever reason it didn’t bother me too much and I just looked up to give the driver a nasty look. The first thing I saw was a MADD (Mothers against drunk driving) ribbon hanging in the rear view mirror. ‘Huh, I haven’t seen one of those in a while.’ The irony that a woman that supported safe sober driving almost took me out at the knees was enough to give me a chuckle, until I gave her a closer look.


Cigarette in one hand, blackberry and eyeliner in the other hand furiously typing a text with her music so loud I could hear it over my ipod. I lost it…in three instantaneous stages. I went from chuckling about the irony of almost getting hit, to shock of the sheer stupidity of the driver, to a curse word filled rant that would make a sailor cry. I figured she couldn’t hear me and my poetic use of the word asstard (that is an asshole and retard) so I gave her a bang on the hood, and fake “I am getting your license plate number and calling the cops routine”. She was unfazed. My antics proved to be more entertaining to my fellow pedestrians than educational to the driver but that’s ok.

The worst part about the entire incident, besides the humiliation of looking like a raving lunatic in the middle of the street, was the fact that for the rest of the night I had the song stuck in my head she was blaring. Fucking Kanye West, Flashlights. Damn it, I hate that douche bag. You have to be kidding me, the song just came on the radio!

What is the lesson for today? I hope Kanye West’s tour bus is struck by a mother drunk driving and he can never perform again.