Company Christmas Parties and Pretty Flashing Colours

Nope, the two subjects in my title today are in NO WAY related! Just wanted to get that out there right off the bat.

Saturday evening was my company Holiday Party, since we in Canada have to be soooo politically correct! (Sheesh!) I was looking forward to it as this is the first social event that I have had the opportunity to attend with this new company and, I must admit, I was VERY curious to see how my co-workers "cleaned up"! Tee hee! As most of you know by now, I work in a warehouse which supplies some of Canada's largest home electronics stores as well as handling a lot of online orders for most of our suppliers. The warehouse is a dusty place, so most of my fellow grunts wear old clothes to work. It was a lot of fun trying to recognize some of the guys and gals I work with as they showed up in their party finery! LOL!

Dinner was fantastic with a choice of Caesar or garden salad (I chose the Caesar, Ave!) and Penne in tomato sauce, Prime Rib, Turkey with stuffing, Roast potatoes and buttered vegetables. Unfortunately, the wine they served was awful, but since I don't drink alcohol as a rule, I wasn't too disappointed. Each attendee received two complimentary drink tickets, but since I only drank Coke, which was free, I ended up giving ours away. I figured I'd give them to my direct supervisor, doesn't hurt to "suck up" sometimes! LOL! My dessert was a chocolate mousse on a cheesecake base which was absolutely heavenly! Mrs. Phoenix had a raspberry/vanilla mousse cake which was also quite good. Yes, we each had a bite of the other's cake! LOL!

After dinner they started giving out the door prizes. Remember that this company deals with home electronics? The door prize table was groaning under the weight of stereos, printers, digital cameras, iPod docking stations, and all kinds of stuff generously "donated" by our supplier companies. My number was called after a few minutes and I walked away with a Panasonic portable CD/Tape player/Radio! Way cool! I already have a couple of printers, and I don't own an iPod, so I'm glad I got something I can actually use! LOL! This "boombox" even comes with a remote, so the joke at our table was, "I'll 're-gift' this to my kids, but I'M keeping the remote!!!"

We all had a lot of laughs at our table and had a good time in general. After the first set of door-prizes was given out, the live band started playing. After about a half hour of having my ears assaulted by some of the worst singing since the Rolling Stones, we bailed and went home. I heard after that one of my supervisors fell off her chair she was so drunk, and that two of the office girls got into a fight over a t-shirt that the band threw into the crowd of dancers. Then their dates got into it, and the police had to break it up! Oh well, I'm actually glad I wasn't there to see that part! LOL!

The only down part to the whole evening was those silly Cokes I had after dinner. When I got home, I was so wired on caffeine and adrenaline (excessively loud music has been proven in many studies to actually overstimulate the adrenal glands in the human body), I couldn't even sit still, let alone lie down! LOL! I ended up playing a computer game until 4 in the morning and then went to bed. I still ended up tossing and turning until 6 am, before I finally fell asleep. Because I forgot to check the alarm clock before I fell into bed, I didn't realize that Mrs. Phoenix had also forgotten to set the alarm when she went to bed MUCH earlier, and we ended up missing church! Whoops! I woke up right at 9:30, which is the time the first service starts, and then proceeded to fall back asleep until I was woken up around 11:30 by a very affectionate little Sheltie who had decided my face needed washing! What fun that is! LOL!

I did make it to my Christmas Eve service practise Sunday afternoon and then had a nice relaxing evening with the family.

Then we get to today, and the second subject in my title. While at work this afternoon, I was standing near the desk where I pick up my orders sorting through them when out of the blue, with no warning whatsoever, I thought that someone had hit me on the side of the head. I felt the pain, and saw the stars, but there was no impact! I had been lifting quite a bit of heavier product during the morning and early afternoon and I guess the muscles in my shoulders and neck had had enough. One of my good friends at work, Al, who is also the Health and Safety Employee Rep, saw me holding my hand over my right eye, and noticed that I had gone very pale (according to him). He immediately came over to see if I was okay, and I asked him if he could see all the pretty flashing colours too. (My sense of humour was still intact!) Since he also has suffered from migraines, he knew instantly what I was going through and tried to get me to go home early. I only had about an hour and a half left to my shift, so I determined to struggle through it as best I could. It was an interesting experience trying to read my orders, find the product and navigate through the warehouse with all those coloured flashes of light in my vision! This was the first "Classic Migraine" I have had in months, and it was no fun, I can tell you! When I did finally get home (Mrs. Phoenix picks me up after work so, no, I wasn't driving and I also wasn't driving the forklift today either) the first thing I did was take a "cocktail" of 2 ASA tablets and 1 Excedrin tablet (Acetaminophen + caffeine) with Gatorade, then I took a very hot shower and afterwards had Mrs. Phoenix massage some A-535 into my neck, shoulders and back. That seemed to reduce the pain to a bearable level and turned off the coloured flashes in my vision!

Unfortunately, while typing this post, with the position I am holding my head putting strain on my neck and the fact that the drugs wore off a few hours ago, I'm starting to see the pretty colours again. So, I'm gonna end it right now and go take some more drugs and go to bed! Let's keep our fingers crossed I can go to work tomorrow! I can't afford anymore time off!