Day 6 (Tuesday)

Today was a typical Tuesday at work...complete with a trip to Dairy Queen for our weekly Fantasy Football League owner's lunch. Each of us is instantly transported back to the third grade as we giggle and carry-on like we're in the Elementary School lunch room. The ladies at DQ don't seem to mind us too much. In fact, I think they look forward to the weekly mayhem that ensues.

I also made a trip to the Salvation Army today before heading home. That might be a good blog topic for when my bachelorhood is over.

After work I ran home to obtain a gift for my first Christmas Party of the season. The Admissions office invited me and some of my cohorts from the Alumni Relations office to their annual Christmas Party...which consisted of dinner and a "White Elephant" gift exchange.

Now I don't know about you...but to me, the term "White Elephant" is a $.25 holiday term for crap. I even confirmed this with more than one person who was attending that evening. So I grab something that I think is worthy of such a gift exchange and proudly head off to the event.

After dinner we all get in a circle, draw numbers, and the fun begins. The first gift selected is a riot! It's a framed picture of the host of http://www.marklavender.nl/. I work with the real Mark Lavender...so everyone gets a big kick out of this. However...along with the picture is a CD-rom version of what is, quite possibly, one of the greatest games in history: Oregon Trail!

Hmmm...

The next gift opened is a gift card to Cracker Barrel...followed by a plug-in video game. All of a sudden I get this horrible feeling in my stomach...which grows to mammoth proportion as I see the next person reach for my gift. Censors won't allow me to type what I was thinking as this poor soul removed the tissue paper, reached in the bag, pulled out the cardboard box and opened it to reveal........a one gallon can of Ranch Style Beans.

I was mortified...especially when the gifts continued to be very cool (with the exception of a kaleidoscope. At least you can eat the beans!).

So that whole encounter pretty much shot my wheels off. I didn't hang around long after the gift exchange ended. I dashed home, changed clothes, and cleaned both bathrooms; then watched the second half of the DePaul-Wake Forest game on ESPN (big win for DePaul!).

Now I think I'll go to bed and dream about people throwing Ranch Style Beans at me!