Went to work and got more and more miserable as the day progressed. Looked visibly ill. When I look visibly ill, the rest of my co-workers get worried. Other than that, the day went reasonably smoothly.

The results of the voting came in, and the two top scorers were (not surprisingly) the manger and the fireplace. The big winner? Fireplace, baby. Each group member got a gift card.

The party was really a non-event for me; it was snacks laid out in the break room and festive music playing in there. The brownies were good. The brownies were very good. The eggnog was not so good, but then, I really don't much like eggnog. The eggnog was better than the apple cider. In my rather snotty opinion, apple cider was not meant to have either caramel or whipped cream. It didn't have enough cinnamon, either. Bah.

Ah well. I guess I'll have to take over Guide Dog Aunt's kitchen a little more. I really do like cooking, when I have the chance.

I called Mama once before work and once after work. I left a message on the machine before work, but actually got her after work. I have stopped really being able to track her age, though I'm fairly sure a little bit of math would work wonders. It scares me that Dad is almost old enough to be considered a Senior Citizen now, and while I think he's probably approaching fighting mad about that, I think he's probably also using it for all the leverage he can pull. Dad? Would Sort as a Slytherin, and no mistake. (What is the age for Senior Citizen, anyway?)

The layoffs were worrisome. It's so nice of the office to actually tell us what criteria they're using to select employees for laying off. We just lost two of the people from the short-staffed side of $ISSUE. Two of the better people. From what all was said, I really think supervisor input ought to be part of the layoff selection criteria. Supervisors should get the opportunity to point out the employees who are steady workers, who get picked first for a job because they're flexible and know the ropes, the ones who may have poor attendance but can be counted on to help close a job on the last day of the month, the ones who are right disagreeable off the phones but have the best rapport with respondents on the phones.

For Saturday, I am out bloody sick. I have dosed myself up on that winning combination of allergy medicine, painkiller, decongestant, cough medicine, patent herbal-and-vitamin combo in hot tea form, and am about to go shoot the tickling throat with spray so I can get some restful sleep. The heater is turned up to max and I'm still chilled. I hope to come back Sunday morning bright & early. (I discussed the whole "out" thing with Stressy College Chick, so that it wasn't springing it on her in the morning, because gods know that's dreadful. I think this is the first time I've been Out Sick on a check-in shift.)