...And the award goes to...

Every year my company has a huge awards ceremony. Every year one of my co-workers dreads it and doesn't want to go. Every year the "newbies" in the company quiver like it's time to open presents at Christmas. Me...I enjoy getting the day away from the office and look forward to the opportunity to go home early!

Most of the time my office wins or places in many categories. Not because we're "favorites" but because we bust our butts. The 5 of us are great at different things and it keeps our ship sailing smoothly. So I always try to dress nicely, in-case pictures need to be taken. This year I was surprised. We didn't win anything, however, we each placed 3rd in our own category (which I love because that was a 3rd place for each individual so we all feel great!) Our company has over 500 associates and manages over 200,000 square feet of space. And we took 2nd in the over all company's "Greatest Place to Live" Award (we've won 4 x's and were last year's reigning champs.) But that's not what surprised me...

Our owner is a sweet, older, Jewish man. He loves his family, and believes strongly in nepatisim. So as he put it, "I don't know many people in this company that are not related to others in this company." He got to the Tax department (which my husband works for). He started going on about how hard they work as a team of 4. Then he mentioned that "James, Jimmy works very hard and is married to our crack leasing person, Jamie, probably the best we have." OMG! Did he really just go off on a tangent and talk about me in front of 500+ people!? My face grew hot and red as I slinked down in my seat. What would people think? What the hell did I care! The owner just mentioned me in front of the whole company! What an honor!

I still can't believe it! So James and I decided to celebrate! The "partiers" of the company descended downstairs in the hotel for our annual open bar. James and I ran down to congratulate all of the winners and quickly ran home to celebrate! I'm sure you're thinking I should probably stop the blog about now...but we decided to pull the kids out of school, go home and make...a puppet show house! I had the best afternoon ever! The kids were so happy and proud of us and I'll write tomorrow about the puppet show house!