ten

One day every month at my workplace, we all gather in the big conference room and celebrate that month's birthdays.  There are cards handmade by one of our workmates who does such things, and there is cake and/or pie, unless it's January when everyone's on a New Year's resolution diet of some sort, in which something ostensibly healthy(ier) is served. We do a big rendition of "Happy Birthday", garbling the names of the celebrants at the "Happy Birthday, dear _____" line in a random mix of all the names -- we've never come together and settled on a single thing to say, like "Happy Birthday, dear everyone", probably because it never occurs to us that we should until we're in the middle of the song and then we realize oh crap, we're coming up on that part again.

During these gatherings, we also celebrate that month's anniversaries with a round of applause and a joke or two. Five-year anniversaries are preceded by a small (usually humorous) speech and a plaque to mark the occasion. Five-year anniversaries are few and far between, but getting more common than they used to be. A sign that we're doing better than we were, despite all the challenges in the last few years especially.

April 2nd marked my tenth anniversary at my company. Only the founder of the company has been there longer.

Today was our monthly celebration. For me, there were (purple!) balloons, a chocolate cake with raspberry filling (they know me too well), a (purple) homemade card signed by everyone...even a purple tablecloth. And instead of a plaque, I received a lovely glass sculpture to memorialize this milestone.

This isn't a job I went to school to learn to do, and like most people, it's nothing like what I thought I'd be doing. But I am very good at it, and pleased to work with the people I do, and proud of what we've been building. And on days like today, I'm reminded why I'm still here after ten years.

...and just to add a little dash of excitement to the whole affair, we had to evacuate the building not long afterward due to a suspected gas leak. It lent an air of mardi gras to the afternoon, particularly when the fire trucks showed up with sirens blaring and cars slowing by on the street to gawk. We were lucky to have a sunny, not-too-chilly day (which, considering the very cold, very wet, and very gray spring, is a minor miracle in iteslf) and giggled as we all took out our cameraphones to snap pics of the firetruck ladder going up. Because we are all secretly twelve years old. Happy Anniversary.

breakfast, matryoshka:

• mini blueberry pancakes, made with berries we picked at Sauvie Island last summer
• blood orange and kiwi half
• Pink Lady apple slice

bento, French bistro:

• Pad Thai (takeout leftovers from Saturday night) with chives for garnish
• carrot sticks with a bit of rapini (aka broccoli raab)
• Pink Lady apple, kiwi half, and more rapini
• dark chocolate covered raisins

Comments

[Tammy]

It's nice that you received a thoughtful gift for your ten years!

[Bitty]

Thank you! It really was thoughtful of them.