Secret Santa and Gray's Anatomy

I work with someone who believes that everything happens for a reason...some sort of master plan of Divine intervention.

So, here goes with the "happenings":
Profound statement by Meredith Gray in the opening of last weeks episode--"the experience of practicing medicine bears little resemblance to the dream." Substitute your job for "practicing medicine" and it works for almost everyone!

Our office is particularly "grinchy" right now. Maybe it is the economy, maybe it is the "adjustment" to reorganization, maybe is the lack of basic supplies, inability to participate in opportunities and activities that we had come to take for granted, or the very real possibility of lay-offs after the holiday---Grinchy with a capital G!

In the long standing tradition, someone suggested secret Santa--where you draw a name and give little surprise gifts, not to exceed $1 in value all week. "They" did not get organized enough last week, so before we drew, one day was already over. (The tradition demands that the week prior to the holiday event lead up to the guess-a-thon at the event---to see who figured it out!) A full third of the Grinchy staff opted out--but not in any organized way, so that during the name draw, if you got a grinch not participating, you discarded their name, and tried again. I got a grinch person--and discarded to draw again.

Synergy with Gray's anatomy: Dr. Baily in this two-parter, works on "raising above"--as she saves the life of a white supremacist.

My second pick, out of everyone I work with, is the only person I would not wish to have anything to do with. Unfortunately, the way we passed it around, I could not feign having my own name and put it back....

My mind went first to all of the nasty things I could do as this person's Santa. They have no sense of humor, although they think they are hilariously funny. (soooo not!)This person is "dense", arrogant, intolerant, a bully, and no one would every describe them as "nice"...

I though about trading. I thought about paybacks (as there are things I could pay back for!!)

Then I thought about raising above. Just as my coworker says, things happen for a reason. If I went with nasty, no one would blame me, but I would have stooped to the level of this person.

So, I am taking the high road. Wal-mart, despite its "chinese-ness" has about a thousand things for $1 or less, and some are quite useful and/or nice. By the time I had wandered through just the front 1/2 I had enough for multiple themed Santa weeks--hand care (travel lotion, 2 pk of gloves, sparkly nail enamel, emery board, and sanitizer)...Personal winter care(shower poof, travel body wash, travel body lotion, chap stick, travel sun screen)....Entertainment--sudoku and word search books, candy canes, Holiday pencils, and a light up pen). There were oral hygiene possibilities, and oh, so many other options.....

I settled on a holiday theme, with wrapping paper, bag of bows, a light set, ornament set, and lighted candle decoration--all under $1, and very nice for the price!! Way nicer than what my Santa will leave, or this person deserves.

Thank you WalMart--I am raising above!!!!

I hope that I passed the "test".

Swift

Quick, rapid, fast, speedy

–adjective
1. moving or capable of moving with great speed or velocity; fleet; rapid: a swift ship.
2. coming, happening, or performed quickly or without delay: a swift decision.
3. quick or prompt to act or respond: swift to jump to conclusions.
4. Slang. quick to perceive or understand; smart; clever: You can't cheat him, he's too swift.
–adverb swiftly.
–noun
any of numerous long-winged, swallowlike birds of the family Apodidae, related to the hummingbirds and noted for their rapid flight.
an adjustable device upon which a hank of yarn is placed in order to wind off skeins or balls.
the main cylinder on a machine for carding flax.

Further information:
The swifts are birds superficially similar to swallows but are actually not closely related to those passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they formerly shared with the hummingbirds. They move into hollow trees and chimneys--and live and breed there year after year--they are very loyal (and noisy) birds. It is expensive to have them removed!

Fast Patrol Craft (PCF), also known as Swift Boats, were all aluminum, 50 foot long, shallow-draft vessels operated by the United States Navy for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations during the Vietnam War. Events realted to them can undo presidential candidates years later.

Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Who hasn't had to read Gulliver's Travels--or at least the cliff notes?



Umbrella swift: Hold your hanks on this wooden swift while you wind them into balls. Clamps onto table and counter tops. Easy loading is possible if you start with the umbrella in the down position. Put the open loop of the hank over the swift and pull it lightly so the far side of the hank is against the center of the umbrella section and you are holding the hank out perpendicular to the swift. Then, use your free hand to slide up the umbrella clamp, opening the umbrella to the circumference of the hank. Secure the clamp in place and wind away. Best when used in tandem with the Ball Winder. Measures approx. 26½" in diameter and 26" tall when open.

Had the birds in the chimney, know about the boats, read the book, and now have this nifty accessory to use with my ball winder. Life is good.

Swift, to swift, swifting, swifted, etc.

(Thanks to wikipedia and dictionary on line for the enlightenment!)

I do not need a silverplated mayonnaise bowl...

or much of anything else for that matter. People keep asking me what I want for Christmas. An exercise bike, which they are convinced I would never use, and may be correct about. The power charging cord for my blue tooth earpiece, which I am not sure they make. A yarn meter...maybe??? A fancy schmancy very expensive sewing machine??? Too personal for anyone else to pick out!

What I really, really want has nothing to do with me....I want MR. CP to clean up his office, paint it, make it look presentable---maybe even "nice". New carpet, or some type of flooring. Organization--less random "stuff". I thought the curtains would help--turns out, not enough.

I am looking forward to seeing the kids--being together in that crazy regression that happens when they are all here. I would like to zip in and zip out of Miami. Nora was right--the one you see the least, is the one you would most like to see---probably because you see the rest often.

There is nothing I need, nothing I want---I am very hard to shop for....and a "hard to find china site"--just sent me a message that a mayonniase bowl is now available to match my sterling flatware---which I sooooo do not want!

So, I wll be happy that I already have a new roof!