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Social Butterfly I Am Not
December 13, 2014
Yesterday was another late night entertaining our work guests from across the sea. If I were really dedicated to Holidailies, I would have gone up to my office when the bus pulled into the parking lot around 11:20 last night, gotten the photos off my camera and written an entry then to get it posted before the Holidailies clock hit midnight, but I’d already gone that route once this week and besides I was so very tired and just wanted to go home, so off I drove, and here I am now, Saturday morning, typing away while Mr. Karen is in the shower, which means I’d better get on with it because this is not a weekend I can just stay in my bathrobe all day if I want to.
Since yesterday was our visitors’ last day in Michigan, a big outing was scheduled. Originally, it was to be lunch, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, then dinner, but because of the work schedule at the Dearborn Truck plant, it turned into tour, late lunch, coffee break, dinner, which was too much eating in too short a time, but it had to be done. Seeing the line running is the most impressive and important part of the Rouge Factory Tour, so we had to get our guests there while that was happening. It’s just crazy how big a place it is, how many things are going on at once, and the coordination needed to get all the parts in the right place at the right time to make all those F150 trucks. The lobby has a “ring of honor” with each of the vehicles that have been made on the site since Henry Ford established it.
Lunch was at an Italian place in Detroit, in one of the revitalized pockets of the city. The food was good, but the staff seemed a bit overwhelmed by the size of our group, with some tables getting almost no food while others feasted, though eventually everyone got plenty to eat.
We bussed back to the office for a 45 minute break to socialize in our big common area, then for most of us it was back on the bus to a nearby suburb for drinks and dinner. By the time we were done and back out on the festively lit street (which we accomplished by walking down a service corridor and out through a garage due to where the bus was parked), I was so ready to go home and crawl into bed and not get out for a good long time. I like my coworkers, and I like the folks at our partner firm who came to visit, but a solid work week of meetings, working lunches, more meetings, and after hours events just exhausted me. I can be sociable, sure, but it gets draining. Maybe if I hadn’t still been getting over being sick and had skipped last weekend’s fun events to conserve my energy, I might have fared a bit better, but I didn’t want to miss my personal fun and there wasn’t much to be done about the sick bit besides what I did, which was drink a lot of medicinal tea and take pills and powders besides. At least I didn’t also have to fit in a funeral somehow, as Dale’s memorial will be sometime in January to allow more relatives and friends from his decades in the ministry to participate.
On December 12, 2013: No entry
2012: Tree of Life Quilt
2011: Expensive Urine
2010: Cocooning
2009: Technological Difficulties
2008: Shoulda Been a Banker
2007: WDW 3: Back in Epcot
2006: Caught in the Act
2005: Winter Count—April
2002 through 2004: No entries
