now this is the kind of winter’s day that i love. cold, but brilliantly sunny. it’s beautiful outside.
it is not so beautiful in charlotte. i turned on my cell phone yesterday as i was leaving work and had a message from my parents. not only did they lose power (and thus, heat) in the big east coast ice storm, but my dad’s car is likely totalled after he got hit in the driver’s side door by a couple of mexican guys early yesterday morning. he has a lump on his head because the force of the impact tossed his head into the window and smashed the window.
he’s ok, thank god. i thoroughly berated him for not wearing his seatbelt. he never wears his seatbelt, which really really bothers me. taking defensive driving this past week and seeing video of crash test dummies with and without seatbelts (dummy with seatbelt gets a nice thud but stays put, dummy without seatbelt has his head smash through the windshield and his neck snapped) only made me worry more. i don’t know how i can convince him that it’s worthwhile to wear a seatbelt, even if he finds it a bit uncomfortable.
anyway, after driving around all day in the car because it beat staying home in a cold house, my parents split up for the night. my mom spent last night at a friend’s house, while my dad decided to “be a man” and tough it out in our heatless and lightless house. he told some story about how he was used to it, because when he was a kid there was snow in his bedroom that didn’t melt. he said he’d just sleep under lots of covers, then get up and take a hot shower. fortunately for him we have a gas water heater. sigh. my dad is such a freak show.
i’m so sad that tom glavine is leaving the braves. there is no loyalty in baseball.
last night was the branch christmas party. i think it went well. becca and i were in charge, and i think we had a decent turnout. the gift exchange was humorous as well…especially when ray (our group lead) ended up with a frog downspout cover!
the party also reminded me how much i love my group. my branch (ascent/entry flight dynamics) is organized into 4 groups (ascent analysis, descent analysis, flight dynamics and landing support (fdo), and guidance and procedures (gpo)), and the party last night only proved that mine is by far the most social and the most compatible as a group.
there was no one at the restaurant last night from the gpo group, only 3 ascent analysis people, and 5 from the fdo/lso group. not only we were the only group that had every person there, but we were also the last people to leave. and we all get along so well… it seems like you’re always seeing movies that portray office christmas parties as awkward affairs where you’re forced to socialize with people you don’t really care about (i’m thinking bridget jones’s diary where she’s doing drunk karaoke half-heartedly). that is never the case with our group. we have so much fun, and actually enjoy each other’s company both in and out of the office. it’s cool. it’s a definite advantage to working where i do.
