release.

Somehow there is no Christmas without the Christmas parties. In other parts of the world, I suppose they are holiday parties, but here in the South, we still call it Christmas. That's not because we mean any disrespect to those other cultures we keep hearing about, we just assume that we don't know any of those types of people.

Our office party is held on the last day of work before the extended leave of absence called Christmas vacation. That morning, we all show up at the office and goof off for three hours. Being in our twenties or thirties or forties does not prevent us from acting like children on the last day of school. But we are adults, so no one is there to make sure we do any work. We are our own supervisors, and today we do a lousy job.

The party is at a country club far away from the office. We are told to leave by noon to make it there by 12:30; we leave at 11:55, being sure to shut down all computers and monitors and various truck parts. Once at our destination, we make use of our own seat-claiming strategies. Our party of twenty-five or so must be divied up into tables of four, five, or six, and you don't want to get stuck at a lame table. There are some who go ahead and mark a seat by throwing a jacket across the back. Some try to assess the other jackets and make sure they place their own jackets next to a friend, then hope the best for the rest of the table. Some try to wait and see how things settle out, but these are the people who end up sitting with the boss' wife and maybe that smelly guy who can really only talk about how much he hates his relatives visiting.

And it's not a bad party, no matter where you end up sitting, but the truth is, we'd all rather not be there. It's Christmas, or it will be, as soon as we stop being at any place that could be considered a work function. As soon as they pass out the bonuses, we look inside and count the one bill, then look around like dogs waiting to go outside to play in the snow during their first winter.

And I have been released. I'm going to be playing in the snow until after the the new year. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all those goodbye things.