My shining moment of geekhood

The Webmaster’s company Christmas party was last Friday, at Salty’s on Alki. We got there late (a consequence of everyone bailing out early for the party, and then telling the Webmaster to go ahead and put off that last thing until Monday), but the food. Was. Awesome. Ohhh, it was so good. The food made the initial awkwardness of the party worth it.

You see, the Webmaster is still technically on contract, and therefore not a full employee. But he was explicitly invited to this party, along with whatever guest he wanted to bring (which means me unless he wants to sleep on the couch at night), so off we went. After almost six years at his last company, I knew a lot of people there and the various spouses and children, so it was almost like starting at a new school and trying to decide where to sit in the cafeteria on your first day. Fortunately, the Webmaster has a socially gregarious personality (which is where the Munchkin gets it), and has struck up an easy rapport with his immediate colleagues over these last few months, which eased our transition into the party.

I was introduced to his manager, and several other co-workers, including the gay guy who sits next to the Webmaster at work, and his partner. The partner and I began chatting and he wants a Stampin’ Up catalog from me because he’s been thinking seriously about scrapbooking, and my fudge recipe because he hasn’t found a recipe that has worked for him yet. Obviously, I have little problem talking to gay men. Actually, the whole conversation was very fun and funny.

Then, while we were at the dessert table, the Webmaster was approached by a guy about his age, who identified him by name. This guy’s parents know the Webmaster’s parents, and have lived in the east Lewis County area forever as well (the guy went to White Pass High School, for those of you in the know). He was the date of one of the Webmaster’s co-workers, and they immediately started talking about things only they would know about (things typical to a small community where everyone knows everyone), once again proving that you can take the man out of Lewis County…

And then there was my shining moment, and it happened in the women’s bathroom.

I have no idea if these women were at the same party I was, but one of them mentioned an incident where a bug had been found in someone’s ear. This is what she said:
“And, it was so like that Star Trek episode, The Trouble With Tribbles, which is, like, the only one I’ve ever seen, where the bug crawled out of the guy’s ear and there was all this blood, and it was just so disgusting!”

I nearly exploded out of the bathroom stall. “You mean Star Trek II!”

The girl telling the story looked at me. “What?”

“Star Trek II. It was the movie, not the TV show. That’s when the bugs were in people’s ears and that happened.” I didn’t go into the fact that they were Ceti eels and not bugs – I managed to restrain myself. “Tribbles are small, furry, round critters that eat a lot and purr.”

Her friend regarded me with a singular look of “whatever,” and commented, “Wow, you really know your Star Wars.”

“Trek. Star Trek,” I corrected her, much to the amusement of her friends.

“Star-science-fiction-fantasy-whatever-it-is!” she said, clearly exasperated with the conversation, as this particular herd of women left the bathroom.

I exited the bathroom after washing up, my pride in my geekhood firmly intact.

So, the party was pretty fun, the restaurant excellent, and I have a pretty favorable impression of the company on the whole. Plus they want to hire the Webmaster permanently!! Merry early Christmas to us!!

Perhaps I should brush up on my Battlestar Galactica now, because you never know when that will come in handy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 1:13 am and is filed under General, Husbands, Media.
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