Weddings, Parties, Anything...
Holy crap. Life has been /entirely/ too crowded and cramped of late, so I need me a week or three off to recover. Don't think it's going to happen, though... but anyways, it's time to bring you 'orrible lot up to speed on life, the universe, and the State of the Dilph.
Last real update was a while back, so let's see what I can remember...
Well, the bike crashes have already been extensively covered - I've shed the last of my scabs from the most recent effort, and it looks like my hand will be fine, but I'll end up with a nice ridged scar under my chin; ah well. Conversation point :) I just wanna know if my beard will grow back white for that patch... would be interesting. Three crashes and ~900clicks in five months. Not too bad, by my usual accident-rates; not bad at all.
Anyways, on to actual news. The Melbourne droogs have been all kinds of wonderful, and I've been poking about with Silverblue, Brandtotter, Shadow_5tails et al quite a bit; random clubbing nights, and snorkeling, and movies, and chainsawing of recalcitrant foliage; good times. We've also gotten a gaming crew together with alchemon and Asgawe; my life is complete. I get to roll d20s in anger once more.
It's the rebooting of an existing campaign - http://www.aspendale.pangaean.net/ - and I've stepped in as a female halfling 11/11 bard/rogue. First time playing either class, so a little of a learning curve, but working out nicely; the previous player had her as a self-centered, semi-psychopathic BDSM wench with poor impulse control and no morals; so I get to play a much squishier Smash, but with spells and sneak attack bonuses. I've already gotten my first "Holy fuck, what weapon are you using??", so I can safely say I've migrated my existing skills across - Improved Invisibility and spiked chain for the win! It's a weekly game, and I'm enjoying every moment of it - even though I've only gotten to make about three attacks in two months. Maybe I've actually become a roleplayer, rather than a munchkin - a long step from the monty-haul Fenelon campaigns of my youth.
Work-wise, things have been very interesting indeed. I'm still with Suncorp/AMP, doing the same role (well, on paper), but with staff moves and such, I've ended up the most senior member of our team. At one point (about a month ago) things had progressed to the point where I was pulling effectively two full-time roles worth of extra duties, as I was the only person trained, capable, and trusted to get the stuff done. Lot of stress, but a lot of satisfaction as well when you pull it off. Good times. I've since trained up multiple redundant replacements for me, to prevent the skills bottleneck that caused it in the first place, and gain some credit as a trainer; my stock at work is high enough that for the last 'extra credit' role that popped up (co-ordinator for all our internal on-phone training) they didn't even bother announcing the role was available, they just offered it to me. Flattering, no? And then come bonus time, after being repeatedly told that the bonus pool was half the size of the previous bonus cycle, and we could expect half of our preceding bonuses at best... I actually got a /higher/ bonus than last quarter. Seems my hard work is paying off...
Anyways, last Monday I had an interview for an /actual/ promotion. Same one I went for and crashed and burnt so badly at last november. Traineeship for a 'floorwalker' role in my department. Given we lose a floorwalker next week, and the only current possible replacement isn't trained in the skillset of the departing guy, the odds are quite high that whoever gets this traineeship will be immediately seconded to the actual role, complete with payrise etc. And on paper, at least, I'm the ideal candidate. Suited up properly for the event in Anton's finest - I learnt from the t-shirt debacle last time - and prepped for the interview properly. Not the best showing I've ever had - I doubt I hit a home run - but I've hit the ball into the outfield, and now I've just gotta see if it gets caught, or if I can make it to first base. If I can do that, the networks I've built will do the rest; I'll find out how I went on Monday. Well, later today, when I go to work :)
Socially, life has been... exhausting, to say the least. Between gym twice a week, gaming once a week, and the overtime I've been pulling, I've barely had the time to scratch myself - but all the same, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of nights with the work crew, see a few performances by a workmate's band (Aurora - http://www.myspace.com/aurorasound - fucking magnificent) catch Helmet's aussie tour, and sundry other moments of awesome. Life has been very good to me of late.
The big deal entry though, was Zezom and raphstar's wedding. Zezom - aka Ryan or Hairy - was foolish enough to make me one of his groomsmen, along with his brother Jay and Antheawuff, a name that should be familiar to my long-term fans. When he asked me if I'd do it, the exact words were - "So, do you wanna come see me get married? I'd offer you best man, but Anthea didn't abandon me, and she's got tits." Slightly more subtle than the invite he gave her - "Do you wanna be the stripper at my wedding?" "WHAT? NO!" "Oh, would you like to organise the strippers instead?" What can I say, Hairy is a strange man. Anyways, last weekend we had the bucks bash, so I flew up after work friday, and spent Saturday at Wet'n'Wild (Waterslides are win!) with the usual suspects, followed by an evening at my personal chapel, The Church of the Hog, where the High Priestess Sharni anointed us with the Steaks and the Jager - BRUTAL! - for several hours. We've been hitting the Hog for going on eight years now, and it never fails to be an awesome evening; this was better than most. ~10-15 or so folks at the table, and we ended up with a $900 tab; given steaks run at $30/ea or thereabouts... hell, I dropped $350 for me, Hairy, drinks and the tip. Money well spent, though - that extra-large bonus came in very handy :)
From there it was off to the traditional bucks-night adult entertainment venue, even though we had to carry our sad excuse for a buck - he was barely conscious (after maybe eight shots) and had only finished half his steak - sacrilege, I know - but was at least bedecked with the ball and chain, and the tankard chained to his wrist, and sundry other marks of humiliation; after sitting him in a corner for a while, he revived enough to start paying attention to the venue, and I spent the next few hours feeding him tip-money. Eventually, a lass caught his eye, and so we gave him a couple of hundred bucks and sent him off for his lap dance. He came back smiling, so it musta gone at least reasonably well; so I counted the night a success. First time I'd been in an adult club, I must say, with the exception of fetish nights at the Dungeon, which were all about the beatings rather than the nudity. Can't say as how it really held much appeal; I dare say I won't be back in another until my next bucks' evening.
Anyways, the crew dispersed here, and I left our buck in the capable hands of the best (wo)man and split to my brother's place - by happy co-incidence, Mother's Day was the sunday, and I just so happened to be within a couple of hours drive of her. And she had no idea I was even in the state. So I linked with my brother, and we dropped by to visit... Surprise! Went rather well, and after lunch and assorted catchups, I flew back home late sunday evening, and fronted to work on the monday for the previously mentioned job interview, massively sleep deprived and some thousand-odd dollars poorer. Did I mention I'd been busy lately? Well and truly worth it for Hairy though; he is my original Droog, and for my droogs, there is no price I will not pay. I believe it was Shadow_5tails who recently described me as possessing a "sense of duty 78 miles high"; I found that rather fitting, and flattering to boot.
This week was a nice short one - yeah, right - I took the friday off work, and left early on thursday, to fly up and get things sorted for the wedding. Landed at about 8pm; was at the reception hall around 10-ish. I ended up leaving the hall about 6pm on friday. Let's just say there probably wasn't a single chair, table, decoration, or other task that I hadn't been involved in somehow - those of you who've seen me in full-fledged adrenaline bull mode know more or less what to expect. Shit Got Done, first by the groomsmen's party (Me, Anthea, Hairy and Sylvester (Anthea's husband), then by the bridal party (Lee (aka raphstar), Kelli and Tara (the awesome droog from the engagement, and my opposite number in the bridal party)), and then by various family members as they trickled in. Work was done, fun was had, and in the end, thanks to the prep work and organisation of the bridal party and the rest of the local crew, and a lot of sweat, our little work detail managed to make the place look fucking awesome. One of the better days work I've put in, I must say.
From there it was dinner and pool at the local pub, then off to my folks place for sleep and shower; I think I ended up getting four or five hours in between working on the best man's speech (Anthea is not a public speaker; I, however, am an attention-seeking little monkey with a knack for storytelling. Hence, Delegation!). Then it was up again, and off to the main event!
We suited up and hit the wedding venue, the Cooroy Botanical Gardens - an amphitheatre facing a river, with spectacular views. Did our setup there, and then sat around and sweated while we waited for the bride and the celebrant to arrive. While we were waiting around, I got a surprise SMS from my ex, wishing Hairy and Lee the best; I'm somewhat surprised she knew the date (afaik the date wasn't set when we split) and non-plussed at the random contact, but passed it on to both bride and groom. Weird, but nice to see she's willing to see over our differences to wish them well; first time I've heard from her in several months. I buried the hatchet and tried to make peace/re-establish contact back in January, but got shot down; so I'd considered it a wasted effort. Who knows? Maybe she's ready to do the same now, and we may yet end up as friends.
Did I mention the groomsmens' suits were heavy black linen, with a black shirt and vest, and a knee-length black jacket? And that it was pushing up into the mid-30s, there was absolutely no cloud and wind, the ceremony was at 1pm, and that the amphitheatre was all concrete? My poor southern-adapted body didn't like this much, to say the least. Lots of sweat. Followed by more sweat.
The droogs all showed, and I got to say hi to most of em before the bride came through; (Quote - "The suit looks good on you, but where's the earpiece, and who are you bodyguarding?") When the bride arrived, she looked absolutely stunning, as one should well expect. The ceremony was a bit of a blur, but emotional enough I was hoping that any escaping tears would be taken as sweat; given my position on the dais was facing directly into the sun, a very reasonable excuse :) However, about three-quarters of the way through the ceremony, my body decided enough was enough, and it was going home. All that sun, and the black, and the glare, and so forth, conspired to give me first the headache, then the dizziness, and then the heatstroke fainting. Fortunately, I was able to alert Jay (the groomsman beside me) that I was likely to go down, so he was able to support me when I finally failed the con check and my vision blacked out. Embarrassing, to say the least; fortunately, I was nabbed and escorted to the first ring of the amphitheatre and fed a bottle of water - which brought me back to life enough that I could step back into place with minimal delay - maybe a couple of minutes, all told, and the celebrant didn't have to disrupt proceedings. This directly lead to one of the more quotable moments of the ceremony - once the vows had been exchanged, and we left the dais to sign the registry, Tara (aforementioned droog and bridesmaid) asked "Are you ok? Do you want me to take your clothes off?"... to which I replied "No, I'll be ok." Proof positive, given our constant barrage of evil-minded flirtation, that I wasn't yet right in the head - or so I was reminded many times over the remainder of the afternoon and evening :)
From there, it was photos. Many, many photos. Oh god, the photos. I think we were there for close on four hours for the photos, in the end; I will post links if they pop up, but there should be some nice stuff in there. Then, the reception! The food! The wine! The music and the dancing! I was still very much in my 'work' mindset, so I spent most of the early stages of the evening orbiting the hall as maitre'd, troubleshooter, and general entertainment - focused enough that I didn't actually end up finishing my slab of meat. Yes, I was that intent on Making Shit Run Smooth. Solved a few minor issues before they became major ones, and sent a minion off to solve our major issue of the night - a hell of a lot of corked wine, but no corkscrew! Not to mention the fact I had no Jagermeister, so two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, the local barman didn't even know what my holy nectar /was/, but my minion (master_haakon) was able to sweet-talk him into lending a corkscrew, as he had none for sale. Speaking of which, I have no idea if that ended up being returned. Ah well. Food was damn fine, what I ended up having of it, and the soup was so good Anthea decided to wear it - a whole bowl down her lap. For those keeping score at home, so far there's two disasters, and three groomsmen... we were all rather paranoid as to what Jay's eventual disaster would wind up being, but the bastard got off scot free, in the end.
We had a live band do a set for us - classic pub-rock covers, mostly - after the main meal, and then it was speech time. Our MC was an uncle, who seemed nice enough but a little uncertain; no stage presence. The bride's brother spoke on behalf of her (deceased) father, and Ryan's folks said a few words in thanks to the folks involved, and best wishes to the happy couple; then it was best-manning time, and Anthea gave a short handover speech to me, and I realised my notes were still in the boot of her car. 130 odd people, of whom I knew /maybe/ 30 all told. Somewhat nervewracking even for this little black duck. Ah well... my best performances have always been under high pressure and by the seat of my pants, and this was no exception. I sincerely hope /someone/ there got a recording, and I end up with a copy; given it was good enough that every random encounter from there on was 'Awesome speech!' rather than 'do you feel ok?', I'm pretty confident it left an impression. Then it was dessert, and dancing, and another set by the band (Which finished up with a conga line to a cover of System of a Down's Chop Suey, of all things!) and more mingling, and dancing, and general party chaos. A fucking good night; ended up being a sober night due to my lack of appreciation for wine, the lack of Jaeger, and my general too-busy-to-stop mentality, but awesome all the same. Wrapped up around midnight, after such bizarre things as a dance-off to Cyndi Lauper, and a /very/ spirited rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, before we sent the newlyweds off to catch their redeye honeymoon flight to New Zealand, and we started the hall packdown. Crashed on site, finished most of the packdown in the morning, and scabbed a lift back to the folks' place, to spend a nice lazy day catching up. Good times. Flew back to melbourne about 8pm, got home 11ish, caught up on LJ and etc, and wrote this. Damn, I need a holiday to recover from my weekend...
So today I should find out if I got promoted, and we'll see where that goes. I refuse to apply for the same job a fourth time, so if this is the third strike, I'm out; the resume will be updated, and I'll find something else, internal or external, where I /won't/ run into that same brick wall. But we'll deal with that as it comes...
Last real update was a while back, so let's see what I can remember...
Well, the bike crashes have already been extensively covered - I've shed the last of my scabs from the most recent effort, and it looks like my hand will be fine, but I'll end up with a nice ridged scar under my chin; ah well. Conversation point :) I just wanna know if my beard will grow back white for that patch... would be interesting. Three crashes and ~900clicks in five months. Not too bad, by my usual accident-rates; not bad at all.
Anyways, on to actual news. The Melbourne droogs have been all kinds of wonderful, and I've been poking about with Silverblue, Brandtotter, Shadow_5tails et al quite a bit; random clubbing nights, and snorkeling, and movies, and chainsawing of recalcitrant foliage; good times. We've also gotten a gaming crew together with alchemon and Asgawe; my life is complete. I get to roll d20s in anger once more.
It's the rebooting of an existing campaign - http://www.aspendale.pangaean.net/ - and I've stepped in as a female halfling 11/11 bard/rogue. First time playing either class, so a little of a learning curve, but working out nicely; the previous player had her as a self-centered, semi-psychopathic BDSM wench with poor impulse control and no morals; so I get to play a much squishier Smash, but with spells and sneak attack bonuses. I've already gotten my first "Holy fuck, what weapon are you using??", so I can safely say I've migrated my existing skills across - Improved Invisibility and spiked chain for the win! It's a weekly game, and I'm enjoying every moment of it - even though I've only gotten to make about three attacks in two months. Maybe I've actually become a roleplayer, rather than a munchkin - a long step from the monty-haul Fenelon campaigns of my youth.
Work-wise, things have been very interesting indeed. I'm still with Suncorp/AMP, doing the same role (well, on paper), but with staff moves and such, I've ended up the most senior member of our team. At one point (about a month ago) things had progressed to the point where I was pulling effectively two full-time roles worth of extra duties, as I was the only person trained, capable, and trusted to get the stuff done. Lot of stress, but a lot of satisfaction as well when you pull it off. Good times. I've since trained up multiple redundant replacements for me, to prevent the skills bottleneck that caused it in the first place, and gain some credit as a trainer; my stock at work is high enough that for the last 'extra credit' role that popped up (co-ordinator for all our internal on-phone training) they didn't even bother announcing the role was available, they just offered it to me. Flattering, no? And then come bonus time, after being repeatedly told that the bonus pool was half the size of the previous bonus cycle, and we could expect half of our preceding bonuses at best... I actually got a /higher/ bonus than last quarter. Seems my hard work is paying off...
Anyways, last Monday I had an interview for an /actual/ promotion. Same one I went for and crashed and burnt so badly at last november. Traineeship for a 'floorwalker' role in my department. Given we lose a floorwalker next week, and the only current possible replacement isn't trained in the skillset of the departing guy, the odds are quite high that whoever gets this traineeship will be immediately seconded to the actual role, complete with payrise etc. And on paper, at least, I'm the ideal candidate. Suited up properly for the event in Anton's finest - I learnt from the t-shirt debacle last time - and prepped for the interview properly. Not the best showing I've ever had - I doubt I hit a home run - but I've hit the ball into the outfield, and now I've just gotta see if it gets caught, or if I can make it to first base. If I can do that, the networks I've built will do the rest; I'll find out how I went on Monday. Well, later today, when I go to work :)
Socially, life has been... exhausting, to say the least. Between gym twice a week, gaming once a week, and the overtime I've been pulling, I've barely had the time to scratch myself - but all the same, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of nights with the work crew, see a few performances by a workmate's band (Aurora - http://www.myspace.com/aurorasound - fucking magnificent) catch Helmet's aussie tour, and sundry other moments of awesome. Life has been very good to me of late.
The big deal entry though, was Zezom and raphstar's wedding. Zezom - aka Ryan or Hairy - was foolish enough to make me one of his groomsmen, along with his brother Jay and Antheawuff, a name that should be familiar to my long-term fans. When he asked me if I'd do it, the exact words were - "So, do you wanna come see me get married? I'd offer you best man, but Anthea didn't abandon me, and she's got tits." Slightly more subtle than the invite he gave her - "Do you wanna be the stripper at my wedding?" "WHAT? NO!" "Oh, would you like to organise the strippers instead?" What can I say, Hairy is a strange man. Anyways, last weekend we had the bucks bash, so I flew up after work friday, and spent Saturday at Wet'n'Wild (Waterslides are win!) with the usual suspects, followed by an evening at my personal chapel, The Church of the Hog, where the High Priestess Sharni anointed us with the Steaks and the Jager - BRUTAL! - for several hours. We've been hitting the Hog for going on eight years now, and it never fails to be an awesome evening; this was better than most. ~10-15 or so folks at the table, and we ended up with a $900 tab; given steaks run at $30/ea or thereabouts... hell, I dropped $350 for me, Hairy, drinks and the tip. Money well spent, though - that extra-large bonus came in very handy :)
From there it was off to the traditional bucks-night adult entertainment venue, even though we had to carry our sad excuse for a buck - he was barely conscious (after maybe eight shots) and had only finished half his steak - sacrilege, I know - but was at least bedecked with the ball and chain, and the tankard chained to his wrist, and sundry other marks of humiliation; after sitting him in a corner for a while, he revived enough to start paying attention to the venue, and I spent the next few hours feeding him tip-money. Eventually, a lass caught his eye, and so we gave him a couple of hundred bucks and sent him off for his lap dance. He came back smiling, so it musta gone at least reasonably well; so I counted the night a success. First time I'd been in an adult club, I must say, with the exception of fetish nights at the Dungeon, which were all about the beatings rather than the nudity. Can't say as how it really held much appeal; I dare say I won't be back in another until my next bucks' evening.
Anyways, the crew dispersed here, and I left our buck in the capable hands of the best (wo)man and split to my brother's place - by happy co-incidence, Mother's Day was the sunday, and I just so happened to be within a couple of hours drive of her. And she had no idea I was even in the state. So I linked with my brother, and we dropped by to visit... Surprise! Went rather well, and after lunch and assorted catchups, I flew back home late sunday evening, and fronted to work on the monday for the previously mentioned job interview, massively sleep deprived and some thousand-odd dollars poorer. Did I mention I'd been busy lately? Well and truly worth it for Hairy though; he is my original Droog, and for my droogs, there is no price I will not pay. I believe it was Shadow_5tails who recently described me as possessing a "sense of duty 78 miles high"; I found that rather fitting, and flattering to boot.
This week was a nice short one - yeah, right - I took the friday off work, and left early on thursday, to fly up and get things sorted for the wedding. Landed at about 8pm; was at the reception hall around 10-ish. I ended up leaving the hall about 6pm on friday. Let's just say there probably wasn't a single chair, table, decoration, or other task that I hadn't been involved in somehow - those of you who've seen me in full-fledged adrenaline bull mode know more or less what to expect. Shit Got Done, first by the groomsmen's party (Me, Anthea, Hairy and Sylvester (Anthea's husband), then by the bridal party (Lee (aka raphstar), Kelli and Tara (the awesome droog from the engagement, and my opposite number in the bridal party)), and then by various family members as they trickled in. Work was done, fun was had, and in the end, thanks to the prep work and organisation of the bridal party and the rest of the local crew, and a lot of sweat, our little work detail managed to make the place look fucking awesome. One of the better days work I've put in, I must say.
From there it was dinner and pool at the local pub, then off to my folks place for sleep and shower; I think I ended up getting four or five hours in between working on the best man's speech (Anthea is not a public speaker; I, however, am an attention-seeking little monkey with a knack for storytelling. Hence, Delegation!). Then it was up again, and off to the main event!
We suited up and hit the wedding venue, the Cooroy Botanical Gardens - an amphitheatre facing a river, with spectacular views. Did our setup there, and then sat around and sweated while we waited for the bride and the celebrant to arrive. While we were waiting around, I got a surprise SMS from my ex, wishing Hairy and Lee the best; I'm somewhat surprised she knew the date (afaik the date wasn't set when we split) and non-plussed at the random contact, but passed it on to both bride and groom. Weird, but nice to see she's willing to see over our differences to wish them well; first time I've heard from her in several months. I buried the hatchet and tried to make peace/re-establish contact back in January, but got shot down; so I'd considered it a wasted effort. Who knows? Maybe she's ready to do the same now, and we may yet end up as friends.
Did I mention the groomsmens' suits were heavy black linen, with a black shirt and vest, and a knee-length black jacket? And that it was pushing up into the mid-30s, there was absolutely no cloud and wind, the ceremony was at 1pm, and that the amphitheatre was all concrete? My poor southern-adapted body didn't like this much, to say the least. Lots of sweat. Followed by more sweat.
The droogs all showed, and I got to say hi to most of em before the bride came through; (Quote - "The suit looks good on you, but where's the earpiece, and who are you bodyguarding?") When the bride arrived, she looked absolutely stunning, as one should well expect. The ceremony was a bit of a blur, but emotional enough I was hoping that any escaping tears would be taken as sweat; given my position on the dais was facing directly into the sun, a very reasonable excuse :) However, about three-quarters of the way through the ceremony, my body decided enough was enough, and it was going home. All that sun, and the black, and the glare, and so forth, conspired to give me first the headache, then the dizziness, and then the heatstroke fainting. Fortunately, I was able to alert Jay (the groomsman beside me) that I was likely to go down, so he was able to support me when I finally failed the con check and my vision blacked out. Embarrassing, to say the least; fortunately, I was nabbed and escorted to the first ring of the amphitheatre and fed a bottle of water - which brought me back to life enough that I could step back into place with minimal delay - maybe a couple of minutes, all told, and the celebrant didn't have to disrupt proceedings. This directly lead to one of the more quotable moments of the ceremony - once the vows had been exchanged, and we left the dais to sign the registry, Tara (aforementioned droog and bridesmaid) asked "Are you ok? Do you want me to take your clothes off?"... to which I replied "No, I'll be ok." Proof positive, given our constant barrage of evil-minded flirtation, that I wasn't yet right in the head - or so I was reminded many times over the remainder of the afternoon and evening :)
From there, it was photos. Many, many photos. Oh god, the photos. I think we were there for close on four hours for the photos, in the end; I will post links if they pop up, but there should be some nice stuff in there. Then, the reception! The food! The wine! The music and the dancing! I was still very much in my 'work' mindset, so I spent most of the early stages of the evening orbiting the hall as maitre'd, troubleshooter, and general entertainment - focused enough that I didn't actually end up finishing my slab of meat. Yes, I was that intent on Making Shit Run Smooth. Solved a few minor issues before they became major ones, and sent a minion off to solve our major issue of the night - a hell of a lot of corked wine, but no corkscrew! Not to mention the fact I had no Jagermeister, so two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, the local barman didn't even know what my holy nectar /was/, but my minion (master_haakon) was able to sweet-talk him into lending a corkscrew, as he had none for sale. Speaking of which, I have no idea if that ended up being returned. Ah well. Food was damn fine, what I ended up having of it, and the soup was so good Anthea decided to wear it - a whole bowl down her lap. For those keeping score at home, so far there's two disasters, and three groomsmen... we were all rather paranoid as to what Jay's eventual disaster would wind up being, but the bastard got off scot free, in the end.
We had a live band do a set for us - classic pub-rock covers, mostly - after the main meal, and then it was speech time. Our MC was an uncle, who seemed nice enough but a little uncertain; no stage presence. The bride's brother spoke on behalf of her (deceased) father, and Ryan's folks said a few words in thanks to the folks involved, and best wishes to the happy couple; then it was best-manning time, and Anthea gave a short handover speech to me, and I realised my notes were still in the boot of her car. 130 odd people, of whom I knew /maybe/ 30 all told. Somewhat nervewracking even for this little black duck. Ah well... my best performances have always been under high pressure and by the seat of my pants, and this was no exception. I sincerely hope /someone/ there got a recording, and I end up with a copy; given it was good enough that every random encounter from there on was 'Awesome speech!' rather than 'do you feel ok?', I'm pretty confident it left an impression. Then it was dessert, and dancing, and another set by the band (Which finished up with a conga line to a cover of System of a Down's Chop Suey, of all things!) and more mingling, and dancing, and general party chaos. A fucking good night; ended up being a sober night due to my lack of appreciation for wine, the lack of Jaeger, and my general too-busy-to-stop mentality, but awesome all the same. Wrapped up around midnight, after such bizarre things as a dance-off to Cyndi Lauper, and a /very/ spirited rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, before we sent the newlyweds off to catch their redeye honeymoon flight to New Zealand, and we started the hall packdown. Crashed on site, finished most of the packdown in the morning, and scabbed a lift back to the folks' place, to spend a nice lazy day catching up. Good times. Flew back to melbourne about 8pm, got home 11ish, caught up on LJ and etc, and wrote this. Damn, I need a holiday to recover from my weekend...
So today I should find out if I got promoted, and we'll see where that goes. I refuse to apply for the same job a fourth time, so if this is the third strike, I'm out; the resume will be updated, and I'll find something else, internal or external, where I /won't/ run into that same brick wall. But we'll deal with that as it comes...