Ruth’s Christmas

It might seem odd to be looking ahead toward Christmas on the day of Halloween, but what can I say: not only is that just kind of the way it goes in the weird and wonderful world of government office life, but this morning when I arrived at the train station it was only 30-something degrees outside, so winter does not seem like all that foreign a concept. Not to mention Halloween gets pretty short shrift around here (the federal/DoD wing of The Big Gray, that is) with no one dressing up in costume or making much of an acknowledgement of the date at all, not even a wacky jack-o-lantern tie or unironic black cat appliquéd sweater or anything. (Personally, I did wear my Superman tie today as a very indirect Halloween nod, rendered even harder to read by the fact that I’m wearing a fleece over my shirt and tie, because see above about how it’s close to freezing around here.)

Anyway, yes, as of our staff meeting last week there was already significant time given over to discussing things such as departmental coverage for the holidays (and since those encompass Thanksgiving and that was only four weeks away at the time, I can understand that) and where exactly our office holiday party would be held this year, since we’ve moved and our new building does not have the cool top-floor conference room which was the previous default site. But as I’ve mentioned previously, one thing Crystal City has going for it is a superabundance of restaurants (and event-ready hotels, at that) so the off-site holiday party is not that much of a hardship. And in fact, since one of the possibilities mentioned was Ruth’s Chris Steak House, this year may end up being one of my favorite work-mandatory seasonal celebrations of all time. Of course if they end up going a different way and that was just a tease, I will be bitter.