Saturday,
December 10, 2016 – Redondo Beach, CA & California Science Center
Okay, I
realize now that the title of this blog may be a little misleading. This is not the official, big time,
super-duper boozy, all the cool kids are at this party, pre-party. It’s the, our plans changed the day before
the party and everyone was being super indecisive so Rob offered to host and
now there are people at his house, pre-party.
But who are we kidding, I love hosting people anyhow so everything was
all good.
So a
little about this event and why it’s a big deal. First of all, I come from big aerospace where
we don’t even get money from the company to have a Christmas party. Instead, the managers have to finagle all the
anniversary milestone party monies to pay for the holiday party. And the holiday party is not at all a party as is it just an extended lunch where they tell you that you shouldn’t go back
to work if you drink. Basically, the
party is a giant wet noodle. (Why is
that a nickname for someone that is lame?
It makes no sense…) On the other hand, I started hearing stories about
the VG holiday party in AUGUST!
Apparently drinking and dancing are highly encouraged! That’s my kind of party. Better yet, since we are a bunch of space
nerds, the party is being held at the California Science Center! Not only are all the exhibits open to us, not
only can we go up to the aquarium and the petting pools, not only is there a
tons of free food, not only is it open bar, but we ALSO get to dance and party
UNDER THE SPACE SHUTTLE!!!!! HOLY
FUCKING SHIT BATMAN. I think I just
pooped my pants. I get excited about a
lot of things, I know, but this is special.
Like, I wear a giant bicycle helmet everywhere I go, special. Okay, I’ll stop now.
So the
dress code is, collared shirts and ties are fine, but tuxedos are more than
welcome. And there totally was tuxedos
that night! I heard this party dubbed as
‘Space Prom’ more than once. So when
people get gussied up, I get the camera out!
I do a liquor run and make a pot of clam chowder to make sure people
have some sort of food in their stomach before partaking, and I’m all set! Fortunately, Miles was ready to entertain
also.
Let’s do
some introductions shall we?
You guys
already know Jason and Alexis, their level of dapperness is pushing 11
tonight. Austin is Miles’ first victim
of force friending. He sat on Austin’s
lap for quite some time before working the rest of the room. Austin is my lead at VG, he’s from Ohio, runs
bunch of ridiculous races, is an equally accomplished climber, and knows way
too much about our company than any single person should. That being said… Austin’s the best, Yeay for
Austin! Who says flattery on a blog that
three people read doesn’t work? That
person would be weird, because that an awfully specific thing to be negative
about.
Next up
is Anna. Believe it or not, she’s
prettier in person, no joke. Miles seems
to approve also, as shown in his ever popular puppy dance. Anna works for Bisco as our supplier and has
graciously agreed to be my date for the party, lucky me. She’s got one serious work ethic as she does
her full time job during the day, then comes into her mom's Farmers insurance
office in the evening to beat people over the head for not paying their
bills. I’m sure she’s very sweet about
it though. PAY YOUR BILLS! Blink, blink…
sparkle, sparkle.
Last and
certainly not least, is Whitney and Clayton.
I’m not sure if I’ve introduced them before, and I don’t have internet
right now in this tiny 4 gate airport in Peru, so you can watch me try not to
contradict myself if I’ve already told you stories about them. I used to sit across from Whitney at VG when
I first started, now I sit far enough away that she can pretend like she
doesn’t hear me making lame jokes at her during the day. She’s half pinoy and half white (which
apparently isn’t a taboo term whatsoever), and can go on some of the best
tangents I’ve ever heard. She hails from
wet and cold Portland, Oregon and fits the bill with all her hiking, climbing,
and camping goodness. Whitney, Russell
and I just finished a welding class at Long Beach Community College (we passed!
No kidding, we were worried that we wouldn’t)
Clayton is her boyfriend who also is from Portland, though they met in
LA when they were both interning at SpaceX.
Clayton still hasn’t seen the light and is currently in a new role at
SpaceX, leave the dark side Clayton, you can do it, there are 8 movies all
about it, soon to be 9. Clayton and
Whitney are both into scuba diving, but Clayton is a bit crazy about it. He’s told me sereval stories where he’s worked
or been out till 2 am or so, have gotten up for a 5 am dive then gone into work
right after that. That sounds… like not
fun… but also like something I would do.
Okay,
here are a few shots of the rest of pre-party.
Surprisingly there’s only one of anyone drinking. Seems like a pretty lame pre-party, but I
swear it wasn’t. The night flowed well,
everyone got a bit tipsy to start the party, then continued it with Nick and my
somewhat personal driver who took us downtown.
These
next set of photos are totally not mine, they are the photographer’s at the
party but I had to show some of the venue.
Realize that this guy gets paid okay, so don’t compare his to mine! I really wanted to bring my camera to take
pictures, but that was seriously going to dampen my dancing, and well, we can’t
have any of that now can we.
I don't know this guy or anything, its just a cool shot. Also, he was a halfway decent DJ. Good job Bernie!
I reaaaaally wanted a picture of me like this. Jealous!
Look, its Garcia and Ed!
George Whitesides, our CEO.
So that's George giving the holiday speech under the shuttle. Directly in front of him is the dance floor. Yep, that's where it all went down.
The Space Shuttle Rocket engine, just for show... and space travel...
Woowoo!!! Party Party!! It was a really fun night that I wished has lasted twice as long. Definitely have to make it back out to DTLA for more dancing before January is over. Who’s with me!?
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