Today was my work Christmas party, when we were to find out who our Secret Santas were. I hadn't initially been planning to go - I don't work Mondays, and I could have just written a note to Shannon to let her know. But given the cheapskateness of it all, I felt obligated.
Jacob and I got dressed and in by noon, and there was a list on the wall of who-had-whom for Secret Santa, along with the obligatory totally random potluck food and awkward social conversation with people you work with all the time anyway. We ate, we chatted, we schmoozed... and we read the list.
Turns out that the person who had my name is D, an administrative type - not an up-front administrative assistant, she mostly stays in the back office and does filing and the like. Maybe we don't want to expose the public to her, I don't know. She's been with the company for about 400 years, and there are times when I suspect they just constructed the building up around her rather than trying to get her to go somewhere else. She's pleasant enough, but apparently she has a reputation far and wide for skimping out on gifts, contributions toward potlucks, raffles, Save the Children funds, blood drives, etc., etc.
So sometime last week, she was all self-congratulatory in the office, bragging about how she had been so
Fast-forward to today. After the party, at which I was able to smile nicely and say "Thank you" to D, and not kick her in the shins, someone said to me, "Hey, there's something in your mailbox." I went to check it out, and there was a nicely wrapped gift in there, something that is actually perfect for me, with a little note from Lucy saying, "I wasn't in the Secret Santa but when I saw this I thought of you, and I couldn't resist."
I didn't cry. But I did get a little teary.
So, Lucy goes up on my list of Good People. She made my day, and restored a little more of my faith in humanity. I still don't have faith in D, but you can't have everything.
