I, in fact, have NOT fallen off the planet.  From my recent blog absence (thirty lashes), I can only gather that my tens of readers who know me well understand that I’ve been emotionally, creatively, and inspirationally drained completely DRY as of the last several months.  But there’s hope.  Wee bits of inspiration happen in the oddest of places.  And the oddest place that I could have possibly thought of was at my job.

I love my job.  I really do.  But this economy is squeezing our company to death . . . and taking my spirit with it.  BUT!  And there IS a BUT!  BUT, MY department still has spirit.  I love my department.  They are a great group of people who work very hard and never complain about too much work.  (This is the group that survived the huge layoff just several weeks ago)  In fact, they only complain when we don’t have enough work.  These are people who are trying to feed their families and not opposed to working for it.  I adore them all.

Today only proves how extra special they are!  For the last several days, this group of people had planned and plotted right under my very nose (shows how much I pay attention) and they managed to throw me a “surprise” birthday party.  It was a surprise because my birthday is three weeks from now.  But with scheduling holidays and cramming unused vacation days in before the end of the year and getting my part-timers here all at the same time, this was the only day when MOST of us would be there together.  So when G, the lady that’s worked for me for six years, buzzes me and asks me ever so exhaustedly to “Come in here, please! I need to see you!”, I stood up muttering as I passed DeWitte’s office, “A clue would be nice.  What am I walking into?”  I seriously thought that I was about to be hit by a bus.  (You never know.  I’m just sayin’.)

And there it was!  SURPRISE!! A surprise party for ME!  And behind me came MY boss (DeWitte), who knew about it all the whole time, along with my daughter-in-law (who works there too).  They knew about it all along!  Even my son knew about it, and nobody said a word!  Sneaky sneakies.

It was a very nice (embarrassing) surprise!  Tons of delicious food!  And a birthday cake (G makes an awesome lemon pound cake!  She knows how much I love it!)  And a birthday card with an Overstock.com gift card.  It was a great intermission to an IMPOSSIBLE Monday, a much welcomed break.  Thank you ALL!!!

. . . but I have to say. . . if I had known, I would’ve worn some more. . . “flexible” clothing, because my pants cut me in half the rest of the day.  I ate waaaaayyy to much!  Awesome surprise!