Another reason to SLACK...

So, I'm what you might call a procrastinator. I'm a writer! It's what we do. Of course, then, it would make sense that I was writing right up to the deadline for my most recent article, with only about a half hour of time to prepare for our 2010 editorial meeting. And actually, I have my slow computer to thank for that half hour; because it took my computer forever to start up this morning, I had time to go through my ideas folder and jot down a list of my article ideas. Que suerte!

Our meeting -- Jen Hoydicz, Anthony and me -- was scheduled for 11:30, which gave us only a half hour until lunch. I figured we'd run over, unless someone needed that conference room. We had some good conversation about other ideas we have for the pub, and with only a few minutes left to spare, I started running down my list of story ideas. Jen didn't seem very interested, but I was excited and I just kept going. Then there was a knock on the door and someone from another department asked us to leave the room.

Which was weird. She didn't say, "Hey, we're scheduled for the room at this time." She said, "Can you guys come out into the hallway for a minute?" Which was weird. But I didn't really think anything of it.

Then our little pub group yelled "Surprise!" from the bigger conference room across the hall. I was shocked.

First of all, everybody (Jen and Caitlin) knows that I don't like surprises. They also know that I specifically requested (to my mother-in-law) that my shower not be a surprise. So I figured they would do the same for my work shower. In fact, I actually had started wondering why they weren't planning my shower yet, seeing as how I only have about a month left. But apparently, they had been planning.

The conference room was decorated with all this great baby stuff, and as soon as we walked in and sat down, Robin started with the baby games. I just sat there smiling -- I seriously was shocked, and I'm never surprised. They did a great job. The pizza was delicious, of course (thank you, Joe's Pizza) and they got me AN ICE CREAM CAKE(!), because they know how much I love it. They also brought entirely too many gifts, and they all wrote up their advice for me, and Bill and Baby. It was a wonderful surprise, and I was so happy.

A big thank you goes to Jen, Cait, Robin, Tom, Anthony, Sarah, Peggy, Carey, Joe, Kristine and Kristin.