I Know How To Party Right
Since I didn’t go last year, tonight was the first time I went to a holiday party for MS. Usually when there’s any meeting for Windows it’s just dev, or just PM, etc. but tonight it was everyone + all of Windows Live also. If you can’t tell what I’m getting at, there were a ton of people there. Granted, the space we had was the entire club level at Qwest Field so the size was appropriate (also big enough that you were handed a map when you checked in), but the night primarily consisted of walking around, seeing someone you knew (one out of every hundred or so), stopping to chat with them for a little while, and then repeating the process over and over and over again.
Of course, to make an entrance at a party, you must show up fashionably late. I think I pulled that off well by waiting an hour or so to make my appearance known, and it actually turned out to be approximately the time that the rest of my team independently decided was the appropriate time to show up also. Then, you never want to be hanging around until the very end, so I left about 45 minutes early. Both decisions meant that while I drove (the bus benefit is really diminished when Seattle is under flood warnings because of the amount of rain), I did an excellent job at avoiding any significant traffic. Thanks must also be given to my GPS for helping me navigate the downtown streets and not get lost on either trip which I can all but guarantee would have happened if I was left up to my own navigating skills. I can do Tokyo subways just fine, but downtown Seattle is an entirely different beast.