Last week I got an e-mail from a flooring rep inviting the interior designers at our office to an event to promote a carpet line his company represents. I sent it out to the team and no one replied. I then got a reminder from the rep about the party asking if anyone was attending.
I always feel bad for reps when no one is interested in their party. They put a lot of effort into these things and sometimes their timing is just off and they don't get a good turn out. I could sense that this might be happening to this particular rep and he seems like a nice guy.
I asked around the designers at work again and finally my coworker "T" and I decided we would go.
Leading up to the event today we were sort of regretting we RSVP'd because work has been so busy. I even got an e-mail from the rep today correcting the address which was wrong on the invites (red light).
My co-worker "T" also pointed out a typo she had noticed in the invitation (red light).
But we were going and after a client meeting this afternoon our boss dropped us off at the front door of the event and we decided we had nothing to lose.
And now I need to break into a list:
TOP TEN SIGNS I MIGHT HAVE BEEN AT A HOUSE PARTY AND NOT A WORK EVENT*:
1. When we arrived, the building was clearly an apartment building. There was a note from the host saying that the buzzer was broken and to call his cell to get in (red light). Fortunately a cute guy on a bike let us in before we completed the call (green light).
Pause: Now I'm not snobby about where events are held, but just to give you some context, these events are usually in an event space rented out at a hotel, a restaurant, a showroom, art galleries. You get the idea, so an apartment building was really unusual.
2. When we arrived at the suite it was clearly a studio apartment (decked out like a carpet showroom).
3. The rep/host is a cute young guy wearing jeans, a t-shirt and nice red sneakers.
3. The rep/host was also the bartender! He offered us some champagne, but was also mixing drinks and had cut up his own limes in the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. It was next to the bathroom.
4. The host told us he slept there last night (he doesn't live there) because he was setting up until 2am (for real). We looked around and there was no bed though, just a lot of carpet. It creeped my coworker out when we were sitting on the couch and the host told us it was also a fold-down sofa. Now we know where he slept!
5. At one point we were standing at a bar height table and the the top of the table almost slid off the legs supporting it. The host was quick to stop it and said "Haven't quite finished putting this together yet. It's from Ikea!"
6. At another point I look up and saw the host getting ice out of the freezer for a drink he was making someone.....in the kitchen.
7. The food spread was cute, but totally done by a guy. Nice big blocks of cheese, crackers and meat - but the knife to cut the cheese was HUGE. Like huge. Like my coworker was afraid to pass it to me as she might accidently cut off my hand.
8. This is unrelated to the topic but at one point some girl introduced herself to me and her name started with an "R" and her company name was a distorted version of the company I work for. It was very alternate universe. She was with her younger blond coworker. I was with my younger blond coworker. Neither one of the blondies knew who River Phoenix was. This is all critical information.
9. Anyways there was also music playing on a really nice Mac from the host's itunes collection.
10. The whole time we were there the host's cellphone was ringing and he kept buzzing people in. Again, the flavor was house party.
Although my coworker and I were laughing at how odd the whole thing was, I can't help but say "awhh" at the host's efforts. He probably has a little place in my heart now. We also remarked that we are lucky to be invited to such unusual events all the time. There was the event with the
ballerinas,
the tile fashion show, and the one were we just got
drunk. Yes we are lucky.
*Keep in mind, it's Tuesday.
**On another unrelated note, we probably saw about 20 dogs today. One was small, white and fluffy! Soooo cute.