Thursday afternoon is our departmental holiday lunch. Reservations have been made at some restaurant that I am not very interested in (one of the menu items is "fried okra" for cripes sake) and I am not feeling particularly festive nor social. Especially in light of the fact that we won't be receiving raises for the third year in a row. And also there are some politics around here lately that make me uncomfortable and not really up for all the phoney chit chat. It exhausts me just thinking about it all, to be honest. I'm thinking of skipping it. On the plus side, there would be unlimited beer/wine for a couple of hours. sigh, what to do, what to do...