Holiday Party 2018

It’s that time of the year, when companies have a get together to celebrate the holidays with their co workers, spouses and SOs. This was my second ‘Holiday’ Party as an employee of Cherwell, the first was 2017 immediately after we moved here from Arizona. The event was held at the same hotel as last year, the Antlers in downtown Colorado Springs. The Antlers used to be the Adams Mark back in the day, one of the nicest hotels in the area back in the 80s.

This year we had a little preparty at my house with a few of the team and their spouses. It was nice to get to talk about things other than work with some of my outstanding team members. We shared a little of the Lost Spirits rum that Lorie and I picked up while on our Hello Kitty trip to LA. The 61% rum was a big hit for everyone who enjoys rum.  I should have purchased two bottles while we were there as it is very hard to find outside of California. We will get back there soon and I will get a few bottles of that and their whiskey.

Instead of driving to the venue, we asked Russ and his wife for a lift, planning on taking an UBER back (I still had my AMEX Platinum credits to use in December). We all arrived fashionably late, but in time for a few drinks from the cash bar before dinner. Dinner was a nice buffet with lots of veggie options which I appreciated and enjoyed. The band was the same one as last year and they were again very, very good and the crowd enjoyed the entertainment.

Most of the team sat together but spent lots of time milling around and speaking to those that they wanted to interact with. I had a list of folks I wanted to speak to and barring those that had to cancel last minute, I got to spend time with all those that I felt were important to my place in the company, including the new CEO.

Lorie and I had lots of fun and we stayed all the way till the lights went up. Not everyone did though as it seemed like about half the crowd left right after dinner. Not sure why you would only sty for dinner and leave, but they must have their reasons.

Looking forward to another prosperous year with the company.

3 Days Up North

I’m sitting in the Calgary airport after a 2 internal day company meeting and 1 day client visit, trying to get back to my postings. I know it is not realistic to post every day, but I miss the outlet even after a few days of not writing (I loosely call it that, I know). I don’t know if it is weird to feel that way after less than two weeks of posts or if it is an indication that the blog is good for me and I should miss it if I don’t do a regular push.

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing the colleagues from our Canadian offices that I don’t get to interact with very often and I came away with a good feeling about the direction the company is following. We have picked up a new Service Desk software product called Cherwell Software and we are dedicating more resources than in the past in order to make the practice successful. There were many good ideas thrown around and I hope some of them make it off paper and into production very soon as we will be in a very good position to grow once the economy picks up again.

The only bummer of the trip was that the Olympic torch came right by our offices at 4 PM on Monday and we were not able to step out to see it. Sad that we miss these opportunities but we were so wrapped up in discussions that everyone lost track of time. Maybe I will get to see the Chicago torch relay… no wait… that one is not going to happen.

Still waiting for the flight as it is delayed 30 minutes, which seems to be the norm. The plane is coming from San Francisco which had some weather delays so there is not much we can do but wait…and catch up on my posts.