Mason's Office Holiday Party

Last night was Mason's work holiday party. It was held at The Driskill, an old fancy-ass hotel in downtown Austin. This year we got a room at a special discounted rate, because last year we didn't and we really wished we had.

I told Mason I wanted to check in right when we were allowed to, right at 3:00, to soak up all the fancy-ass holiday hotel that I possibly could. :-) So we checked in at 3:00. There was a faux-fur throw on the bed and all this crazy ornate stuff. The ceiling in the room was at least 20 feet high.
     

The hotel was done up for the holiday.
       

We got dressed up and were ready early and had to kill time in our room waiting for the party to begin. It was a really nice room, so this was not a problem.


When we walked into the party, it had taken over multiple rooms in the Driskill. Keep in mind this hotel dates back to 1886, so they don't have the kind of giant banquet rooms that modern hotels have. The theme of this party was Roaring 20's. In the main room was a live band, the buffet tables, an open bar, and a free photobooth, plus some gambling tables. There were two smaller rooms also containing dining tables, with open bars in each of them as well. There was a side room with two free tarot card readers, and another side room for poker with its own open whisky bar. Scattered throughout all the rooms were tables full of accessories (headbands, pearl necklaces, mustache-on-a-stick, nd feather boas) where I suited up. There were altogether at least 3 open bars, plus servers circulating with trays of wine & champagne, plus appetizers.
          

At 10:00 I hit my wall and bid Mason adieu. He was still killing it at poker.


We slept like drunken, overfed rocks.

The next morning we woke up early and decided to walk to Moonshine, since for once we'd be there early enough not to wait hours for a table. It was good, but a buffet is double-wasted on me since I don't partake of all the yummy baked goods and my stomach is tiny (especially so in the mornings). But they had a "green eggs" which was eggs scrambled with basil pesto, mozarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and parmesan. They should just call that The Jennifer Special. :-)


After that, since we were already downtown, we went to Lavaca Street Bar, which is the home of Houston Texans watching parties in Austin. We just found out about this a couple of weeks ago, after years of Mason looking for a place that is a Houston Texans home bar (Damn You, Cowboys!!!).
 

I got bored and ran my phone down to 1% battery but whatever. Mason was ecstatic to be amongst his people.

All in all, a really fun weekend. And now I'm happy to be hanging with my homies, the kitties.