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Dec. 20th, 2002 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraBunches of things have happened: I saw Two Towers, which is utterly fantastic except for a couple dumb things, my computer spontaneously fixed itself when it saw Letzan coming, and then she figured out what was wrong with it (it's actually, haha, the backup drive that's messed up), we rescued a rogue toddler from the freezing streets of Waltham, my D&D character did *not* get engaged, despite what onlookers may report, and I (praise the Construction Site) finally found a grepping gift for this Secret Santa I decided in a moment of short-sightedness to participate in. Man, that was starting to stress me out. Oh, and I have a couple new ficlet-or-maybe-bad-prose-poem ideas floating around.
Further reports may follow on a couple of these events, or not, since I have a pretty busy weekend going. Currently wanted to post on a weird situation/miscommunication at work just in case anyone had helpful advice:
So my archboss (on whose grant I'm currently paid) came up to me in the lab while I was busily scraping cells and, I *thought*, said that he was giving me a holiday gift object which he was holding, saying something about appreciation for work and stuff. I said thank you and sort of reached for said holiday gift object, which he said he would put on my desk, or perhaps on *the* desk (crucial distinction), given that I was all gloved up at the time. Since said gift object had appeared to be a bottle of wine, I spent some of the remaining forty minutes of cell scraping pondering the ethics of getting wine as a gift (which see below if you're curious). However, the bag was left on someone else's desk (who is not, as far as I know, part of my archboss's lab at all). So, did I misunderstand that he was giving it to me? My boss was right in here and they talked for awhile so I assume he would have had the opportunity to ask which desk was mine. Slight complication in that the someone else has the same first name as me, such that that desk is a correct answer to the question of which desk went with that name...
I think I'm just going to leave it there and see what happens; even if it was intended for me, she'd be a more appreciative recipient (given that I don't drink wine), and I rather suspect that any conversation that might sort out the ownership of it would be nontrivially awkward. And I hadn't quite figured out what I would do - it would obviously be horrid manners to not accept a gift, but I have no use for wine. But if it's the same wine he gave my boss, it's really good wine (according to my boss), and maybe it would be a shame to waste that... so I could serve it to my wine-drinking friends, of whom there are several. But in fact, though I try not to make a big deal about it, it's not just that I don't like wine, I find it icky and smelly, and really don't like the whole "alcohol culture" in which alcohol is a special thing. If they were cigars, would I give them to my smoking friends? No, because while I just try to pretend they're not if they smoke around me, I in fact wish my friends wouldn't smoke, and I feel somewhat the same about drinking. But, smoking is actually *bad* for you, while a glass of wine has been shown to be *good* for you, so maybe abetting wine drinking wouldn't be the same as abetting cigar smoking... maybe it would be more like giving Sofer my pickle, which I did for years before I started liking pickles. But it may be a moot point if the other person takes it.
By the way, for anyone curious, it is apparently "Los Vascos Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon", if that means anything. I have the vague sense it means that my local wine-drinking friends are going to wish I had tried harder to sort out my possible claim to it ::grin::.
Further reports may follow on a couple of these events, or not, since I have a pretty busy weekend going. Currently wanted to post on a weird situation/miscommunication at work just in case anyone had helpful advice:
So my archboss (on whose grant I'm currently paid) came up to me in the lab while I was busily scraping cells and, I *thought*, said that he was giving me a holiday gift object which he was holding, saying something about appreciation for work and stuff. I said thank you and sort of reached for said holiday gift object, which he said he would put on my desk, or perhaps on *the* desk (crucial distinction), given that I was all gloved up at the time. Since said gift object had appeared to be a bottle of wine, I spent some of the remaining forty minutes of cell scraping pondering the ethics of getting wine as a gift (which see below if you're curious). However, the bag was left on someone else's desk (who is not, as far as I know, part of my archboss's lab at all). So, did I misunderstand that he was giving it to me? My boss was right in here and they talked for awhile so I assume he would have had the opportunity to ask which desk was mine. Slight complication in that the someone else has the same first name as me, such that that desk is a correct answer to the question of which desk went with that name...
I think I'm just going to leave it there and see what happens; even if it was intended for me, she'd be a more appreciative recipient (given that I don't drink wine), and I rather suspect that any conversation that might sort out the ownership of it would be nontrivially awkward. And I hadn't quite figured out what I would do - it would obviously be horrid manners to not accept a gift, but I have no use for wine. But if it's the same wine he gave my boss, it's really good wine (according to my boss), and maybe it would be a shame to waste that... so I could serve it to my wine-drinking friends, of whom there are several. But in fact, though I try not to make a big deal about it, it's not just that I don't like wine, I find it icky and smelly, and really don't like the whole "alcohol culture" in which alcohol is a special thing. If they were cigars, would I give them to my smoking friends? No, because while I just try to pretend they're not if they smoke around me, I in fact wish my friends wouldn't smoke, and I feel somewhat the same about drinking. But, smoking is actually *bad* for you, while a glass of wine has been shown to be *good* for you, so maybe abetting wine drinking wouldn't be the same as abetting cigar smoking... maybe it would be more like giving Sofer my pickle, which I did for years before I started liking pickles. But it may be a moot point if the other person takes it.
By the way, for anyone curious, it is apparently "Los Vascos Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon", if that means anything. I have the vague sense it means that my local wine-drinking friends are going to wish I had tried harder to sort out my possible claim to it ::grin::.
