Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have all had a great week, not thinking too much about the fact that we are already halfway through July. Personally I suppose I really do not have too much to report back for this week. Work was a bit hectic but nothing too unique to report back on, overall just ready for the weekend and figuring out how to spend it. We have been doing some great grilling this week between chicken legs and kabobs, I would love to know if anyone has some unique ideas of recipes with the grill. Obviously I know about foods like burgers or hotdogs, looking for some things out of the ordinary. The grill is such a seasonal device that I want to make sure we get as much out of it this year as possible! With that out there, let us get into today’s Breakdown!
Every so often we get some secret happenings where it is deemed necessary to keep Michael out of it, and we had one such instance. A salesman had came to the office and spoke with Pam about arranging a meeting with Michael where he was trying to sell him on moving into their new phone system. This sounds harmless but Pam is aware that their new phones offer aspects like outside callers being able to navigate directly to specific employees and departments. Since this is “basically 95%” of her job, they might start questioning if they still need her. She tries to point out that the phone system wouldn’t put candy out like she does, but people could just go to the vending machine and have money come in to the company. Certainly does feel a little similar to the AI debate going on these days where companies are trying to find roles that can be replaced with computer programs rather than actual people. Pam has been keeping him at bay for awhile, always acting like Michael is busy, but he is formally asking to schedule a meeting to ensure he has something on the books. As Pam is trying to come up with an alternative, Jim catches the whole situation and runs up and introduces himself as Michael Scott. He quickly explains they are not interested and he can take his business elsewhere. That seems to work, until the real Michael comes up asking what is going on. Before the salesman could say anything, Jim just blurts out “heyyy” and a couple thumbs up (like Fonzie from Happy Days). Pam then follows suit until Michael is copying them and then even Dwight jumps in, ultimately scaring away away the salesman and leaving Michael comfortably in the dark. Not sure this qualifies as a Jim prank, but I have to give them major props for orchestrating that.
The big news of the day is that it is Valentines Day and the office park is hosting a blood drive with the blood mobile collecting donations. Valentine’s Day sounds like it should be a happy time for everyone but unfortunately there is a large amount of people single and have been having some dating woes that people are not excited. Pam, for instance, has a planter of flowers from Jim and Michael keeps trying to set it on the floor so he doesn’t have to look at it. I do think it is obnoxious when people trying to throw their sappy romance in your face, but I feel Jim and Pam are actually pretty good most of the time. Just because you are single, doesn’t really mean it is fair of you to try to throw that on your colleagues. Fed up with having to put up with them, Michael decides the office will put on a Lonely Hearts Valentines Day party. The concept of these types of parties is to act as a boycott to Valentine’s Day and celebrate being single. While the office is busy decorating and planning, Michael went on down to get his blood donated.
They got the party in swing and unfortunately it started to sway towards the alternative form of Lonely Hearts parties and that is essentially a pity party for everyone. Michael insisted they go around and talk about everyone’s worst breakup story in an effort to move past it. While the sentiment might be nice, I feel like most of the people had already moved on and now they are simply choosing to relive a low point in their lives. After almost an hour of increasingly depressing stories, Michael suddenly decides it is time to turn this around and rebrand the party as a Singles Mixer. Rather than dwell on being single he wants to invite people from all over the office park to come in for the mixer. As well as try to find the owner of a lost glove, for some reason.
Before long quite a few people begin showing up that we hadn’t met before and it is actually pretty fun, even Kevin met someone who worked in the building. As a lover of a good party, I was more focused on the refreshments with the key being a red velvet cake. Red velvet is a classic for Valentines Day, besides being delicious the color lends itself to the theme of the party. There was also some sparking juice to drink as well as a few other sweets. That is always the problem when it comes to Valentines Day parties, it becomes very sweet heavy and not often a lot of savory dishes. I would say a little charcuterie board would be a good option at a party like this so an assortment of meets and cheeses to help counterbalance all of the sweetness.
We start to realize that Michael is transfixed upon the door, beyond just watching for new people and seems like he is expecting someone specific. Turns out when he was donating blood he met a woman who was donating at the same time. They seemed to hit it off and were joking together and he probably would have asked her out except he passed out after donating the blood. For those who never donated, it is important to eat the day because if can be very possible to pass out if not properly hydrated with the right blood sugar levels. When he came to, she was gone but she had forgotten her glove behind and that is why Michael was advertising that it had been found. Everyone was really moved by this story and I think because they were all so lonely as well, they really hoped someone could walk away in a relationship. We hung around till the end of the day but she never showed up. Michael said he’d just wait around but we encouraged him it was time to move on and that we should all leave together. It isn’t often we all side with Michael but he does have his moments where he can be a pretty decent person.
Now while we were doing this, we had some missing faces in that Jim and Pam were invited to a Valentine’s Dinner with Phyllis and Bob. Sounds like they had a great time in they were joking and laughing together, bonding over bowling as well as how annoying Michael is. Everything was great until Jim and Pam wondered why Phyllis and Bob had been in the bathroom for so long because they actually through they may have ditched. The food had been delivered while they were away and Pam brings up an interesting question in at what point is it okay to the meal dropped off if people are away from the office. I have a few opinions on this and I would say that it would be polite to wait for your dinner companions to return in order to eat together. I would say Jim is correct in that if you have ordered hot food, I would normally give them maybe 5 minutes before eating because if the food is hot you should be allowed to it eat it before it gets cold. Of course, if they are gone for reasons other than simply a quick bathroom trip then I believe the same rules do not apply. Jim and Pam actually went to look for them and realized they were having relations in the handicap bathroom. Now if the people I was out with were choosing to take their time with something like that or taking a phone call, I would say it is okay to begin eating. Again, I feel it is okay to give them a small grace period (5 to 10 minutes) but afterwards it is on them to get back to the table.
And that is the Breakdown today! While Valentine’s Day is not a major holiday in my life, I was excited to be able to weigh in on the restaurant issue at the end because I do find such rules about etiquette to be interesting especially because there are plenty of instances that can be up for debate. How do you feel about my interpretation of the scenario? Do you agree or do you have your own opinion?
I hope you enjoyed today’s Breakdown, and I hope to see you all again next week. As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.
