My wife always wants me to go to the Christmas party for her work. I usually don't want to go. I worked at the same place a while back and know a lot of the people. I in fact have a good relationship with most of them (there are always a few).

This year I was talked into it, or more directly "told" I was going. So I got casually dressed because if I have to go I'm gonna at least be comfortable. That turned out to be an ok thing, as my wife ended up being a little overdressed. There was a pretty good turn out considering the company employs about 100 people in this town. I think we saw about 60 people all together so it was not empty that's for sure. That also turned out to be part of the problem.

The food was good and the bar was open so all things considered it looked like it would be a passable evening. I found some of my former co-workers and we chit chatted about different things, had a few drinks and enjoyed a rather tasty dinner.
The music started and people were out on the dance floor having a good time. I guess the problems were happening in the bar while we were away.

Two guys that work together and don't have any problems with each other at work (from what I was told) had some words exchanged while they were in the bar. I guess both of them had too much to drink and I would have liked that bartender a whole lot more if she would have shut them both down a few drinks earlier. Unfortunately she didn't and they kept pouring them down. The liquid courage was working overtime, because the next thing I know I'm in the middle of a "scuffle". They punched at each other a few times and then somebody else was trying to break up the fight and I just knew that I had to help. I grabbed one of these guys and dragged him away telling him the whole time that somebody had called the cops. It all seemed to be under control and then...... Another "friend" decided that he didn't like how we were treating the two guys that were fighting and came in to defend his drunk friend. Now this is a pretty big guy and I guess he figured he was pretty tough to boot. After 8 years in the Marine Corps I don't look at big tough guys the way I used to. He had been drinking and I had about 2 drinks in me from all night. I wasn't even light headed and this guy was really trying to get me involved.

Fortunately (for him) people started coming in and dragging everybody apart. I got one drunk into a car that was waiting for him and some others dragged drunk #2 to a car that was waiting for him. I told big tough guy that I would drop by his work today when he was sober and see if he still wanted to have that discussion with me. I wonder if I should even bother going down there now. I have to admit that I do get to feeling like a 20 something again when I get around all those guys and I might not use the best judgement in the world all the time because of that. No offense to 20 somethings of the world. I know many that use great judgement, but I also know a lot of them that allow their emotions to control their actions too often which I tend to do when I'm around them ...

So I made a decision that from now on I'm gonna have to take a closer look at the guest list before deciding if I'll attend these grand parties being thrown. I've now officially rambled on long enough and I'll go back and finish my work. The more I think about it, the more I realize I am going down to that place today and see if drunk tough guy is so tough when he's not drinking...lol