• by Kelly Samardak , December 22, 2009

MediaPost Holiday Party, 1140 Broadway, New York
December 21, 2009

Garfield hates Mondays, The Boomtown Rats aren't sure why they don't like Mondays, so please tell them.  The only Mondays I like are the ones just before holidays breaks where everyone is cranky, but jazzed up with the pending time off.  And in the case of MediaPost yesterday, the whole crew eagerly blazed through the day, trying to can everything before our 3 p.m. holiday party start time.

Oh the conference room, it never looked better.  Sparkly lights dangled over the windows, music blared through tiny speakers, and chairs lined the walls, filled with the early arrivers.  Icy-cold Stella and a smattering of wine lined the filing cabinet. The table that is usually covered in drumming fingers, bulleted lists, and resting cell phones was now littered with pizza, sliced wraps, jumbo shrimp cocktail, guacamole, and, OF COURSE, cocktail wieners!  Oh, and I shouldn't forget the holy delicious peanut butter cupcakes.  Well, chocolate, with peanut butter icing.  And I'm not even a cupcake fan (so hard to eat them.  Hit me with a brownie any day).

I'm not going to name everyone, and you won't be seeing many faces, as writers (and I've encountered this all year) hate having their pictures taken.   And I'm certainly not going to tell you who ended up as "Guitar Hero" champion, or who wore the lampshade on their head best, or who fell down while doing the splits.  What I will tell you is that we've got some courageous and talented people on the team with Karl Greenberg, minstrel and poet performing "A Doodlin' Song" with his backup singers Phyllis Fine and Laura Daly from images.com.  Karl also soothed our earholes with "Rhode Island Is Famous For You" and "Miss Otis Regrets."

Something else I need you to hear (or see, really)is: THANK YOU.

See, all caps say "I mean it."  It's true.  Thank you for reading Just An Online Minute this year.  If you've harassed me with your clipboard, seen me fall off wooden boxes, encouraged me to drink at 10 a.m. on a bus to The Hamptons, sent me ridiculous invitations, been the party monster, hugged me, posed with a smile, used body language to brush me off, passed me the most delicious mini burger, spilled vodka all over my down jacket, danced, laughed, sung, argued, debated, and burped a meatball with the rest of 'em, you are my heroes.  You've made my year, and you've made this job so bizarrely awesome.

I hope you have had and will have a healthy and happy holiday -- and that 2010 brings you more successes, and more happiness,  than 2009 can recognize.

I'll see you in 2010 and as always, if you have an event/party/networking happy hour that you'd love to see covered in Just An Online Minute (complete with delightful photos!) send those invitations on to kelly@mediapost.com (that's me!) and I'm in!