Integration in Theory Only

Today at work we had a free lunch. It was the big Christmas shindig with Rural Insurance, which owns our office building and occupies two-thirds of it. They are a conservative lot, and most of them look like 80's throwbacks.

Esker employees, being of a French-based company that was originally a Madison hippie-based company and still maintaining a basic dress code of "clothes are not optional", are a major contrast to Rural folk in every sense of the word. The women from Rural often look at me as though they are praying for my soul. (Today it's the black blazer over a plaid pleated skirt that's only a couple inches below my butt, with black tights & Mary Janes... Catholic schoolgirl meets naughty elf.)

At this exercise in shared holiday conviviality, all the Esker people sat at tables together, and all the Rural Insurance people sat at tables together, proving that socially not much changes after junior high. Except not all the boys and girls were segregated on opposite sides of the room.

After the barbershop quartet performed two numbers, my fear of more to follow propelled me to my car where I played heavy metal at high volume. I think my senses have now re-established equilibrium.