What the holidays are about

My company had its holiday party yesterday. In somebody’s infinite wisdom, they decided to book the Rainbow Room from 6-9p on the night of the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony. Whoever was on the planning committee that made that call, I give them props for trying to book something special and high profile, but I give them a big fat F for practicality and decision making.

First of all, for those that were taking the charter bus from the remote offices, buses could barely get into midtown before everything became gridlocked. Then as everybody had to hoof it the rest of the way, we faced unimaginably packed pedestrian traffic as the police had barricaded streets in a seemingly random fashion so that you could only walk in one direction on most blocks, only cross the street on certain corners, and anywhere you were allowed to cross the street it was only permitted in one direction. It probably took 25 minutes to navigate our way through the last 5 blocks.

By the time we made it to the lobby of the building, it was about 6:15. Not too bad, only 15 minutes late. We thought the worst was over. Boy were we wrong. Apparently we had to get in line for the mandatory coat check. We got ushered toward a tremendously long line that bent around the corner of the hallway. We made our way to the end and got in line when instantly another usher pounced on us to let us know that, no, that wasn’t actually the end of the line. He pointed another 15 feet further back. To another line. Apparently they were just keeping passageways clear so they had to break the line up into chunks. Ugh. So we walked to the other line. Which was incredibly long and bent around the next corner. Followed by another gap and another incredibly long line bending around the corner. You get the picture. Basically we had already missed 15 minutes of open bar, and it would take us another 40 minutes just to reach the coatcheck!

Wow. Okay, so we make it to the coatcheck and I am feeling a little parched and plenty peeved. Guess what came next? That’s right, another line! This time we were waiting for the privilege of being granted passage on the elevator. Wonderful. Long story short, it was close to 7:15 before I finally made it up to the effing Rainbow Room. Supposedly there were only 800 people to be in attendance, but it definitely seemed closer to 2000 to me. Seriously. Regardless, somebody on the planning committee did not do their math. The elevators fit about 13 average sized people, and there were probably only about 6 elevators in service. Factor in the time that it takes for the elevator to make the 65-story trip up and down, it certainly does not seem like a very good choice for such a large party. Next time, if there is a next time, ground floor venues only, please.

I won’t rant in too much more detail about the rest of the party. You already can guess- a line for the bar, a line for the food, a line for the bathroom which extended all the way down a stairway so narrow it looked like it was from a submarine. Unreal. Fortunately, I finally got enough to drink and my friends made things fun enough to salvage the remainder of the night.

So that was my company’s holiday party for 2007. In retrospect, it was kind of appropriate now that I think about it. Waiting in line. If you’re a New Yorker, isn’t that really what the holiday season is all about around here? They captured it perfectly.

3 thoughts on “What the holidays are about

  1. Bah Humbug!! My department Christmas party is at a bowling alley. Long lines at the Rainbow Room sounds good to me!

  2. You should move to California: Coat check??? What is a coat??? Just kidding, it’s actually butt-cold today. 42 degrees this morning and a forcast high of 57. Brr!!

  3. rainbow room- cool…BUT
    lines and baracades and chaos on the worse day possible to be in midtown- that SUCKS.

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