At least once a month everyone at PCI gathers in our lunchroom to surprise someone of the staff whose birthday happens to be in that month. Sometimes they do not suspect it and are truly surprised and others (like me) really do know what is going on. The fun is not in the actual surprise rather it is how we get someone into the lunch room.  Sometimes it is as simple as “We need you in the kitchen” or as complex as “You received a delivery and it is in the kitchen.” or ” The garbage disposal is broken can you fix it?” My favorite was one that we did not use. It was Paula’s birthday and we had decided to lock all the doors and turn off the lights (she had gone out to lunch and was in the process of returning to the office and we thought it would be cute for her to return to a “closed” office.) Bryan suggested that we put a sign up “Caution Biohazard: Closed for Skin Care Repairs.” I think Paula would have thought that was funny, because she usually does. Once you get her going, she can laugh until tears spill down her cheeks and wreck her makeup. 

We also have a list of all employees’ favorites as far as cakes or pies. While nothing can compare to my Mother’s homemade Chocolate Soufflé some of the Costco cakes that we have had were really good! It always amazes me the different types of people and their discriminating tastes. Some are ”frosting inclined” and others not so much. I remember past birthdays where people specifically requested a corner piece so that they can maximize the amount of frosting they would get. Now, that is obsession and I am not talking about the perfume!

There is also the part about singing Happy Birthday. The hardest part is when we have a lot of birthdays to sing. For example something like:  Happy Birthday Dear Bart, Deborah, Kate, Patrice, Roxanna, Karoline, Ann, Pablo, KoKo and Mark (Pablo and Koko our a few of the 11 dogs we have here in our office). A Verdi opera would be less challenging to sing some months (believe me, I know.) Also, if we leave the door open sometimes the customers on the phone can hear it. I had one customer ask what all the noise was in the background. I was pretty new at the time and so I told her it was the radio. She told me that I would lose my hearing if I kept listening to music so loud!

So next time you call in and hear a lot of noise in the background just ask whose birthday it is at PCI and I promise to to let you know!