Wikia Holiday Party 2015

For those of you who don’t know, my husband works at Wikia. (OMG how many times have I used Wikia in my RP/Fanfiction days?) I was invited to come along to the Wikia Holiday Party, which was Game of Thrones themed. Thankfully, hubs and I just caught up on GoT, so we weren’t spoiled by anything at the party.

This was a chance for me to go out and have fun without kids underfoot, and also to see some of my husband’s coworkers that I haven’t seen in a while. So, of course, I jumped at the opportunity.

Of course, I had to go and buy a new outfit at Target for the party. I think it came out pretty well! And I’ll have the cute dress and leggings for other winter-ish parties. I was in need of a new pair of shoes, and I love these new boots! They make my feet look narrow which is practically impossible. I have the world’s second or third widest feet. (Probably not first. I can’t be that unlucky.)

 

It was a really unique venue: Venue 550 in San Francisco. The shape of the bar was interesting. It was multi-levels; there was the main floor, elevated seating on either side, and a balcony above. It was quite dark, though, which meant most of my pictures didn’t come out very well.

A group from Healing Henna were providing the entertainment for the evening. I went and had my hand decorated… the whole time I was thinking how much my daughters would LOVE to get henna tattoos. (This combined with the fact that my husband and I left before the last call means we’re getting old, right?)

So far so good on the henna tattoo. I’ve used coconut oil and waited as long as I could before washing it off, so the henna stain came out really dark. So far I’ve had two conversations with Indian women about the traditions of henna in their culture and had many compliments on the design. (I wish I could take credit for it, but it was the talented artist’s work! I was just the canvas!)

I was pretty excited about the drink menu, which included themed drinks. I had to snap a picture not only because I knew I was going to write a little bit about my experience, but because Jamie Lannister’s hand was there. There were a lot of little touches that made people familiar with the series snicker, but people who didn’t know about it were completely in the dark. (See: Theon’s Meatballs below.)

I tried “The Red Priestess” and it was all right. I prefer hard ciders to mixed drinks and probably could have stuck with wine. The rest of the night I had a diet coke. (Is this one of those other hints that tell people I’m old and boring?)

 

Actually, now that I think about it, I ordered a Shirley Temple after I had my Red Mistress.

There were chocolate coins littered on tables around the venue, along the bar and on end tables. They were good coins, and my husband and I snacked on them off and on. We noticed that other people were doing the same. The number of coins shrank more and more as the night went on, and after I commented on how it was diminishing, my husband said, “It must be Lannister gold.”

The food was quite good. I was very impressed with the meatballs (har har) and with the “Winterfell Smoked Wheat Berry Salad”… though my husband didn’t like that as much. His favorite was the chicken. Unfortunately, the “wolf bread” wasn’t shaped like a wolf. I kind of had my hopes up for that when I read the menu.

I made friends with the fiance of one of my husband’s coworkers. She and I got on really well, and the four of us spent the latter half of the evening together. I had to explain what “Theon’s Meatballs” meant because she hadn’t seen the show or read the books. We all got a good laugh about it.

 

There were plenty of people in costume at the party. I was fully prepared to go and count Daenerys’es, but I was a little sad to find only a handful. I *think* someone was dressed as Hodor, but that’s not the sort of thing I felt comfortable going up and asking. I’m sure the theme for next year’s Holiday Party will be Star Wars, and I’ll definitely put together a costume for that one. It was really strange to be around cosplayers who weren’t dressed as Harry Potter characters. 😉 I’m so sheltered!

I had a wonderful time. Lots of good food, excellent music (I was told that the music was chosen by the employees ahead of time), and good company. I took the BART out to the city, grabbed an Uber from the station to the Venue, and then took the shuttle back to BART when the party was over.

Kinda makes me feel grown-up when I go on these little, mini-adventures. Even though my husband takes mass transit every day to work, I get a kick out of it.

I hope I’ll be invited back again next year. I’ll have to start working on my Star Wars cosplay now.