Remember that scene from Bridget Jones’ Diary when she was sloshed at the office party singing karaoke with little pom poms stuck in her hair and the scene cuts to Daniel Cleaver watching her with an odd smirk on his face?

Don’t be that woman.. LOL You’ll regret it.. for sure.

So.. here are a couple of tips Not very many but, still!

Don’t over drink

It’s fine to drink. Go ahead. Have a couple glasses of wine. But know your limit. Don’t get sloshed and then run around screaming to everyone that your manager is a real idiot who doesn’t know what she’s talking about half the time.

Act professional

This isn’t a party with your close friends and family. People will judge you. And people won’t be as forgiving as your best friend who’s seen you through worse times.

Be polite to everyone

Tis the season to be joyful and happy… try and include others in your conversation even if you don’t know them, and especially if they aren’t from the company.

Don’t act like they don’t exist, try and draw them into the conversation (maybe a co-worker’s girlfriend or husband, whatever)

Dress professionally

This is NOT the time to be wearing a miniskirt with a low cut cleavage top without a back. You’re with people you work with on a regular basis. Even if you’d wear that to any of your other parties in your private, personal life… these are co-workers of very many different ages and sensibilities.

You don’t want people to be talking for the whole new Next Year about how they saw your breasts pop out of your shirt and/or label/judge you.

And you do NOT want those pictures haunting you…. people have cameras at these parties, yeah!? Don’t show up in sweatpants, but remember to stay appropriately covered.

Any other tips? I haven’t gone to many office parties. Ok, maybe one or two. So I don’t have any stories.. anyone wanna share in the comments?

…if you can stomach that!

“In my line of job, I am a journalist working on a French newspaper. We have eight weeks of vacation — eight weeks of vacation,” says Stephane Marchand, a senior economics editor at the French newspaper, Le Figaro. “Eight weeks, yes. I know it may be surprising for you because I know in the U.S. you might have only two or three, if you’re lucky, but we have eight.”

Like most Frenchmen, Marchand has no guilt about taking so much time off. In fact, it’s the law: full-time workers in France are guaranteed at least five weeks vacation — guaranteed those long lazy days in the sun, and leisurely lunches in outdoor cafes.

On top of the five weeks, there are another dozen public holidays, and a maximum 35-hour work week, with no paid overtime allowed. Managers like Marchand, who work more than 35 hours a week, get more time off.

“The so-called 35-hour work week gives us 22 more days a year,” says Marchand.

Twenty-two more days in addition to the eight weeks vacation?

“Yes,” says Marchand. “Which is a lot.”

…..Americans, I think, believe more in future than French people. We, French people, right now we don’t believe that the future will be better than now,” says Maier. “We think that the future will be worse than now, so we don’t have any reason to work.”

Why?

“I don’t know, maybe we are an old country. We’re depressed,” says Maier. “But the food is very good.”

But that’s exactly the kind of attitude that irks French entrepreneur Ari Zlotkin, president of Anne Fontaine, a successful French blouse company. “Working for me is what, is a very important value and is a good value,” says Zlotkin, who manufactures in France, but has high-end boutiques across the globe, from New York to Tokyo. And there’s no doubt in his mind which country’s workers he prefers.

“In America, we don’t lose time,” says Zlotkin. “We don’t lose time. In France, we lose a lot of time with, I mean, fixing social troubles. We lose a lot of time with things that are not related to the business we are doing.”

“What about the argument that in France people have more leisure time, more time to enjoy themselves, the art of conversation, the long lunches?” asks Logan.

“I think it’s a nice image. I’m not sure it’s true,” says Zlotkin. “What is sure is that statistically, since the 35 hours, people are staying longer in front of their TV.”

“They’re spending more time in front of the television?” asks Logan.

“Yeah, and also and, you know, also it’s very nice to have more free time, but you must also have the money to be able to take advantage of this free time,” says Zlotkin.

Read the entire article here.

I mentioned this article to my friend who lived in Paris most of her life, and she simply told me:

1. French don’t care about money…. but they want it. Lots of it.

2. French don’t like foreigners coming into their country and use the French language as a barrier and a way to mercilessly mock others who don’t speak perfect French with the perfect Parisienne accent.

3. French are lazy and cannot understand what the point of working is, yet would like to enjoy the fruits of the labour.

She’s also the same one that told me about how they eat in Paris because she lived among them. They like to keep up that image of making things at home (and a small exception do), but in general, they buy ready-made items which are VERY good mind you, nothing like what’s available here in North America, but the fact still stands that they don’t make things from scratch all the time like what they’d like others to believe.

And all those fab French restaurants? They’d like people to believe that they go to them every day or at least a good part of the time because the food is so delicious but they can’t afford it, but can talk a good game.

Instead, they eat pizza. Yep. Lots of pizza. It’s much better than here in North America from what she tells me, but they eat lots of pizza because they love it, and because it’s cheap(er) than a French restaurant.

I cannot stress enough that in a relationship, even if you don’t handle the investments on a daily basis or are very interested in it, learn at least the basics so you can ask informed questions. And to NOT feel like you’re asking stupid questions.

And that question probably has already been asked before by SOMEONE before, so don’t feel bad.

Sadly, it’s mostly women who are in the dark about the family finances, but it can go the other way as well as demonstrated by Ex and I.

This article really showcases why talking about money makes sense, and why you need to talk about these things up front and have it be clear from the beginning.

“CNNMoney.com — NEW YORK (Money) — Question: My husband and I work for a high-tech company, but we don’t have much in savings. My husband has been borrowing money to put into the stock market, but he has lost money for the past two years. I don’t think we should be doing this, but he says we need to take risks. What do you think? – Joan, Phoenix, AZ

Answer: First of all I think your husband needs to listen to you more. He’s right in saying that you have to take some risks if want to build wealth. But we’re talking about prudent risks. Risks that are very likely to pay off, like saving money on a regular basis, investing it in a diversified portfolio that includes both stocks and bonds and then riding out short-term drops in the markets so you can enjoy the long-term upside that the financial markets can offer.

But what your husband is doing is really more like speculation in my opinion. He’s gambling that he’ll be able to create wealth out of thin air by earning more on the money he borrows than he pays in interest to get that money.

I can understand why that may seem like a sure bet. After all, stocks have historically generated higher long-term returns than debt instruments. So your hubby probably figures that as long as he’s investing for the long haul, he’s assured of coming out ahead. The interest he’ll pay on his debt will be lower than the returns he’ll earn on the stocks.

But there are several flaws with his strategy. Aside from the fact that stocks’ higher returns aren’t guaranteed, the main pitfall is that we don’t live in the long term. We live day to day.

And as we’ve seen lately, the stock market can take some pretty frightening dives that may lead to losses in the short-term. And those losses can wreak havoc with your husband’s strategy.

Let’s say, for example, that your husband borrows $10,000 at an interest rate of 7 percent. If he invests that ten grand and earns 10 percent over the next year, he’ll have $11,000.

His loan balance at the end of the year will be $10,700. (In reality, he’ll probably have to make monthly payments, but let’s keep things simple.) So he could pay off the loan and come out ahead by $300. Hurray! Free money.

But what if stock prices decline by 10 percent? In that case, his investment account is worth $9,000 and he has a loan for $10,700. He’s now in the hole for $1,700.
Maybe he can just wait it out until the market rebounds and puts him ahead. But in the meantime, his loan is going to continue racking up interest and he’s going to have to make payments on that loan.

…..

Of course, it may not come to that. Your husband’s plan could work out. But is it really worth embarking on this strategy for a gain that amounts to the difference between the loan rate and the potential investment return?

I don’t think so. It seems to me the payoff is rather small for the risk you’re taking. I suggest that you and your husband have a sit-down to discuss your finances.”

Read the entire article here.

So, grab a clue!!!!!