Understood the assignment

One of my post-fertility-treatment resolutions was to reconnect at work. Yes, that mostly meant diving in deep again, pulling the late nights as needed, and checking back in to the tech. But reconnecting has taken several forms over the year, from my weekly afterwork runs to the company-sponsored charity rides to, over this past month, preparing the most on point holiday party outfit. Theme? Arcade.

In the emotional stew simmering after we'd said goodbye to Chat, I bit off a bit more than I could chew in my first vision: a hand-embroidered, neon arcade-inspired vision in periwinkle trimmed with shimmery magenta, sparkling teal, and glowing yellow. A few weeks in, I accepted defeat and sourced a rich red blank slate to begin holiday inspo 2.0: PacMan edition.

A PacMan dress project for an arcade-themed holiday party

I pulled off a total resize while awaiting the PacMan ribbon, which shipped just before the Thanksgiving holiday. The trim was fully secured in time for the PacMan pillowcase, which arrived the weekend before the big day. (No other PacMan fabrics were available for sale within the States in sufficient area to cover the lace trim on the bottom of the dress, and international shippers couldn't guarantee delivery in my time window.) My dress, complete with Velcro-attached PacMan appliqué and cozy brushed fiber PacMan lower tier, was finalized all of three days before it was time to slay.

A PacMan dress, the same muppet fur coat that's made an appearance at every Neuralink holiday party since we took them off-site, and some friends new and old to round off an evening capping off the year I've most belonged at this company since joining nearly 8 years prior.

A year ago, I barely survived an hour at the let-down of a holiday party hosted just a day after my final egg retrieval. I loved the contrast of showing up last night having fully understood the assignment (theme), and with enough work friends to ride out socializing and dancing through the last song of the night. It's not always obvious to find my place in a company where the default employee is a Gen Z white guy just a few years out of his undergrad in engineering. Most days I feel a million years old and, as a fairly effeminate married woman, I can struggle to connect with coworkers. But between the running, the new team, and my reclaimed position as a company cheerleader (the one who's finally making Neuraladies swag happen), I've been feeling like I just might belong at Neuralink.