Valentines Vacancy

Recognizing that a preponderance of office staff lacked a Valentine on Valentines Day, Michael decided to throw a Lonely Hearts party where singles could mingle. Moreover, he was hoping that a certain lady he met at the mobile blood bank would show up. She did not appear. The office staff wasn’t wholeheartedly in the spirit of the party, as Dwight tried to turn his potential suitor into a client to no avail.

Meanwhile, Jim and Pam had a couple’s meal with Phylis and her husband, only to have Phylis and Bob leave them during the meal so they could express their love to one another in the handicapped washroom. Jim and Pam were shocked to learn this, and they didn’t quite know what to say upon the resumption of their meal.

Whenever I go out to meals, it is usually encouraged that friends can take fries off each other’s plates. It was surprising and funny to see Pam bite into Bob’s steak when he left the table.

Funny moment of the week:
The office coworkers went back to the blood bank for the sole purpose of getting free cookies. They pretended to still be woozy from giving blood, however they had cotton balls over their supposed blood wounds, when the blood bank has been using band-aids. Furthermore, as they tried to abscond with the cookies, Creed walked out with bags of blood.

Holly Hope

This week, Micheal continued his lecture circuit of the Dunder Mifflin branches, bringing Pam along as his assistant. She encouraged him that they should go to Holly's branch to do a presentation so that he could either get closure or rekindle the relationship. Upon arriving, Micheal learned that Holly was away from the branch on business, and that she has a new boyfriend, A.J. Micheal proceeded to inappropriately grill A.J. during his presentation. Afterwards, Michael went to her desk and noticed a file on her computer that was addressed to him. He burned the file to his USB key, and he cut a piece of her sweater sleeve for a personal momento.

Back at the office, Jim and Dwight were having great difficulty throwing Kelly a birthday party. They did a lousy job decorating and spelt her name wrong on the cake, much to her dismay. In the end, they let Kelly pick a theme for her party. She chose the theme of nap time and proceeded to sleep under the conference room table until Dwight woke her by banging metal lids together.

I found the whole birthday party story line to be quite amusing. At my previous workplace, it seemed like we were always having a party. They were enjoyable, however, they often detracted from productive work. This was highlighted in The Office, as Kelly was sleeping on company time. Although birthday celebrations are fun, perhaps they should be celebrated outside of working hours.

Funny moment of the week:
When Michael cut off the piece of Holly's sweater for a keepsake.

Emergency Exercise

Angered that the office staff was not paying attention to his presentation, Dwight decided to test them with a practical emergency scenario. He lit a garbage can on fire, heated the door handles, and put firecrackers on the floor causing the room to cloud with smoke. The office dissolved into chaos. Everyone was fighting to get to the door in a state of panic. The pressure of the situation proved to be too much for Stanley and he had a heart attack. Naturally, Dwight got in trouble for his irresponsible actions, and was asked to present the staff with a statement of regret.

In his misguided effort to be a caring boss, Michael responded to Stanley’s heart attack by engaging the office staff in meditation exercises. Unfortunately, instead of relaxing the staff, Michael proceeded to further stress them out. Each time he approached Stanley, his stress monitor would sound a large series of beeps, which would disappear when Michael receded. Michael was distraught to learn that he produced negative feelings amongst his staff, so he told them he would hold a roast and give them all an opportunity to hurl insults at him. By the end of the roast, Michael was devastated. He took the next morning off for some personal reflection. Eventually, he came back into the office and made peace with the staff by hurling insults back at them until he felt they were even.

Aside from Michael’s unnerving presence, I do not think I would have been able to benefit from the meditation. I have tried meditation before in a peer setting and it did not work for me. The whole time I just couldn’t wait for it to be over, and I found the relaxation pose to be quite uncomfortable.

Funny moment of the week:
Trying to save her cat from the fire, Angela threw it up into the loft, only to have it fall through the ceiling seconds later. As well, Oscar tried to escape into the ceiling to no avail and his legs poked through the roof to the horror of the office staff. Their shocked expressions were hilarious.
This episode was quite comical and entertaining. It was a noticeable improvement from the shows that have been broadcasted over the past few months.

Deceptive Deeds

In this week's episode, Michael's boss asked him to obtain their competitor's client list, so Dunder Mifflin could increase their business. Michael took Dwight on an undercover mission to "Prince Paper", and they took turns going into the shop under false identities to try and trick the owner of "Prince Paper" into divulging client information. Eventually, Michael was successful and obtained the list, however, while exiting the parking lot, he smashed the front of his car, and the owner of "Prince Paper" came to the resue, so Michael began to second guess his actions taking advantage of the owner.

Michael showed his compassionate side in this episode, as he wanted to protect the "Prince Paper" company after they were so kind to him. Nevertheless, business decisons sometime involve letting someone down, in order to maximize personal gains.

Back at the office, the staff spent the day deciding whether or not Hilary Swank qualified as hot. When they could not settle the discussion with a vote, they took turns making arguments to support their position. Eventually, the tie was solved by a comment from Michael who passed by and said that she was hot.

I have worked in an office before, and I am familiar with the fact that there is free time in the day, but it is kind of wacky that "The Office" staff is able to devote so much of their workday to a nonsense discussion about Hilary Swank's appeal.

Funny moment of the week:
Dwight says: "You're heart is a wonderful thing Michael, but it makes some terrible decisions."
Michael: "That's true, it has gone down the wrong path many, many times - Jan, Ryan..."

Surprising Situations

When Michael was called into the head office, he thought he was being summoned to account for a mistake. To his surprise, he was being congratulated for having the most successful branch. The chief financial officer tried to pick Michael's brain to find out the secret behind his success during these harsh economic times, but instead Michael uttered a prolonged unintelligible sentence.

In my experience, at some work meetings very little actually gets accomplished. A lot of the time, it appears as though meetings are merely called for the purpose of the team members seeing eachother face-to-face, to reinforce feelings of togetherness. I've been at several meetings where everyone just sat around bored with nothing constructive to do. While meeting with a superior, I find that the meetings run the most smoothly when participants are given the subject of the meeting beforehand so that there is time to prepare material and collect one's thoughts.

Also, during this episode, Andy discovered that Angela has been having an affair with Dwight. Andy was shocked to learn this news, and he promptly confronted Angela, who admitted that she was still sleeping with Dwight, "a little bit". Andy then confronted Dwight, and they decided to have a duel to determine who belonged with Angela. In response, Angela said, "I will respect the results of the duel".

I am glad that Andy has finally finished with Angela, because she never really seemed to love him. It appeared as though she was only in a relationship with Andy to get even with Dwight for running over her cat. Dwight also called off his relationship with Angela in this episode when he learned that she slept with Andy whilst she was sleeping with him. I predict that Angela and Dwight will eventually get back together sometime in the future.

Funny moment of the week:
When Michael wanted to tell Andy that his fiance was having an affair with Dwight, he asked Andy to accompany him to the parking lot. Michael waited until he was securely in his car with the engine on an then he blurted out, "Dwight and Angela are having an affair, they have been sleeping together for some time." then he drove away.

Holiday Intervention

In this weeks episode, the Office staff had a christmas party. Meredith got very drunk and accidentaly set her hair on fire. Michael decided to stage an intervention, to try and cure Meredith of her alcoholism. He didn't get too much support from the rest of the office staff, so he decided to trick her into entering rehab by pretending that they were going to a bar.

Meanwhile at the office Phylis was demanding that Angela perform tasks to spruce up the holiday party. Angela refused, so Phylis told everyone that Angela was having sex with Dwight, even though she was engaged to be marrying Andy. All of the staff heard Phylis's announcement except Andy.

I really didn't find the subject matter of this weeks episode to be amusing in the slightest. There was nothing funny about Michael physically dragging Meredith into rehab, and the scenes at the office party lacked comedy. Jim's prank of wrapping up Dwight's desk seemed petty and repetitive, as he has altered that state of Dwights office supplies on multiple occasions.

Efficient Economizing???

Oscar’s accounting revealed that the office was running a sizable surplus. Once the term “surplus“ was explained to Michael “like he was a five year old,“ Michael was overjoyed with the news, and he asked the staff what they would like to spend the discretionary income on. It was soon evident however, that the money was not merely superfluous funds, rather the money could be put to good use to replace the worn out chairs, or buy a new copier. This goes to show that Michael was completely unaware of the problems with the fixtures and furnishings at the office. Furthermore, since they are running a paper company, they should be expected to have a functional copier.
Michael at one point decided that he would forego replacing the worn out items, and instead he decides to opt for the bonus given to managers for returning a surplus equivalent to 15% of the surplus. After discovering this, the office staff was upset, so he told them they had to agree among themselves whether they wanted the copier or the chairs. They voted for the new chairs, but it was still quite evident that a new copier was also needed. So, far from having a surplus, they actually needed extra money to cover the office expenses.
Meanwhile, at Dwight’s farm, he gave Andy and Angela a tour of the premises, in preparation for their upcoming wedding. In a practice ceremony, Dwight stood in for Andy and married Angela. Even though Angela still loves Dwight, she was outraged by his trickery, and therefore, she publicly demonstrated her love for Andy when they all returned to the office.

Funny moment of the week:
As Andy walked around Dwight’s farm with Angela, and he repeatedly stepped in animal excrement in the most unlikely places, such as the kitchen.