Lunch Stress!!!

In my last post I mentioned how being a deaf person with a CI dominates my thoughts all the time. Today I have my work Christmas lunch. Already (it's 6.45am) I'm thinking about getting there early so I can pick where to sit. I'm worried about sitting next to someone who will want to talk to me (highly likely at a lunch!) so I'm deciding if I should ask Steve (we work at the same place) to sit on my deaf side or my CI side. I've also worried about the person sitting opposite me, what if they want to talk to me as well?? I'm also concerned about the noise level. With 200 people at the lunch there will be alot of background noise which makes it impossible to hear. I also left my remote at the university yesterday which means I can't change my settings for the CI to cope with the noisy environment. The whole idea is very stressful but I have to plan my strategies now in order to get through it. I guess I could always fall back on the old "mirror their body language trick" and nod like I know what they're saying. God knows what I'll end up agreeing to after a few Christmas drinks!