"staff not-away day"
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Filed in: daily photos
| my life
today was the day i’d
been waiting for since i came on staff nine months
ago. i’d heard all about it last year before i came
on and i couldn’t wait to see what we were going to
do this year.
it was Staff Day Away.
every year, the staff gets a fun day away in the fall as a sort of kick off for the next ministry year. it’s a RH tradition that last year had the staff running all over Orange County on a scavenger hunt that ended with a boat ride in Newport Harbor. that was before i was on staff. so, i’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.
well... whenever you look forward to something like that, you’re bound to be let down one way or another. Michelle tried to warn us ahead of time, but we didn’t really listen. you see, our staff day away, really wasn’t.
we showed up in the morning and were told that we would be meeting with our sabbatical groups to catch up and spend some time together. not quite what i had in mind, but i thought “well, we’ll do this and then the fun will start, i’m sure.”
so, our group went to this little place called “Milk and Honey” and hung out.
it was nice to catch up with Laura and Andrew and i’m glad we got the chance to do that since our sabbaticals were so long ago. but as our hour came to a close, we rushed back to RH with anticipation for what would be next.
next was sharing time. reflecting on the past year. reflecting on our sabbaticals. reflecting on our ministries.
again... not what we were expecting.
the Taco Man came for lunch, which everyone seemed pretty excited about. (even though i’m not a huge Mexican food fan, i did enjoy the Taco Man.)
after lunch, we were told to get into our sabbatical groups for a little contest. ROCKHARBOR has a tradition (usually at Christmas) where they play Human Shuffleboard on office chairs in the hallway. this was another tradition i’d been looking forward to participating in. turns out, today would be my chance!
however, as Erre began to announce the game, he also announced some changes in the rules. usually, no one is allowed to touch the walls under any circumstances. if you do, you’re disqualified. this means that if you get near a wall, you have to stop yourself so that you can at least keep your distance. furthermore, they would normally line the walls of hall with people to ensure that nobody would go crashing into a wall. not this year though.
this year, Erre and Todd decided (as they were announcing this, i think) that you would be disqualified if you stopped yourself in any way. if you put out an arm or leg to stop yourself from hitting a wall, you were out. everybody thought something didn’t sound right about this, but we went along with it anyway.
i grabbed my chair and my team nominated me to ride down the hallway. we were fourth to go. we were also the first injury.
as i was hurled down the hallway at breakneck speeds, things were going pretty well. i was traveling quickly and in a straight line. as i began to approach The Commons, things changed. i began to veer to the left.... straight toward an outward sticking corner where Angelina had stopped before me. i was sitting cross-legged on the chair and my knees were sticking out just a bit. there was nothing i could do.
i crashed HARD into the corner and banged up my upper-shin pretty good. in fact, i’m not sure i’ve ever been in that kind of pain before. the wall’s corner was reinforced with metal and my shin indented in by about an inch. there was blood. there was pain. and i was laughing harder than i’ve laughed in a long time. (it was a bit confusing!)
did this stop the game? of course not! and being that i was 4th out of 11 (i think) i got to sit in the hallway as others came hurtling toward me, blood dripping down my leg and all. at one point, Amy Burdick was flying toward me. at the last second, Stacy (who apparently didn’t want to see me injured any further) pulled me out of the way. unfortunately, i was the only thing in between Burdick and the win. she went almost all the way to the main entrance doors and won the whole thing.
the pictures don’t do it justice. the wound is much worse than it looks. you can’t hear 1/2 of the people excited about the game and the other 1/2 pleading for someone to stop it all so that there wouldn’t be any more injuries. (i wasn’t the only one. turns out Tracy Close broke her thumb and will need a cast and surgery and others got slammed into as they sat like lame ducks in the hallway.) poor Carlos (our facilities guy) was pleading for someone to stop this as the hallway was getting torn up from chairs and body parts slamming into it.
yeah... probably wasn’t the best idea. but it was memorable!!!
afterward, we went across the street and watched “Napoleon Dynamite” in The Box.
not sure why.
so, all-in-all, Staff Day Away wasn’t away and wasn’t what we’d hoped for. i forgot what Janet and i learned in India... keep your expectations low and you won’t be let down. :-)
oh... and later, Stacy and i went and test drove an M3 for fun. it was pretty awesome!
it was Staff Day Away.
every year, the staff gets a fun day away in the fall as a sort of kick off for the next ministry year. it’s a RH tradition that last year had the staff running all over Orange County on a scavenger hunt that ended with a boat ride in Newport Harbor. that was before i was on staff. so, i’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.
well... whenever you look forward to something like that, you’re bound to be let down one way or another. Michelle tried to warn us ahead of time, but we didn’t really listen. you see, our staff day away, really wasn’t.
we showed up in the morning and were told that we would be meeting with our sabbatical groups to catch up and spend some time together. not quite what i had in mind, but i thought “well, we’ll do this and then the fun will start, i’m sure.”
so, our group went to this little place called “Milk and Honey” and hung out.
it was nice to catch up with Laura and Andrew and i’m glad we got the chance to do that since our sabbaticals were so long ago. but as our hour came to a close, we rushed back to RH with anticipation for what would be next.
next was sharing time. reflecting on the past year. reflecting on our sabbaticals. reflecting on our ministries.
again... not what we were expecting.
the Taco Man came for lunch, which everyone seemed pretty excited about. (even though i’m not a huge Mexican food fan, i did enjoy the Taco Man.)
after lunch, we were told to get into our sabbatical groups for a little contest. ROCKHARBOR has a tradition (usually at Christmas) where they play Human Shuffleboard on office chairs in the hallway. this was another tradition i’d been looking forward to participating in. turns out, today would be my chance!
however, as Erre began to announce the game, he also announced some changes in the rules. usually, no one is allowed to touch the walls under any circumstances. if you do, you’re disqualified. this means that if you get near a wall, you have to stop yourself so that you can at least keep your distance. furthermore, they would normally line the walls of hall with people to ensure that nobody would go crashing into a wall. not this year though.
this year, Erre and Todd decided (as they were announcing this, i think) that you would be disqualified if you stopped yourself in any way. if you put out an arm or leg to stop yourself from hitting a wall, you were out. everybody thought something didn’t sound right about this, but we went along with it anyway.
i grabbed my chair and my team nominated me to ride down the hallway. we were fourth to go. we were also the first injury.
as i was hurled down the hallway at breakneck speeds, things were going pretty well. i was traveling quickly and in a straight line. as i began to approach The Commons, things changed. i began to veer to the left.... straight toward an outward sticking corner where Angelina had stopped before me. i was sitting cross-legged on the chair and my knees were sticking out just a bit. there was nothing i could do.
i crashed HARD into the corner and banged up my upper-shin pretty good. in fact, i’m not sure i’ve ever been in that kind of pain before. the wall’s corner was reinforced with metal and my shin indented in by about an inch. there was blood. there was pain. and i was laughing harder than i’ve laughed in a long time. (it was a bit confusing!)
did this stop the game? of course not! and being that i was 4th out of 11 (i think) i got to sit in the hallway as others came hurtling toward me, blood dripping down my leg and all. at one point, Amy Burdick was flying toward me. at the last second, Stacy (who apparently didn’t want to see me injured any further) pulled me out of the way. unfortunately, i was the only thing in between Burdick and the win. she went almost all the way to the main entrance doors and won the whole thing.
the pictures don’t do it justice. the wound is much worse than it looks. you can’t hear 1/2 of the people excited about the game and the other 1/2 pleading for someone to stop it all so that there wouldn’t be any more injuries. (i wasn’t the only one. turns out Tracy Close broke her thumb and will need a cast and surgery and others got slammed into as they sat like lame ducks in the hallway.) poor Carlos (our facilities guy) was pleading for someone to stop this as the hallway was getting torn up from chairs and body parts slamming into it.
yeah... probably wasn’t the best idea. but it was memorable!!!
afterward, we went across the street and watched “Napoleon Dynamite” in The Box.
not sure why.
so, all-in-all, Staff Day Away wasn’t away and wasn’t what we’d hoped for. i forgot what Janet and i learned in India... keep your expectations low and you won’t be let down. :-)
oh... and later, Stacy and i went and test drove an M3 for fun. it was pretty awesome!