Award Day

Last Edit March 12, 1999

The last day of the offsite is another long long day of meetings (breakouts) in teams. We actually get a lot of work done - we set up future meetings and task forces and establish a lot of flow data for transfer of tasks, etc.
It is a long, hard day. Very productive, but long.
Broken only by my mad foray out for my jacket.
I have acquired a number of toys (and ideas). I also have a punching ball (tethered to my purse) and two dead meese (two dead mooses - beanie babies -like toys to represent the "dead moose" on the table during meetings.
And a number of other toys. It's part of Performance Excellence training. Fidget toys for long sessions. Don't touch my purple tether ball. Things purple gravitate to me.
I have eaten protein all day - I have a hellava cold. I am taking my Medifast (my diet being stalled does not disturb me - it will stop its plateau eventually). If I lean forward, my nose drains. We are all sniffing. My eyes are dry. We are all having nose bleeds. I have dry skin.
The water is alkaline and I need Cortaid to sleep (anti-itch rash). The air is dry - I forgot about the desert air. You can drink water all day long and it just gets sucked out of you. We get exposed to salted nuts and I succumb and have some. The dry air makes you crave salt. Causes your body to retain moisture.
My boss has hurt himself - I am doctoring him with Alieve - he fell over in his chair (while being attacked by a dead moose) during one of our sessions and strained something. At first we all thought he fell - by accident. Nope. It was on purpose.
Can't take him anywhere!
This last full day is award day. Dinner is elegant. Fillet mignon. Fish. Teams of waiters (servers is the correct term.) I have shrimp and the beef. Two limp carrots and 1/4 of a glass of wine. I sit with yet another group - and discuss a little work and take a bunch of pictures.
I avoid the luscious desert - I have been very, very good! I only tasked the chocolate stuff yesterday - so I wouldn't crave it - I am very proud of myself.
So, we get to the awards.
And I get one!
They introduce me by work I did, etc. etc. And wind up with, "and she has taught us all about Fabio!" More than they wanted to know! (Well, they kept asking!)
Of course. There wasn't a session that didn't discuss him somehow. Must have been the tee-shirt.
I don't remember what I said when I said thank you but my boss got away before I could thank him - so I made him come back up for a proper hug.
So of course he had to stand on tiptoe and complain he still wasn't 6'3"
Can't take him anywhere.
My prize? A D600L Digital Camera.
Wow.
How long before my kid gets his hands on that!
Actually, when I call home, my younger son says I should have got another model - I tell him it's a gift - he thinks its for him. Actually this conversation is filtering through my older son (on the phone) and he has to tell him, "not for you, for Mom!"
This takes a moment to sink in.
Sigh.
They don't ask what I did for it. Just argue who gets to play with it.
It's why I have two dead meese in my suitcase.