I hate teamwork
The Friday before last we had a picnic in Stanley Park to celebrate the firm's 30th anniversary. We got to leave at 1pm (but only if we attended --- we couldn't go home instead -- if we didn't go, we'd have to stay at work until 5pm).
Anyway, the food was good (catered) with salad, barbequed chicken, veggie-burgers, lemonade, iced tea, etc. but the organized games were totally lame. It was hosted by Canadian Outback Adventures.
http://www.canadianoutback.com/
They had all kinds of games set up (giant stacking game of Jenga, Connect 4, to name a couple.
We had to get into teams and pick team names and even compose a team chant. O_o We called ourselves the Arogonauts (my brother's idea). Well, it was better than "The Purple Smurfs", anyway. ;) The Memory game consisted of about 30 ice cream carton lids with convoluted Native tribe names --names like these: http://www.firstnationsseeker.ca/ It took forever waiting for our turns since the teams had about 10 people each. And since nobody knew these words, we couldn't pronounce or remember them (though we eventally won that game and got these cheesy medals on red ribbons.
There was a word search game (on giant chalkboards so everyone could read them. The words were, again native tribal names and it was impossible to enjoy -- people kept standing in each other's way, standing too close to the board as someone circled the words. Nobody listened to me when I pointed out words -- two people basically dominated it since they had the chalk and word list. I really hate teams. Always have.
I thought that the scavenger hunt would be fun, but it was absolute hell. I thought it would be a treasure hunt or something, but it was just two piles of variously shaped rotting wood (poles, a rope, a wooden wheel, notched beams and shorter pieces of wood, a flat board and a plastic funnel. Each team was supposed to assemble this crap into a 'cart' and carry each member around in a circle on it. The passenger would sit on the plank which was fitted on top of the poles, with the rope threaded through the holes of the wood (they were the axles) and the others would carry/pull them, like a rickshaw or a litter. I foolishly got on, and the sudden jerks and uneven seating jarred my body, sending pain into my back and legs. With people of various sizes, strengths and weights, it was definitely not a smooth ride. They just about dropped me on my tailbone when my turn ended and someone else had to get on. When I had to help carry this stupid litter, I kept hitting my foot against the dragging wheel (it was looped in the middle and dragged underneath, rather than fitted in the axle. I was sobbing and swearing in pain.
There was an hourly raffle (gift baskets with wine, chocolate, crackers, that sort of thing). My brother won the largest basket; it was too heavy to carry home. Lisa (admin) kindly gave us both a lift downtown, since she was going to the office anyway and left it on my desk. This was good, because we had plans for dinner and a movie and it would have been impossible to cart that thing around.
When I got home (stayed with my brother to keep him company when he was housesitting for our parents), I could barely walk. And the next morning, I was going to make pancakes, and had to ask my brother to get the ingredients that were on the bottom shelf. I could not bend over.
A few days later, I started to take small items home so that the basket wouldn't be so heavy to carry onto the Skytrain. On Friday night, I stayed late when I packed to go home I thought I could carry the rest, but didn't hold it properly (the handles were hard to grab) and the whole thing fell through the cellophane onto the hallway carpet! A large bottle of balsamic vinegar fell out and the bottom snapped off, leaking all over the place. I cleaned it as best I could (the cleaners weren't around to ask for help), gathering the broken glass into a garbage bag that Noelle (who also stayed late) brought out and lent me paper towels to soak up the spill. I have to admit to being surprised that she helped me, since we don't like each other anymore. I thanked her and she said, "Okay, I won't bug you anymore. Have a good weekend."
Anyway, we can probably clean the basket (it was pretty sticky) and everything else was intact. It was too bad about the balsamic vinegar -- that must have cost at least $20!