Staff Appreciation Day
Today was Staff Appreciation Day at work. I had the whole day off to go to workshops and eat! The workshops are always fun. Fellow staff share their knowledge and skills. We get to see parts of the campus we've never seen before. And we get to come together to celebrate all the good work that we do. The University's administrators come to say "thank you" and Staff Excellence Awards are given.
Today I went to a fencing workshop where we actually got to don gloves and handle blades. We learned to salute, go en garde, advance, retreat and lunge! It was a total blast!
Then I went on a walking tour of one of the groves on campus. Trees are everywhere here! I know the fellow who gave the tour. We went to high school together. It was great to see him get all excited about the trees. And, since I don't know a thing about trees, it was a genuine educational experience. :-D
The third session was a tour of the Anthropological Studies Center. It sits in a quiet corner at the farthest reach of the campus and they do incredible work! They are self-supported and they actually do contract work for civil and private entities that require archeological expertise. And they've been doing it since 1974! I had *no* idea! I had always thought of archeologists as digging up fossils and the like, but anytime and anywhere someone wants or needs to dig up any land for a project of any significance, they have to call in archeologists to consult, advise and assess possible damage to the environment and/or sites of archeological and historic value. Our guide told us that the archeologist's goal is to *preserve* sites. Digging them up is the "last resort" and they will do everything they can to gather the needed data from other sources before excavating. For me that shed a whole new light on the field.
Oh, and at the ASC I bumped into one of the members of the Project Writers Group that got together last November! That was cool.
I can't help thinking that all this cleared out some of the creative cobwebs in this old attic of my brain.
It was a full day. I had a great time. And I am one tired puppy.
Today I went to a fencing workshop where we actually got to don gloves and handle blades. We learned to salute, go en garde, advance, retreat and lunge! It was a total blast!
Then I went on a walking tour of one of the groves on campus. Trees are everywhere here! I know the fellow who gave the tour. We went to high school together. It was great to see him get all excited about the trees. And, since I don't know a thing about trees, it was a genuine educational experience. :-D
The third session was a tour of the Anthropological Studies Center. It sits in a quiet corner at the farthest reach of the campus and they do incredible work! They are self-supported and they actually do contract work for civil and private entities that require archeological expertise. And they've been doing it since 1974! I had *no* idea! I had always thought of archeologists as digging up fossils and the like, but anytime and anywhere someone wants or needs to dig up any land for a project of any significance, they have to call in archeologists to consult, advise and assess possible damage to the environment and/or sites of archeological and historic value. Our guide told us that the archeologist's goal is to *preserve* sites. Digging them up is the "last resort" and they will do everything they can to gather the needed data from other sources before excavating. For me that shed a whole new light on the field.
Oh, and at the ASC I bumped into one of the members of the Project Writers Group that got together last November! That was cool.
I can't help thinking that all this cleared out some of the creative cobwebs in this old attic of my brain.
It was a full day. I had a great time. And I am one tired puppy.