Thanks GCSAA!

I have to give kudos to my company for pulling off a really cool afternoon event for our staff.

For several weeks now we have had a "mandatory" team building event on our calendars to help our staff get to know our new CEO. It was scheduled from 1:00 - 4:30 on a Friday. As you might imagine, a 3 1/2 hour mandatory Friday afternoon meeting was met with some trepidation.

After gathering in the auditorium for a brief welcome we were broken into 15 teams. We were given a camera and a clue and sent outside...where school buses awaited us. It was a scavenger hunt on Mass St.! Cool idea and fun team building activity - except that it's in the upper 90's in Lawrence today with a heat index well over 100 and humidity that will kill you. We're literally under a heat warning today. You could sense a bit of dread amongst the group now sitting in un air-conditioned school buses instead of our nice cool offices!

So my team arrives at the destination of our first clue, expecting to be sent up and down Mass St. for a couple of hours of pure heat induced agony. Instead, we were greeted with an envelope containing $50 and instructions that read "This money is yours to spend as you choose, you may stay with your teammates or branch out, just keep an eye on the clock and meet no later than 3 pm..."

Seriously! Every employee was given $50 and turned loose on Mass St...during work hours! I quickly spotted my friend Laura and one of our colleagues Dee Hoffmeier. They were headed to a brand new home decorating store so I joined them and off we went!

I was frugal with my money. As luck would have it, Dee is about to be a grandma for the first time so she was eager to visit Blue Dandelion. It's always been a favorite store of mine, but even more so now that I have my own child on the way! That is where I made my one and only purchase...these bath toys. I actually had them in my hand when Cortney & I were in Nordstrom's in Boston and I put them back. Well now they are mine! We stopped in several other of my favorite stores (for the A/C as much as the shopping!) and then headed to Cielito Lindo by 3:00 pm as instructed. Awaiting us at the Mexican restaurant were chips, salsa, guacamole, and cheese dip as well as a drink ticket for the beverage of your choosing (there were many margaritas consumed). We hung out as a group there until the school buses came back for us at 4:00 pm.

Work can be stressful. Office politics are a very real thing. And we can all complain about our jobs and point out the not so great things when we want to. However, today that is not true. I have to publicly give thanks to GCSAA for a super cool (despite the heat) afternoon. And in addition to my bath toys I still have $34 to spend!