I'm currently sitting through defensive driving online. Yes. It is just as boring as the class that you take in the room over the bowling alley. Lucky for me though, I get to watch movies while I let the website run. I'm watching Meet the Robinson on On Demand right now. Also, bare feet and free food.

Oh and I'm writing this while in traffic school. I'm a model citizen.

It has been a busy couple of days. While I'm waiting for my 30 seconds to be up so I can "turn the page." I would like to tell you a bit about them. In fact, this might break down into a few entries. Mostly because I know I have the time. You know...being trapped taking defensive driving and everything.

I worked two days this week. Two. I have today off. (Hooray.) And two days in the middle I went to Team Building. So, it's been a less than straightforward week to say the least. And I'm a bit tired to be frank. Mental and Physical fatigue I'm telling you. Alright, the two days of work were pretty normal. They were work. Work happens. I didn't get fired, so I chalk it up to a good day.

Team Building. Oh what can I say about team building? Let's start with the obvious. I wasn't sure why my mini-department within the department had to go. But apparently in another mini-department there was some...oh what shall we call it...drama. Drama. I can't stand drama. But apparently some people decided to gossip and make things miserable for others. See? Drama. So, we all had to get together for two days and talk it out.

It was a lot like group therapy. People cried. There were fights. We learned a lot about each other and about ourselves. And spent two days out in the middle of nowhere. Yes. It was an overnight trip. It was held out in the sticks on this dude ranch. I kept waiting for us to go ride horses and sing kumbaya. There was no kumbaya. But we did play a bunch of team building games!

Actually, I got called out during one of the games. In fact, I'm pretty proud of it. The game was a variation on the "name game." We got a stack of cards with images on them - telephones, stamps, eagles, hooks, shells, etc. The idea was to make a chain where the last letter of the image on one card would be the first letter of the image on the next. Pretty straight forward. The instructions said to do what it takes to be successful. The idea of the exercise is to channel your creativity in giving each image a name. Is it a phone or a telephone or a communication tool? See? Lots of choices!

Well, the facilitators called me out in front of everyone (including my director and the VP of the department) for being the first person to bend the rules. To figure out how to best make the cards fit. To figure out the way to be successful. Apparently, everyone normally starts out using the obvious names and assumes that there is a solution - which of course there isn't. There comes a point when people break and try to find an obscure solution to the puzzle such as calling the picture of the phone a communication device. Me? I was the first one to give up on the assumed rules first.

It was pretty awesome to be called out for being creative and innovative in front of everyone. That made the trip almost worth it. I think our department got a lot out of the team building session, but man it was really tiring. It was so hard to listen, comprehend and digest all these mental changes, ideas, nuggets of truth. It was also interesting to see how people reacted to known information, revelation about gossip, and apologizing for being a cold hearted twit. In the long run, I think we'll be a stronger department.

Of course, then there was beer and a rousing game of Taboo. During Taboo I learned that no one I work with knows who The Rock is. They all jumped up and said Vin Diesel! I was so disappointed.

So, that was my Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I'm still tired from it though. I just want to veg out and watch movies. You know to "recover." Lucky for me, I'm almost done with section 6 of my 8 part defensive driving stuff. After that. Much vegging to commence.