Even though my official start date at the new job isn't for another week, today was the association's monthly staff meeting, so Kathleen invited me to attend so I could meet everyone. The monthly meetings are a fairly big deal -- every month someone hosts and serves breakfast and there are little icebreaker quizzes or similar fun games to get everyone chatting.
Because St. Patrick's Day is next week, the theme was St. Paddy's Day/Ireland. Kathleen and Cathy, another coworker, were hosting, and served potatoes and Irish cheese and had St. Patrick's Day plates and napkins and tossed shamrock confetti all over the buffet.
The morning "ice breaker" wasn't a quiz, but as part of my introduction to the crew, everyone went around the room, told me who they were, and told something about themselves that related to Ireland or to St. Patrick's Day. Some people talked about having Irish ancestors, some talked about trips they had taken to Ireland, some just expressed a taste for Irish whiskey or beer. One of the women told a story of celebrating St. Patrick's Day in a bar, and everyone ended up doing beer slides down the bar.
Which reminded me of a crazy night I had in college, one summer in between second and third years. We started off hanging out at some guy's house, proceeded to traipse around Charlottesville skinny-dipping in half the apartment complex pools near the University, and ended up at one of the fraternity houses with half a keg of beer, the keys to the stereo closet, and a mini-trampoline. By the end of the night, we were doing beer slides across the floor in various states of semi-dress (some people did it on their naked butts, I stayed in my underwear).
So to a room of future co-workers (plus my boss), 90% of whom I've never met before, I get caught up in the hilarity of the story and blurt out, "beer slides are so fun. A bunch of us did those one night in college. But most of us were naked."
Everyone laughed, and some eyebrows shot up, particularly those of the men in the room.
Jesus, what is my problem?
Later in the meeting, my boss was talking about how happy he is with the staff and saying what a great team we have and how happy he is that I'm coming on board. "Though I'm having a hard time getting the image of the naked beer slides out of my head," he added.
And before I could stop myself, I said, "Oh, don't worry, I wasn't one of the naked ones. I kept my underwear on."
He laughed and said, "I'm not sure that helps me much."
Seriously. What is my problem??
Hahahaha - I think it's good to start people off with an accurate sense of who you are and where you're coming from.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely, as noted by the business manager, one of the more interesting staff meetings we've had. Of course, when she said that, her eyebrows were really, really high.
ReplyDeleteHa! Oh, well. Why hide, right?
ReplyDeleteWell, at least they know what they're getting!
ReplyDeleteSherice