recess and boom

Now I remember why I hated recess. You had to be in the ‘in’ group as a kid to play the fun games. And if you weren’t (which I went in and out of the ‘in’ group because they were so fickle it changed daily, but more often than not, I was out) then you were off in a corner by yourself reading a book. Thinking about recess brought up a lot of memories. I remember playing on the “moon” with Else (it was the shadow of the water tower on the football field where we played). I remember getting a necklace from Dusty back in 4^th grade (?) that he had made himself – it was a shell with a hole he had put in and then a chain – I think I still have that somewhere. We used to swing on the swings and every girl wanted Murph to push us because he could push us really, really high. Built in breaks – so fun. Touch football, hotbox (oh wait that was at Angie’s), sitting on the tanks, climbing the monkey bars…oh the memories.

So we had our own form of recess day yesterday. I think it went well. We took a 2 hour bus tour around st. paul learning of it’s history. About 20 people were on the Victorian tour, the rest of us were on the Gangster tour – incl. me – which was a barrel of fun. George “Babyface” Nelson was our guide. Does it get any better? The actor was quite funny.

Lunch was good, as I described in Day 4, and then we followed it up with a ‘cave tour’. The Wabasha Caves have a lot of history packed into them, and our guide – a 12 year old with a desire to be the next Josh Hartnett – did his best to make it interesting. He lost his footing a few times on his ‘scenes’ but overall he did a good job. The best part was when we were in one of the caverns and he’s trying to tell this spooky story about how the ghost would come by and move his picture around if he didn’t whistle, etc, and one of our staff member’s cell phones went off. He got the best Jim Carrey face and said, “You get RECEPTION down here?!” It was hilarious. That was the best reaction to most anything I had seen in a long time.

The reason I really don’t like recess day is because everyone looks at it as a day off. This has never been my understanding and I’m a little confused by it. I was informed at the beginning of my job that Recess Day was a half day event, and the Enrichment day took up the other half (this was to replace the day long retreat that we used to have off site). So because I have thought this I came into work at the normal time – 7:30 – worked until 9 then went to get the buses ready to go and check on details. Recess finished at 2:15 and I went back to work…a few others did as well. But the majority of people went home.

This has always been my beef with this day. I feel guilty when I can go and others in, say the Bookstore, cannot because they don’t have the staffing to cover all their shifts. But those who can just close down their desk, office, shop, whatever – they just go home without a care in the world. Either it needs to be all for all or none. Either everyone should get to go on staff day and then take the rest of the day off /or/ everyone should get to go on staff day but go back to work afterward. And if we stick with this same policy then those who cannot go on recess day (not that they won’t but that they can’t) they should get a half day off some other time – or a full day since that seems to be the trend. The fact that it’s like a holiday for some but not others isn’t right in my book.

But then again, maybe it’s just my own issue since I seem to have a lot of them so what do I know.

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Last night was great though…I took Carol to hear the Jaztronauts. We’re checking out different bands for an October event and I’ve been asking for them for over a year. J I officially met Joe and chatted with them about the event a little. Kevin came and Kevin’s sister and bro-in-law later to listen and then they were going to go out to eat. We also invited Rick and Nina. By 7:30 Rick showed – we were getting worried – but unfortunately the Jaztro’s were doing a lot of kid-friendly material last night since they were at a family gig. That was a little sad because I really wanted Rick to hear how they really are. Oh well…he seemed to like them anyway. Now it’s just negotiating the price. I love these guys and I hope it’ll work out.

Going to the Jaztro’s delayed my time in getting to the church for choir. I got there just as they were finishing up so I met up with Debbie and we headed to Boom! for drinks with the boys: Mark, Jeff, Paul, Mark, Tim. It was a good time though hanging in a gay bar isn’t usually my first choice. But Mark and I chatted quite a bit and bonded a little bit more.