Make Me Sweat/Cool It

Today was our administrative staff retreat. Unlike retreats at former jobs, where we all sit around off-site for a day, coming up with goals that are rarely met, this one was different. We'd volunteer at a non-profit [in this case, Square Peg Foundation] and then have lunch at the beach. I felt very lucky that my colleague JL offered to pick me up since I lived on the way to the place. The only drawback was having to ride with The Girl Who Sighs. [She's a bit of an attention-craving drama princess.] But even luckier for me, when JL picked me up at the Park & Ride, only JW [the office hottie--JL is just totally cute and fun] was in the car! I didn't even ask why The Girl Who Sighs [TGWS] wasn't there.

We got lost heading out there [we asked for directions 3 times; the first two people we asked were no help, with the second of the two being a petite woman built like a boy], but with great company and Outkast playing, we weren't too concerned. In fact, we hoped most of the dirty work would be delegated by the time we got there, but no such luck. We were the second to last group to arrive, and after a not-so-clear introduction to the mission of the Foundation, we got to work. Here's a photo of JL:
The hat he's wearing actually has a Corona label on the front, but since this foundation works with kids, he thought it would be wise to cover it...with the only thing he could find: a Pride 2007 sticker.

Although one of the choices was gardening [which I'd picked at the risk of looking like the perfect stereotype], I ended up cleaning tack [wiping saddles and bits with soapy water] with TGWS and 2 other colleagues. We finished pretty early, so we were asked to help clean stalls...fortunately, while the others acted as pooper scoopers, I simply had to sweep the remaining dirt/cedar/dry waste out of the stalls. That meant while I was waiting to sweep, I could hang out with the African pygmy goats named Cinammon and Chocolate [and boy, are they well fed--they were fat!] and two cats.

As we stood around waiting for two slackers who were still clearing brush, we noticed that the backseat of the car I rode in was a mess--you couldn't even tell that I had ridden back there. TGWS said, "You could ride with me, since I drove all by myself..." I mumbled something about having all my stuff in the other car, and as I reached in to find something, JL leaned close and said, "You're not gonna ditch us, are you?" I whispered back, "Hell no. You guys are too fun to ditch!"

Finally, we headed out to the beach for lunch. It was cold and windy, as expected, but some of us still made our way down to the beach despite the treacherous climb [talk about team-building].

Only a few of us ventured down the cliff to the beach; the guys played catch [shirtless, no less...] and 3 of us sat on a blanket to watch after dipping our feet in the surf since the sun had come out. Around 3PM, after some good convo, we headed to the Pescadero Thrift Shop [where JL bought an Elmo plush big enough to be strapped in with a seat belt] and then the boys took me home. Since they picked me up at the Park & Ride, I thanked JL for not making me walk all the way down from there, and he seemed offended that I would actually think he'd do such a thing.

Tomorrow is the managers' retreat, which means most of our bosses will be out all day. Yay! I get to wear jeans again!