Yesterday, I spent the day running around looking for items for a party we were throwing at the house for the Resident Shrink's birthday, and driving to Casa da Fruta to get the specific type of glazed apricots covered in chocolate she likes, and calling game stores and book stores and Judaica stores in a futile attempt to locate "Apples to Apples, the Jewish Edition." (She ended up getting an Amazon.com printout of the game, due to arrive Tuesday.) The day before I had spent trying to get a VGA cable and VGA-Thunderbolt adapter.* Oh, and going to the Giradhelli factory outlet*** store in San Leandro to get all the chocolate I lost in betting the Resident Shrink's mother on the outcome of the National Conference Championship. (Had the Niners won, I would have gotten Real New York Bagels. Rats.) And my regular Thursday afternoon group.
Last night was the party at our house. I was actually social for a whole three hours! I am not a party person. Although I can spend hours on end with people I like and know well, three hours at a party was a stretch, since I was not engaged in a joint project or game.**** (Give me a game -- almost any game -- and I will hang out with even total strangers forever.)
Today was spent in appraiser training for Destination Imagination, a wonderful program for schoolkids that pushes them to exercise creativity and judgment in solving challenges. One of the best parts is that no one outside the team -- including parents -- can help them. At all. Which from a parental standpoint takes a lot of pressure off, only to be replaced with the stress of having to bite your tongue to not say "That thing is never going to fly." Four years ago, when the Red-Headed Menace was in DI, I volunteered to be an appraiser and chose to be the Timekeeper/Announcer. I have been doing it every year since, even after I ceased to have a kid involved in the program. Being TKA allows me to indulge the frustrated actor in me, and means I don't actually have to judge anyone. I hang out with the kids beforehand for a few minutes, which is fun, and then present them to the audience. (I always do the improv challenge. It is amazing what really bright elementary and middle school kids can come up with in five minutes, given a relatively small amount of information.)
I have been cheerful and charming throughout. But after all that, I think this t-shirt is very much in order.
*Note to self, before I forget it: You still need to hunt down the HDMI-Thunderbolt adaptor. Try Fry's.** Or the Apple store.
**For those out of the SF Bay Area, Fry's is Geek Nirvana. Sort of like Radio Shack, only much much bigger and with more annoying commercials. Each store (at least of the original several -- I don't know if it is still true) has a different "theme." I shop at the "Old West" store in Palo Alto -- I seem to recall that the one in Campbell has a "Babylonian" Theme.
***I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a chocolate company having an outlet store. And it's just down the road from the Entemann's Bakery outlet store, which just isn't fair.
****Oddly enough, I am fine in a workplace situation, even a work-related social situation such as a coworker's birthday party, perhaps because in those situations there is something to talk about.
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