Mood For the Day

Today's Mood on Tue, 1 Jul 1997

I got to lead a group of nine children around our work building.

I took them in and around our work building, especially through our QA (testing) department. Every children's tour of this company (it was a software game company) seemed to gravitate towards the QA department. Go figure (-:

The tour began as much does in my life: completely unexpectedly. I'd heard that the tour was coming in, and all of PR was going to be out that day, and that they had asked me (you've got to be kidding) to take over a brief tour for the children.

(Can you imagine anyone in a professional capacity trusting me to lead around a group of young minds for even a moment?)

Anyhow, when my phone rang telling me that my tour was here, I hastily checked my calendar (I really need to learn how to read a calendar) and found that yup, they were due today (and not next week as I had somehow thought) and, moreover, that they were twenty minutes early.

I led them on a slow march around the building to buy me some time. I'm amazingly fortunate that our offices are not only in lovely California, but in the middle of nowhere to boot, with plenty of trees and scenery all around.

(Of course, I'm not sure that the teachers who were there to chaperone particularly appreciated my ensuing tirade on how we uprooted a deer run to create this corporate enterprise in landscaping development, nor of how we had no right to take away their home, but the KIDS seemed to enjoy my spiel, and we did get a good tour out of it.)

There are many ledges around our building. This is difficult to describe if you haven't seen it, but it doesn't really matter. The point is, I'm accustomed to walking on fences and ledges (don't ask); so it's become automatic for me to choose a ledge over a sidewalk.

So as the outside tour wound its way to one of the ledges and I hopped on, I had no idea what I was starting. When I turned around to make a point, I was astonished to find all nine little ducklings following Mikey the Mama Duck, teetering adorably to keep their balance as I had come to do through long practice. More brownie points I completely failed to score with the chaperones.

(I decided to have a little fun: more than one bored worker gazed idly out their window that morning to be stared back at by nine little grinning gremlins all lined up like observers at a zoo; handprints against the window like a vertical game of Twister.)

There wasn't much more to tell about the experience, except that it was a wonderful hour that probably never should have happened -- the chaperones also probably didn't appreciate my teaching the children to say "UGLY" every time I pointed at one of the pictures our artistically anemic HR director had placed strategically around the inside of the building.

(The poor chaperones -- I gave them each a little carry-bag to thank them for their patience.)

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