Rollercoaster to the Bottom

We went to RezRez‘s Christmas Party last night. It was awful. Drinks were $6.50 (hip flasks courtesy of Farshad were an easy solution to that problem). But that was only the beginning.

First up, Stan Sprenger, the company’s CEO. Imagine you were the CEO of a company, set to deliver a speech to the 300-plus employees and guests attending the corporate Christmas party. Would you consider the following anecdote appropriate?

I was at the mall today, and I saw a little blond girl get up on Santa’s knee.
“What do you want for Christmas?” Santa asked.
“I want Barbie and GI Joe!” the little girl proclaimed.
Santa looked confused at this request.
“I don’t understand. Doesn’t Barbie come with Ken?” Santa asked.
“No. Barbie comes with GI Joe. She only fakes it with Ken.”

Probably not. I don’t think I know a single self-respecting executive officer who would consider that an appropriate joke for a corporate Christmas function. But it didn’t stop there.

There were the little barbs volleyed by the Chief Operating Officer during her introduction of the CEO. Perhaps they were subtle enough that most people didn’t notice, but I detected the distinct edge of frost in the COO’s delivery of some carefully chosen jokes sent in the CEO’s direction.

About halfway through last night, everyone at the party transformed in my mind into Sims characters. I even saw the body language of those engaged in conversation match those of Sims characters, all exaggerated and overly animated. I felt very alone in that room. It’s not just that I didn’t know a lot of the people there or that I didn’t fit the age demographic of the company (newly graduated high school teens in the call center, mid-thirties burnouts everywhere else). The thing that really struck me was just how much I couldn’t relate to the people I was around.

I mean, yes, it’s a party. People are looking to have fun and be a little silly. But there was something else at work last night. I couldn’t actually imagine myself ever being like one of those people. They were so…unsophisticated. Low brow. Or for lack of a better word, stupid.

I’ve always thought that most people are as smart as I am, at least from the point of view of common sense. Maybe it wasn’t an explicit assumption, but I now realize it’s probably the reason people fail to meet my expectations a lot of the time. I know the people at the party weren’t stupid, just that they had a different set of priorities and values. But I can’t help wondering: why can’t I share those values? Why can’t I just let go, forget about trying to make a difference and just enjoy the rollercoaster ride to the bottom?

Fun In The Sun

It’s a rare occasion in Vancouver for the sun to shine on a weekend, the fickle visitor preferring to taunt the inhabitants of Lotus Land on Thursday before departing for an early weekend sometime around lunch on Friday. However, the unprecedented sunshine of the last two weekends was enough to drag even a photophobic nerd like myself to seek a source of Vitamin D other than my CRT. So, what to do in the sun?

Aaahhh! We're gonna die and this raft will be our casket!Well, how about some rafting? We spent the weekend before last on a getaway with Ashley’s employer, Resort Reservations, up at Whistler enjoying a day out with Whistler River Adventures. We took a nice “trip” down the Birkenhead Rver near Pemberton, paddling like fanatics and pretending to control our destiny. And then back to the ranch for barbeque. Mmm…barbeque.

The only bummer part of our weekend in Whistler was the Blackcomb Lodge. Though the accommodations themselves were nice, their location in the heart of Whistler Village was, well, unsuitable. We were located on the “noisy” side, directly across from one of the restaurants…it was so noisy, I thought the cleaners had left the window open in our room. Alas, no.

Note to self: never stay at Blackcomb Lodge again.

After recuperating at work all week, we headed out to C-Fest, a beginner’s Ultimate tournament, with our fearless team leader Evan. Though we’d never played Ultimate before, except for the two practices we had beforehand, we did pretty well, had a lot of fun and, most importantly, didn’t do ourselves any irreparable serious injury. Well, most of us anyway. Ashley pulled a groin muscle and I’m currently walking like an old man because my ankles are sore, but other than that nothing major.

Next weekend is Farshad‘s boat party. So much for a quiet summer spent sleeping. Oh well.