The Lab

Working in a lab, you tend to find yourself surrounded by smart, yet painfully under-socialized, folks.  My crew are very dedicated to their research.  Button pushing, staring at blinking lights, and blowing up stuff leaves less time for maintaining relationships with real people and not just the voices in your head.   Plus it can be hard to maintain a social life when you work so many hours.

However, since we occasionally need to work with actual people, it helps to come out of the proverbial bubble now and then.  At times I think this may be why I was hired.  Not because of my 8 years as a lab rat or my fabulous analytical skills, but because I have the ability to converse with other human beings (although I prefer speaking to cats).  That, and I’m adorable *tosses hair, bats eyes*.

One of my favorite activities is organizing work outings and other social events.  We don’t screw around enough to be unproductive, but enough to relieve stress.  “Work hard, play hard” is one of our Overlord’s mottos.  Usually there will be certain signs when it’s time for a play-date.  Folks will talk to themselves (more than usual) and even start answering themselves.  Some of the more shy ones will begin to make eye contact and give you ‘that look’.  Kinda like a puppy that needs to go outside to pee and doesn’t know how to ask.  Then there’s the tell-tale eye twitch.  Having a lab full of twitchy people is dangerous, distracting, and just plain unattractive.   Full-out muscle twitches are not as common, so when I see them it’s a pretty good indication that someone’s self-medicating on home-made Valium (but they never share!!).  Incidents of crying in the bathroom will increase so that trying to use the facilities becomes disturbing.

Once these signs are present, I make a few phone calls and see who I can blackmail a budget from.  I must say, our outings are the envy of all the other departments.  We’ve gone on Duck Tours, played at F1 racing in Boston, taken an Odyssey Boston Harbor cruise, and popped down to Newport, RI for a mansion tour and dinner train.

Our Boston Duck Tour Boat and Guide (“The Joker”)

F1 Racing

Newport Mansions

Newport, RI
Dinner Train

Other departments are usually regulated to performing volunteer work.  Now we have a company-wide outing to 6 Flags (hehehe, I had a hand in that too), so those departments don’t have to be sad anymore.

Sometimes we’ll have a potluck lunch.  T’is pretty awesome.  We have so many people from different nationalities that the food is very diverse.  And plentiful – we’ll offer nom noms to other departments as bribes for when we need them to do our bidding.

Some of the said noms:

mmmmmm, desserts!

Flan and Creme Brule

Sushi!

Salad, Fruit, and Veggie Bar

Grilled marinated chicken kabobs

Deviled Eggs

Greek Soup

As a bonus, I have found the crew really loves to play Bingo.  Lots.  They get so excited, especially when there are prizes.  One holiday party we were going to opt for a Yankee gift swap instead of Bingo, but everyone got so sad about missing Bingo.  So we did both.  And it was a big hit.

Holiday Themed Bingo!

Yankee Gift Swap: sooo many shiney packages!

Sponge Bob Chia completes me.

Everyone was getting together and laughing / talking.  *sniffles, wipes tear away* I was so proud…  Afterwards I saw a group of ~20 people having an actual social conversation that didn’t involve work.  Actually, I think it was about puppies hoovering weird stuff like underwear, but whatever works!

Later this spring when the weather warms up I’d like to get everyone over to Purgatory Chasm in Sutton.

We’ve been there before on a half-day, but that was in late summer when it was very hot.  This time it might be better to go while it’s still cool in the season.  Maybe walk the trails and get some exercise.  Lately the only time we get outside and see the sun is when someone pulls the fire alarm.  Love that guy, he’s awesome.

I’ve also heard of Watson Adventures holding scavenger hunts at places like the Museum of Fine Arts.  It sounds like good harmless fun, plus if it rains we can still play.

http://www.watsonadventures.com/

Anyone have any group outing ideas for the MA area?  Preferably something that wouldn’t cause an injury or involve sharp objects (killing lab rats is frowned upon).