My company picnic is better than yours

OK, as I was leaving my company summer picnic last night, my new boss Matt asked me, "So what did you think?"

I told him, "Uhhh ... at my last job we had a pot luck for a summer picnic which we held in the conference room."

Suffice to say, this was a bit better.

As you all know, I work for quite a large company that's owned by an even larger company. This obviously has it's pros and cons, but the pros so far seem to have the edge.

I had been pretty excited about it for a few months, and was stoked it fell on one of my off days. Jeff on the other hand was ECSTATIC, he was so so excited to come. (Side note: No family or friends invited to Jeff's company picnic, so I wasn't there to enjoy his watermelon eating contest victory in person).

He was mostly excited because the powers that be at my company had rented out an entire amusement park in Connecticut to host the party. On top of that, food, rides, games, etc were all free. 

We went down a little bit early so Jeff could get the tour of "campus" by my boss. The compound my company has in Bristol is pretty impressive. While working from home is nice, I hope to get to work THERE some day -- even if it is in Connecticut. 

By 2 we were pretty hungry so we decided to head over to the park.

As we walked to the gates we were greeted with some SWAG -- free bags that a lot of people ended up using during the day. The first thing we did was grab a little bit of food -- chicken fingers and fries. Since I knew the day could be a dangerous food fest I only had one finger and a few fries and a bottle of water.

(Side note: What an amazing experience it is to be able to go to an amusement park and not have to worry about money. The only downside is that it probably promoted a little more waste than usual. I tried not to do that.)

So after he was done eating, Jeff started in on me. I should say at this point, that I don't like amusement park rides that are aimed to "thrill." I don't like roller coasters, I don't like anything that goes fast or flips you upside down. I tried to reason with Jeff that I wouldn't care about waiting for him to ride rides if he wouldn't hassle me about not going on them. Well, it didn't really work. He went on the first ride by himself, begrudgingly.

(That's him in the second to top row, sitting by himself in the white long-sleeved shirt).

While he was on the ride, I tried to scan the park for a ride that didn't seem so bad. I saw one of those swinging ship rides that rocks back and forth. It seemed ok.

So we went on that next, and Jeff immediately jumped in the back (ie. worst) row. The ride started up and I freaked. I hate that feeling of "weightlessness" that so many people love. Really, I know that makes me a wimp in a lot of people's minds, but I can't help it. I was shaking, and Jeff was whispering to me, "OK. I won't make you go on any more rides."

Well. That's settled then.

So Jeff spent the next few hours riding the rides around the course while I waited for him. We had been given 6 "game tickets" each which basically meant we could play 6 games for free. Jeff decided to spend one of his on this golf game where you had to hit the green to win a prize.

Looks like good form right? Yikes. Let's just say at one point I yelled out "Didn't you play on the high school golf team?!"

Moving on, Jeff was able to convince me to go on the "Wild Rapids" ride. You know where they put you on one of those big tubes and you basically get soaked. I figured I had to do SOMETHING with him at this point, so I obliged. 

Fortunately, I didn't get THAT wet. Jeff on the other hand ... 

We played around in the park for a little while longer and Jeff won me a stuffed animal playing 'Whack-a-Mole" (Awww, my hero!) Then we found a ride I actually did like, a haunted house ride where you shot at the ghosts to gain points. Jeff beat me all three times we rode :(

We decided to head over to the dinner buffet around six. Again, I was trying to eat light, having a veggie burger, a piece of chicken and some green beans. Oh, and a glass of wine. (Did I mention the booze was free too?)

They also had games over by the food, including one game where they shot a football out of a machine, and you had to dive onto a big foam mat to catch it. Guess who wanted to play?

He caught it, thus winning us a free t-shirt. (You didn't have to play to win.)

At this point we met up with my boss to eat and chat for a while before going back into the park for more rides, games, etc. Remember how I've been saying I tried to eat well? Well, that kind of goes out the window when there's free fried dough. Yummmm....

Jeff absolutely hates when I make him take these pictures. He says his smile always seems fake and tries to get me to say something funny before we take it. I'm only posting this first one because he looks nice, and I'm trying to ignore how bad I look... 

The night wrapped up with fireworks set to some questionable musical choices and Jeff and I headed home around 10 oclock, which should have had us home around 11:30. Unfortunately, we hit about 45 minutes of "night construction" traffic which put just a little damper on the day.

We were EXHAUSTED when we got home and fell right asleep. This morning, when Jeff stopped by to give me my morning kiss before he left for work he said, "I had so much fun yesterday, babe. Good job ... literally."

Yeah, I think I'll keep it ... at least until the Christmas party.