Is the mountain really blue?
Just got back from a week of audit training at Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario. We went up on Sunday afternoon and came back to Toronto on Friday evening. Most of each day while we were there was spent in class, but in the evenings we did have some time to relax and hang out with friends and coworkers. Some of the stores in the small village at Blue Mountain Inn closed rather early, though, so there wasn't actually too much for us to do other than hanging out in each other's townhouses -- we were all staying within Blue Mountain Inn, but all of us were in different townhouse units with at least 3 of us in each. Not a bad setup; each townhouse had its own kitchen, living room, bathroom(s) and all that. Apparently, some of them even had saunas in them; I don't think mine did, or the door to it was locked. I don't know. I doubt I would've wanted to use it anyway.
On the first evening (Sunday) a group of us rushed through a quick dinner at Pita Pit -- there was only one employee there and she took all of our orders and then made all of the pitas all at once, so it took a while -- before heading out to what had been referred to as a "Welcome Reception Cocktail" in our itineraries. It turns out all that rushing was kind of for naught, because there was no formal presentation or anything scheduled at the reception, and there weren't so much cocktails as just wine, beer or water. We'd thought they'd at least tell us what we'd be doing the next day (we had an itinerary already, yes, but the times on it were tentative at best), but no. So we lingered for a bit until we got too tired -- we hadn't even unpacked yet and I for one had changed into my nicer clothes in about 2 minutes and left my room looking like a minor disaster area -- and everything was fine until I got back to my townhouse and realized my keycard wasn't working. Of course. I'd forgotten to keep the card separate from my camera case, which has a magnetic closure. When I ordered the case, the description specifically said the closure was Velcro, and it had the same model number as the one I got sent, so I don't know what happened there. Anyway, I was outside the door to my townhouse, it was 9:30 PM and it was quite dark in the absence of any street lights, so rather than waiting around for one of my housemates to come back with a keycard, I went over to a coworker's unit. I knew she'd be home because we'd just come back on the hotel shuttle van together, so that's where I headed. Used the phone there and was told that someone would bring me a new card. Found out that my new friend's (she went to the same university as I did, but we never officially met) older sister used to work with my older brother at the accounting firm my brother used to work at, and we noted that we were the second incarnation of respective siblings working together. I think she's working downtown, though, and I'm working uptown in North York, so technically we won't actually see much of each other, in all likelihood.
Monday night was something else. Big rainstorm. Big group activity scheduled, rain or shine. Big scavenger hunt all over the Blue Mountain Inn grounds. It wasn't actually that bad with the rain; sure, we all got plenty soaked, but we all had plastic ponchos on which helped a little (even if the hoods would not stay up at all) and somehow I managed to avoid splashing into any of the really large puddles along the way even though we were running around like madpeople everywhere. The only drawback really was that I could barely tell what some of the people in my group looked like, and because we were busy running and avoiding getting drenched all night, that didn't leave much room for introductions or bonding. Ah well. It was fun anyway. At one of the checkpoints, there was a riddle that we had to write down the answer to: "Would you rather a crocodile attack you or an alligator?" I immediately gave the right answer -- I don't know, I'm not that smart. I think I'd probably heard it before somewhere -- but nobody believed me. I was like, JUST WRITE IT DOWN! Anyway, later on the riddle was explained to everybody, and, um, the explanation I'd been giving before hadn't actually been right...but nobody'd understood what I was trying to say anyway, and I did get the right answer, so it's all good. :)
Tuesday was mostly uneventful; Wednesday we had a "banquet dinner" that turned out to be a 3-hour session on business etiquette at meals. Some of the stuff that the Etiquette Lady was telling us was just ridiculously impractical, though, but some of it was okay. I figure as long as you know the generally accepted practices of polite public eating -- you know, like which fork to use, where to put things, etc. etc. -- then you'll be fine, really. All it takes is a bit of knowledge and more common sense. Anyway, by the time the main entrée came around, none of us were very hungry anymore. I mean, we'd all sat down at 6 PM, and we weren't finished until 9 PM. Oh well. At least the food was good.
Thursday was again uneventful; we went to a Karaoke thing at 10 PM but it was kind of a wash, and Friday we didn't have to wear business casual to class because it was a short day before our buses left at 4 PM. My facilitators noticed that I'd fallen asleep in class at least once every day! D'oh! Fortunately for me, I think they all work at the downtown office. I was hoping they hadn't noticed, but I was sitting right in the center table all week...
Now we're all back home, and tomorrow we're having a Volunteer Day. I'm going to help with Heart & Stroke's tax receipts, whatever that means -- some people are going to plant trees; it's all been pre-assigned -- and then we're going for dinner in the Distillery District. Should be interesting.
Oh, p.s. - It's the 25th anniversary of ALA's Banned Books Week this year from September 23rd to 30th. Check out the
BBW Resource Guide Short List to find out which books were banned or challenged in 2005-2006 and why.
POLL: Which of these books banned/challenged in 2005-2006 have you read?
