Cornholer

About once a quarter, my work host little get-togethers where we can mingle with each other and get to know our co-workers better.  The first one happened right after I started, but since it was a so-called "booze cruise" and I barely knew anyone, I decided to skip it.  Yesterday, we had our summer one and it happened during the last two hours of the workday, so even if I wanted to skip it, I kind of had to go.

The funny thing about these office parties is that, at least at first, we just talk to the people we talk to everyday.  I sat down at the table where my boss was sitting and a few other people with whom we regularly collaborate joined us.  I was having a fine time, eating catered food and talking about non-work related stuff, but I wasn't meeting anyone, which I'm pretty sure is at least part of the point of these things.

Then the games started.  There were a two sets of cornhole boards set up and I joined in.  I played on a team with an intern that I had never met and we played against my frequent collaborator, Ernie, and the President of Danfoss North America.  Now, while I am fairly athletic, I am not a sporty person.  I simply do not have a lot of practice throwing objects with the goal of having them land in a specific place, so I wasn't very good.  I wasn't terrible (my teammate kind of was), but due to the way scoring works in cornhole, we lost by a large margin.  As the loser, I graciously bowed out and was quickly invited to join in on the other set of boards.  There, I was teamed with someone that I had seen around, but now finally learned his name.  I lost on this team too, but the margin was much closer this time.  And since I'm so uncompetitive, I had fun anyway.

These sorts of works parties can often be awkward, so it was especially nice that this was so fun.