The Second Post

They say second is the best. Well, I peaked fast.
This post better not be the creme de la creme of all future postings. But, I found today's happenings amusing and you might also.

Today, I learned a valuable life lesson: you never, ever really have to grow up.

Anecdote: My boss's boss's boss's boss stole my shoes.
Elaboration: I work at a 500 person organization where everyone works incredibly hard to raise a ton of money to help millions of people. That's awesome. What's even more awesome is the way everyone keeps their spirits up. Lots of nice people bring in baked goods and important people go around thanking their staff for all their hard work. Other people lighten the workday with childish pranks. Like a senior VP steals an intern's (my) shoes.

I have run into shoe problems before. I'd much rather be barefoot all the time. In fact, I have been known to be barefoot at the wrong times. My freshman year of college, a professor took off nearly a full letter grade for my lack of professional decorum: I had been slipping off my shoes under the table and maybe once or twice, walked over to the printer barefoot. It was a three hour class and, as I said, I like being barefoot. No one should be forced to sit still for that long, much less wear shoes for that long. Anyway, being a good talker and generally, a well-behaved and cooperative student, I was able to reclaim some of the lost grade. And, I learned a valuable lesson - wear your shoes in a professional setting.

Apparently, I did not learn the lesson very well.

Today, I was chatting with some interns after returning from a cupcake break for which I had worn my flippyfloppies and I looked down and noticed my nice work heels were gone. Vanished.

I blamed another intern. Only people under legal drinking age would do these kinds of childish pranks, right? Oh-so-wrong. It was a fortysomething, world-renowned executive who had decided to play a trick on me. Since all executives in big buildings have spies, he somehow knew I was freaking out about the shoes and called my deskphone with 60 seconds. I marched down to his office in another intern's shoes, two sizes too big and rather clownish on my feet, and we had an ebullient smackdown regarding the missing shoes. He fooled me, expected me to break the dress code with flipflops in his office, and I shocked him with my co-intern's way-too-big flats. Boom. (I think he still won this round. And interns probably should not retaliate. Maybe.)

Anyway, it made the workday unparalleledly extroardinary, filled with laughter and commotion.

It doesn't matter if you're an intern who spends the day snacking, getting manicures, watching bachelorette recaps, and occasionally making phone calls for 'work purposes' or you're the champion leader of fundraising at a multimillion dollar charitable organization. Occasionally, the littlest childish things make the best moments.

And that's what propels you to get back to work even harder than before, with the energy that can only come from such youth-driven playful spirit. Why quarantine such childishness to the home when it can really bring power to the Manhattan cubicle? Maybe someone figured this out before me, which would explain the cupcake decorating party yesterday. Finger-painting next week?

Or, we could all just blow off the summer steam with a brand-new blog.