Our team had plenty of members: Darell, Mona, Al, Marvin, Jeff, Donna, and Carla - Jeff and Donna's daughter. Yes, that is where I got the idea Donna was called Carla. The others realized I didn't know Donna's name and got a kick out of me referring to her as Jeff's wife in my blog. It appears they misled me into thinking Carla was Donna's name. Tonight we all had a big laugh when they introduced Carla and they explained they knew I didn't know Donna's name for what seemed to be forever, and knew I had thought Donna was Carla for a few weeks.
Carla was visiting her parents and hometown for the weekend and her parents encouraged her to attend trivia with them. Mona and the group said that when I wrote up about Carla on this blog I should write something sexy about her; i.e. say that she works as a stripper in her spare time. The next the group did was make jokes about pole dancing with Carla joining in on the joke. Well, none of that is true. Carla is attractive and intelligent and looks like her mom. Carla won one of the quarter questions and took a Miller Lite t-shirt as her prize. In the regular contests I can't fault her for saying Venus was the planet with a blue sunset as I thought the same.
After the trivia contests were over I also learned Carla is getting her Masters in psychology and also has "spidey sense" as she shared an amusing spider-in-the-bathroom story with the group. Carla works for a company that creates job application personality questionnaires which I found to be fascinating as I have taken a number of personality tests and have an interest in this subject.
But... Carla and I got into a debate as, having taken a number of the tests, I wondered how accurate or foolproof they are. I found our discussion interesting, as a number of my close friends would nod their heads and expect of me, but Carla's and my debate came within about 5 minutes of first talking with her. I've found in the past that discussions like this too soon can annoy people as they can take it personally when what I am interested in is an intelligent discussion on some idea or concept where I can learn something.
Carla will be an excellent employee for her company as she adamantly defended the tests as I challenged, probed, and tried to learn more.
She also mentioned that IBM has implemented conflict resolution training since 2002. This was after I left IBM so I checked with some of my longtime colleagues at IBM and they never heard of it. I've found online a mention of a class IBM offers on this subject. I also see (via google) that conflict resolution seems to be a popular topics for companies.
Al came this night with Ed. Al is feeling better now, which is good as he provided answers for some of the questions.
With so many people I had to get another table to make three tables for people to sit around.
Ed may use my questions in the upcoming weeks since I will be back in Montana. I'll be curious if he does and how they went over. Perhaps he will tell Rod, and Rod will email me.
I was the bucket boy again this night. Some questions were answered correctly by the first person who guessed, and other questions gave me a workout as I had to walk around and around the room. The barmaid reminded me that I was missing the people sitting at the bar who wanted to guess. One woman at the bar was so drunk I initially didn't know if she was wanting to guess. She was. I got to her other times for guesses before she made a fuss.
One time I was so caught up in trying to figure out an answer to the written contest that I missed when Ed called out a quarters question. I had to jump up with the bucket real fast. Then later Ed missed when it was time for another quarters question and I had to remind him.
Our team didn't do all that great: 12 correct and then 14 correct. The 14 correct wasn't too bad as the winning team had 16 correct, but nonetheless it would have been nice to win again before I left for Montana.
Something was in the air as Mona and I were thinking alike. When Darrel was talking about something several times Mona made the exact same comment as I was about to make. Spooky? Or great minds thinking alike?
Mona is pushing for me to have a big bonfire when I get back to Montana, invite lots of people and have a big party. I think she believes that if I have big parties and invite lots of people I will get laid and have sex, as her telling me a few weeks ago that I need sex hasn't seemed to work in getting me laid.
Earlier when I was talking to Ed and Al about canoeing with Rod a week ago Mona teased me about "cannodling". "What, you were cannoodling? Who were you cannodling with?" Umm... no.
I noticed in the pool table area a man in a cowboy hat and the woman he was with. She seemed to put more energy into making out with him than in playing pool. There was no doubt he was 'getting lucky' later that night. "Get a hotel room!"
I had four drinks. The first two I got for being bucket boy, Darrel bought me one since it was my last night here, and later the bar owner sent a round of free drinks for our table. More than I usually drink but still I did better than the rest (Darrel, Mona, Jeff, Donna, and Carla) who stayed late. Some were feeling very good, loose, and funny. I wonder how some are feeling today. Some had to get up early today. And Carla... very early as she planned to get up at 3:30 am as she had a very early flight out of Minot.
Darrel, Mona, and I stayed till the bar's closing. The longest I've stayed. I'll miss trivia nights when I return to Montana. These are a good group of people - especially as I now know all their names.
Photo 1: Al and Ed
Photo 2: The group. (Note, the two guys behind us not facing the camera are from a different team)
Photo 3: Darrel. I had to include this photo as he closed his eyes in the group photo.
Lastly, a photo of Carla. I think she is ready to punch me during our discussion of job personality aptitude testing.
And with that... good night. I'm off to catch a train in so many hours.
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