I am enjoying a wonderful cafe mocha, one of my favorite coffee’s. It is actually a treat as I do not have it on a daily basis. I usually just brew a breakfast blend and use a sweet Italian cream. I do not drink black coffee, it has to have a little sweetener which I usually get from a sweet cream. What’s your favorite coffee? I have been trying to experiment trying latte’s and macchiato’s and this is at the local coffee shop as I do not have any of those fancy coffee machines. I do like teas too, would you rather have a cup of tea?

This last week was a busy week, and it was full of challenges. The first challenge was attending the team building event that my work put together for my peers and I (all the managers). I am a sensitive shy person so get together’s and events like this I find challenging to attend. But attend I must and boy, I have never been so challenged. 😀

Before I share more photo’s I must tell you about the event. We all met for lunch at a local restaurant in Newport Beach and after lunch we all embarked on a Murder Mystery Event. My manager arranged everything and by picking names out of a hat divided us all up into teams. She then got t-shirts for each group in different colors that she decorated by silk-screening the names that the team captains chose onto the shirts! Oh my, bless her heart for all this work! We had blue t-shirts in our group of four. I knew going into this challenge that we would lose, isn’t that the most terrible thing to say? BUT I ALWAYS LOSE! Haha, I am terrible at team games, and I have played my fair share of them throughout my life.

I am the quintessential middle child, so much so that I am always the person going along for the ride. I am so mediocre meaning, I am a body to fill a void, I do not stand out in a group. I do not ever “win” and if I do its an anomaly – I am not competitive in a group – I would rather be invisible. That is JUST ME! I knew going into this challenge that the group I was with was all older individuals. The other teams were apprised of younger individuals which I believe have a one up on gaming, just my opinion. We would lose, what I didn’t know is how much we would lose. I think it was humiliating, especially when they laugh at you because our group could not even finish the course of events. The puzzles to figure out who was the murderer were SO HARD! We suffered great loss, coming in last. BUT the day was a gorgeous day and the weather beautiful! (Trying to stay positive!) 😀 ❤

I have competed and am competitive but it has to be an individual competition. Horse shows is where I would rather be, but here I am in Newport Beach struggling with my group and trying to figure out clues. During this process, we thought it easier to take photos to answer the unending questions and clues and when I went to take a photo I almost knocked down a parked bicycle and as I reached for the bike my right hand had my phone and I pulled back my arm in a jerking motion and my phone went flying! UGH, it fell and I cracked my screen. Grrr… this event ended up costing me over $250 as I had to get it repaired. This day was just not my day, the challenges so hard and this is just not my cup of tea. Have you ever done something like this? an Escape room maybe? I’ll stick to board games!

That reminds me how is your coffee? or did you end up with tea? I have to laugh. I never get angry about this kind of thing, I just get frustrated because I know you are suppose to have fun, but it wasn’t fun for me just really frustrating to struggle with my teammates trying to figure out puzzles and clues that were very difficult. BUT not difficult for the other two teams who found the murderer and one team finished in 3 1/2 hours the other in 4 1/2 hours. I think they give you about 5 hours to complete. What an afternoon…. with a broken phone (it still worked but I was sad I dropped it and shattered the front screen). My poor husband as I spend enough on horses, now I want my phone fixed ASAP and so I told him that’s what credit cards are for!! 😀 😀 😀

It’s funny because it is all just for fun, and we are to say, what a great day! But was it really? I had to find a friend to help me out as my farrier was scheduled to trim my horses hoofs the morning of this team event. I had to work the night before and thankfully my lead tech switch shifts with me so I could have the next night off, but I was running on empty maybe why my brain was not wanting to figure out puzzles. I helped a lot but not enough to finish the darn game. I am being brutally honest in this post because we can’t be honest at work. I can’t say this was not fun as people will say I have a negative attitude. I am just being honest, honestly how many really like doing team events with fellow workers you see day in and day out? I would rather be riding these beautiful ponies. That is the truth, I can’t help how I feel! ❤

I hope you are enjoying your coffee. We only do team events like this for the managers once a year. What do you find challenging? Do you ever get roped into something that may not be your cup of tea but you must participate? I would love to hear how you handle these situations.

I was pleasant as can be, well, I complained a little bit but with humor. I can laugh about it, but don’t we by nature all want to be winners? It is very difficult to be losers, I know by experience it’s not fun. I think it’s important to teach young people its okay to lose, take it with dignity. I think I did at least that. As I am writing this I am finding this going in a little bit different direction than I envisioned when I started this post. I am finding these words just flowing and have headed into a different direction but it is important to learn how to lose with grace. Maybe through my writings I think I am helping myself! Who knew how therapeutic this post would be for me. Thank you all for following and reading and I have learned that being a loser at games and fun events may not be fun but livable.

Always smiling, with grace and as much dignity as I can muster!

-Diana ❤