Volleyball

A few days back I noticed that my calender reflected "Dulles Summer Picnic : July 27". In the barrage of invites we get, I had forgotten about what this event was? It was supposed to be a picnic/get together of all the people working in the company for a game of volleyball and lunch.

Lunch? Thats great!. I dont have to think about what to take to office on that morning. I, as is the practise, would stuff my stomach up so that I dont need any fillers until night. And you get couple of hours off from work too.

Volleyball? What the heck was that for? Do we play against someone ( I always imagine myself engaging in any kind of activity that I am suppose to 'attend'). I asked Ryan, the other intern, and he certainly did not have an answer for me. The thought was in the back of my head until I received an email couple of days back.

The email read something like:

"...The teams are 6 players each and there needs to be at least 1 girl on the team....
For the winning team, each player will recieve a $50.00 Best Buy gift certificate... "

First thoughts? You guessed it. $50.00. Nice.

6 people needed? Not a problem. I promptly got onto the office messenger and messaged Richie that he was on my team ( no questions asked). Richie is the always-enthu-yo-man-I-am-the-coolest- guy in office ( and he has some serious style; great drummer and body builder). Having him on the side ensured that I would look forward to playing the game simply because of his live wire nature (although I have never played it for more than 20 mins ever). In the evening, I walked upto Mike (yeah, the same Mike from the previous post). "You're in my team" Again, no questions asked. Yesterday, I asked Frank if he would like to be on the team too ( He is young and tall and one of my managers). One more in. Frank has a great spirit and would definitely be an asset to the team. While I was discussing whom to take next, with Richie, Chris said he would play. We play a lot of foosball with Chris and hence there was no question of saying no to him. Lauren, who sits next to Richie and is one of the very very few girls here, agreed after some cajoling.

Great. Now we have a team. We kept Ryan as an extra, so that he does not feel left out. Mailed Lisa that we would like to name the team as "iOfense". Hmm. She replied, and as is the case with personal assistants to VPs, she CCed to the entire office.

Great again. On my next 'chai' trip, my Indian friends surrounded me and asked why I did not take them into 'my' team. Well, it was fast decision and we just didn't. No issues. But Lisa inadvertantly had sparked off something. This morning I had my mailbox full of I-wanna-play-to-and-I-pressed-the-reply-to-all-button mails. Within sometime it was clear that we just had Lauren as only the girl who would have to double up for 2 teams. What? Are people nuts? What if the two teams clash? How does one go about from there?

Alright. Best option to hunt for girls in a tech firm : HR. And who would be better than Seema. She was the one who conducted our intern-join-in-orientation. Expectations soar and then come down within a minute. She would be out of office. But I could try Laura who works with her. Laura agrees.

Reply-to-everyone."We have Laura in my team". What? Who is she? Can she play? How did you know her? She is not from our group. I also want to play. That mail seemed to have further awakened the player within everyone in office and broke the record of maximum mails received in a day.

By evening today, we have 3 teams (with 6 players each) from our division (there are many such divisions, God knows how many opponents we have). Lisa's daughter might be filling in for the 3rd female. Why? Come to me, I will get you another female player from HR. But who cares?

I am looking forward to the 27th. We should be getting some practise sessions in the coming days. It should be fun. $50. Bring it on!!