Monterey Day One: In which I am led to water, but do not drink, and my wild life contains more wildlife...

Last night we had a "social" where we all dutifully enjoyed our drink ticket to buy our choice of Bud , Bud Light, Miller, or Raspberry Smirnoff Ice. I think you know what I chose.
This guy was the entertainment. He sang union anthems and political parodies. Sort of a folksier, liberal Mark Russell. But check out his guitar! See how the tuners are all on the base? And it's made from fallen redwood and some other environmentally friendly wood. Like no trees were harmed in the making of this instrument, dig?
Have I explained just what the hell I'm doing here? The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the national school employees union I belong to. Some of you may also know that I'm the chapter chair (essentially a shop steward/site rep) for UTLA (our local) at Hoover Street Elementary. Anyways, last year I saw an ad in the newsletter for a paid trip to Monterey to learn about Union Leadership. So I took advantage, and I'm back again this year. I go back to school with a brand new crop of fifth-graders on the 5th, so it's nice to get this retreat-like break before the madness starts up again.

I'm staying in the Pirate's Den. See, this whole place (Asilomar Retreat and Conference Center) used to be a YWCA camp. During that time (the turn of the century), the male employees all lived in this building.
They would always sneak into the dining halls after meals and steal uneaten food off the plates. So they earned the nickname, "Pie Rats." When they heard this, they changed it to pirates, and now there's all these old group photos from the 20s showing the Pirates. How delightfully droll.A happy little bird.

The last time I was here I took a course entitled Union 1o1, where I learned the basics. Now I'm in Leadership. Today was all about some arbitrary Styles of Leadership survey. No, Micah, not the Myers-Briggs. I WISH it was the Myers-Briggs. That makes sense to me. First of all, before we all took the thing, they made a big deal about how there's no wrong answers and all but there totally WAS a right answer! According to the results (and, as we all know, the only really true and accurate way to measure something is through the use of a standardized test) my leadership style is one of supportive leadership. As in, actually getting things done takes a secondary priority to making people feel comfortable and valued. So sue me.

What's so surprising is that I can't stand people. How could I put their dinky needs in front of the collective good? This whole thing must be a load of crap. It's called Teleometrics, which totally sounds like one of those pseudo-sciences like "phrenology" and "dianetics" and "psychology".
It's nice up here, you know?
A little of the local flora and fauna. It's Orliss country up here. You can almost see them gamboling around the underbrush, Micah wrestling with a mountain lion while Maret watches from a tree, cuddling with a squirrel, composing a sonnet to his bravery.
Hey there, little fella!
So after dinner I took this little mini-course on improving my Public Speaking. I have this problem where I don't ever end a sentence so it's like I just keep on talking long after I've already made my point and so I keep belaboring it when really I should just shut up and not be afraid of a pause. It's an issue.
More later...