I needed to take a day off work a few weeks ago. I didn’t have any particular kind of burnout. I just needed to get rid of a vacation day and wanted a little break.
Maria pointed out the perfect day for me to stay home. I found the choice a little strange because it was a Thursday. That would mean I would work three days, take a day off, then go back to work for one day.
I didn’t know about that because I didn’t want to come back to just one day of work. I couldn’t really take two days off though. I had a co-worker at an old job that would always take a week vacation from Friday to Thursday. She said that made Friday easier to handle.
Thinking about that, I agreed to that. Besides, after I got done with what Maria had planned for me, I’d probably give anything to go back to work on Friday.
She talked me into helping with a fundraiser at Bridget’s school.
I like to think of myself as a pretty involved Dad. I help out with things for school and Brownies when I can. But this time was different. She wanted me to actually perform physical labor.
The school was getting its delivery of Joe Corbi’s pizza kits that day. Because, you know, every school is mandated by law to sell Joe Corbi’s pizza kits at least once a year.
I had to help haul them into the building, arrange them, then help parents get their orders to their car. On my day off. I’m a sucker.
The actual hauling of the pizzas wasn’t too bad. I worked with the truck driver and one other Dad to haul them into the lobby, arrange them the way the driver wanted so he could count them, then arrange them the way our friend the PTO president wanted them for pickup. After that, the real fun started. We got to sit around, gossip, tell funny stories and watch interesting things happen around the school as we waited for parents to come pick up their orders.
They had from noon to 6 to get their pizzas so we knew we had to be patient.
That didn’t stop us from hoping that everyone showed up in the first hour, formed an orderly line, and got their orders without complaining.
Yeah, that didn’t happen.
I did get a free lunch out of the whole exercise. I also got to see how Bridget’s school worked on a normal day.
I don’t think I had been in there during regular hours before.
After getting everything into the lobby, I realized I was having fun. Putting pizzas on a hand cart and taking them to someone’s car sure beat sitting at my desk or, worse yet, in meetings.
I didn’t have a tie on. My phone wasn’t ringing. I didn’t even have people coming up and asking me stupid questions.
I loved every minute of it. One of Bridget’s old teachers laughed at me. She said I was having too much fun, and she was right.
The bad part is that Joe Corbi day only comes once a year
