Just Another Manic Monday

*I would like to point out that I wrote this post on Monday evening, and had fully intended to post it yesterday once I got the pictures from Kristine. But I was so cray cray at work yesterday that I didn't get a chance. So here is my Monday post... two days late*

Today, my friends, was an epic work day. Not because I slammed out $100,000 in new loans. Not because I stopped a bank robber. But because I fracking kicked some ass at go cart racing.

That’s right, go cart racing.

Here I am, all strapped in!

As some of you may not know, I work at a credit union. Which means we have this sweet deal where we get major holidays off work. And we get PAID for them. Now, we used to work on Columbus Day so we could take the day after Thanksgiving off without feeling guilty for taking all that extra time (8 full hours) off work. But, last year the upper management decided that we should be closed on this glorious holiday in order to do a company wide training day. This is GENIUS due to the fact that it is damn near impossible to get all the staff in one place at one time due to the fact that we can’t just close the branches in the middle of the day. So we go through our compliance training, security training, benefit information, disaster training, etc with everybody in one place.

This year, that place was K1 speedway.

So, we had a few hours in the morning doing all the brain melting stuff involving regulations, acronyms, policies, and other mumbo jumbo that we have to know or our credit union runs the risk of paying MILLIONS of dollars in fines (that is NOT an exaggeration, which is scary). After that, we had pizza delivered, and started the racing sesh.

You have a little instructional meeting where they go over the different flags, the go cart, and the rules. Then they throw you out there for a 12 lap practice race where you learn the track and, well, practice. Now, I didn’t do too stellar with the practice laps. Mostly due to the fact that I have a serious fear of rolling a vehicle and dying. This is true of real cars too. So, I mostly took it easy. The next race was the qualifiers. So, our three groups were regrouped into the slow people, the medium people, and the freaking NASCAR racers (my BFFL Kristine was one of those savs). On the qualifier laps, I did much better. I still came in 4^th but my lap times were way faster and I was taking corners like a pro-fesh-a-nallll. Finally came the real deal holyfield race of all races.

Now, during the first two races, they will signal you to let people pass if you are slowing up a faster driver. The final race, there is no “let pass” flag being waved in your face. Which means that the slow folks can clog up the race track and really screw with the competition. This is exactly what happened to me and my friend Phanie (check her out at Doyle’s Days. She’s a great blogger, mom, friend, and military wife). She was in the first and I was right on her hiney the WHOLE race. Enter Laurie. Laurie is a kind hearted, fun coworker. But home girl was really harshin our flow. Everytime Steph would go to pass her (we were lapping her) Laurie would move just enough that Steph would have to slide back behind her. By this time, I was already moving up to get right behind Laurie, so when Stephanie would sneak back over, I would ram into the back of her. Which is a NO NO in the go cart world. One of these times I legitimately annihilated one of the walls of this joint and changed a whole section of the track. Whoops? Anyways, Stephanie got first and I was a close second. And my boss came in 3^rd.

Stephanie is tall to begin with, so having her on the top tier just made Kim look like a midget!

The last race of the day was the speed racer group. This was all the boys of the group, as well as the 3 fastest girls of the group. Let’s just say this group was a little more intense. One of our co workers, Scott, was REALLY into it. He was in 1^st place. Until there was a minor 3 car pile up that resulted in Kristine and Stephanie slamming into Scott, who bounced around like a ding dang pin ball. For a minute there, I thought for sure he was seriously hurt. He wasn’t moving, and eventually his head just kind of flopped forward. Then he took his helmet off. I thought maybe his head had disconnected from his spine. Don’t worry, it hadn’t. Anyways, this was the girls’ chance to take the lead. Britney flew past Scott right before the fender bender, and Kristine managed to get out ahead of Stephanie and Scott. It ended with Britney in 1^st, Kristine in 2^nd, and Stephanie in 3^rd (we have two Stephanies, just to clarify).

Kristine getting pumped up!

Girls rule, boys drool! (Don't mind me checking my phone to the right)

Moral of the story: Girls are better drivers than boys, and we proved that today.

Kristine and I with our 2nd place prizes

Me (on the left) and some coworkers getting all suited up. Those masks are called "head socks"... go figure.

The rest of the training day isn’t much to write home about. However, Chad and I did go and look at another house tonight. It is a double wide mobile home on almost 5 acres. I was really nervous because the mobile homes I’ve been seeing around here are all in really bad shape, so I was thinking this place would be a let down. But this place was PRISTINE. I mean, it’s nothing exciting, it’s a late 80s model, which you can tell in the appliances (and kitchen wallpaper), but everything was SPOTLESS. I mean, the tubs, sinks, toilets had not a stain or hard water line in them. The stove and oven had no cemented baked on food (or any signs that any food had ever touched them even), the carpets were clean, and the bedrooms were BIG. Not to mention the great back deck and really great yard (or what we could see of it in the dark). We are going back tomorrow after work to check out the whole property in the light, and then probably putting an offer in on it. (I’m not posting pictures right now because the pictures on the listing website aren’t very good).

Overall, it was a good Monday. But tomorrow it is back to the daily grind.