get your bowl on

i'll admit it - my reaction when seeing the words "department outing" on the meeting invitation was to let out a little sigh.  no, little whimper is more like it.  it's not like i don't like the people i work with - i think they're great.  i just haven't fully developed into one of those people who can just make small talk and be the life of the party yet.  i'm working on it.  i hesitated as i pushed the "accept" button.  i don't think you're actually given a choice there - if you don't go to the department outing you are considered to be a social deviant and you will probably not have your job a year from now.  but i guess i was considering the pros and cons of the situation.

pros:
you do not have to work for the afternoon
free lunch
you get to leave work early

cons:
you have to talk to people you barely know for 3-4 hours

obviously there are more pros than cons in the lists above.  however, the weight afforded to the cons makes the two categories almost equal.  let's just say that i have a crippling fear of slight aversion to talking to people i barely know.  i'm pretty much an idiot and i say the wrong thing all the time.
but in the end i decided that it would be worth it to keep my job and get out of work three hours early.
we went to this place that was (for lack of a better description) embarrassing to stand in.  the alley had been recently remodeled to be some sort of upscale "club" or something.  there were a lot of swankiness attempts, but it just felt wrong.  just because you have new carpet and a full service bar doesn't mean you're not a bowling alley.  and what's with the manager wearing an eighties suit (complete with mock turtleneck)?  the atmosphere of the alley only compounded the awkwardness i was already feeling just being around all those people.  i had a mantra going in my head "you only have to do this for three hours...then you get an afternoon all to yourself...three hours...you can do this".
i managed to make some small talk with a few members of my team (randomly assigned) and even ventured over to the lane beside me, where a girl from my row of cubicles was bowling.  i talked about basketball (everyone watches the ncaa tournament, right?) and the weather.  i was no social butterfly, but i endured it.

and then, even though we got to leave early, i was still stuck in traffic on the way home.