The craziest thing happened today (well, yesterday) to me. I got an award!

We had an awards dinner for our big meeting, and awards were being given out to people for various things. The people who I knew that got awards definitely deserved them. One woman always takes the time to answer people's questions when they send out a mass email to everyone. One guy has been the expert on one of our products and has done a lot of work, helping people out. It was great to see my coworkers get recognized for all the hard work that they've done.

For every award, the presenter gave a little speech, talking about the work that has been done and sometimes offering a little tidbit here and there - she's a poet, this guy travels all the time. Then a presenter came up, talking about the next award winner's childhood heroes...and they mentioned Ralph Macchio, and how she watched it a hundred times. I laughed, because I loved Ralph as a kid, too. Then they mentioned Scott Baio. Then Michael J. Fox. I started seeing a trend - the list had sounded familiar to me. Wonder Woman was then mentioned. The clincher was when the mentiond the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. That's when I knew it was me.

That wasn't possible, though. All the people who got awards before me DID stuff. They worked their asses off and they knew their stuff. True, I work a lot, but I really don't feel like it's worthy of getting award. There were so many people I work with who are more deserving than I for an award...it couldn't be me.

They went on to talk about how the awardee had trained a lot of clients, done work in Crystal Reports, worked on other projects. Then they called out my name. It was all a bit surreal. I only slightly remember going up there, hearing some cheers from the crowd from my old Company X and X-Systems peeps. I shook hands with people up in front, mumbled thanks, and really concentrated on getting back to my seat without swaying. Then again - the whole swaying thing had nothing to do with the award, it was more because I had a couple drinks and was a little tipsy.

Anyway, I'm still in complete awe that I got this thing. Me? Why me? I feel in some ways like I don't deserve it. I know so many people on my team who work just as hard as I do, if not harder. I wish we all got awards. I wish they all got the recognition that they deserve. As much as I am humbled and honored by getting the award (this pretty glass block with a globe inside and my name engraved on it) I am always uneasy when picked out of the pack like this. As much as I like getting the spotlight in some circumstances, I'm always uneasy when awarded or complimented in front of the team. I'm not really sure why. Nonetheless, I'm not giving back my cool little block!

So I got back to my seat in a daze. I then started to wonder, where the hell did they come up with tha list? Did I fill out some form during a workshop or ice breaker where we had to list our childhood heroes? Because I always mentioned Wonder Woman and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Then I realized where I remember that list from. It was from a post I made a couple weeks ago. I went into a bit of panic mode, because it always freaks me out a little bit when I think about someone from work might stumble upon my page. Luckily, I don't really speak ill of clients or say the name of my company, so I think I'm safe. Sure, I complain about work at times, but doesn't everyone?

I talked to my manager later that night, and he had mentioned that he was wondering if there was anyone famous that might share my name, so he googled me (ohh, that sounds so naughty). Of course, this site pops up, and he found my little Hero list which they used for the awards. A little freaky, but not too bad.

I'm having a good time here. As I said before, it's great to hang out with co-workers. I really love most of the people I work with...they're a good bunch!

So I'll stop babbling, and get some sleep.

I'll leave you with a picture of my soap. Why? Because it's cool....and it smells good.

Posted by Yano at May 1, 2007 03:29 AM

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