7/6/15 We Are Belmont Stakes!

(Show Low, AZ)

Today at Monday Morning Coffee the Derby Week teams were announced.  This is Juniper Ridges Summer Olympics.  I signed up to be on one of the teams.  Bob, however, has decided to sit this Olympics out.

They do the Olympics much differently than we do in Quail Run where most of the residents participate in at least one event if not a half dozen or more.  Here there are teams which consists of 16 members each.  This years theme is Derby Week. 



All the teams are named after famous races or stables and each team has a color, ours if blue.

Each team must complete extra tasks in addition to the games themselves.  Our first task was to decorate a derby hat.  It must reflect Derby Days, Belmont Stakes and the color blue.  Whew!

Our second task will be to come up with a song or a cheer for our team.

As soon as the Monday Morning Coffee was over I met with my team members to get started on the tasks.  I had met a few of them already but most were new to me.

Our first task was to nominate a team leader.  This person is responsible for informing the team of any changes in schedule, to make sure the teams members are where they are supposed to be at the appointed time, to schedule team meetings to complete the given tasks and to make sure all the team members are in line and ready to play during game time. 

As soon as the Derby Days Leader finished giving all the instructions chatter broke out all over the Grand Lodge as the 96 team members all worked frantically to get their team leaders chosen.

For me it was a bit overwhelming because it seemed everyone had been through this process before and they all seemed to know each other except for me.  I decided to just sit back, let them decide the leader amongst themselves and it would all be good as far as I was concerned.  Besides, I didn’t know Jim from John or Margaret from Rosemary anyway.

So I’m sitting there and they are all chattering and I’m looking around the room to see who’s on which team and I hear, “I nominate Snookie as our leader, do I hear a second?”   “Second!”  “All in favor….”   Fifteen hands shot up in the air.  A done deal.  Oh Em Gee!  What the hell have I gotten myself into.   Ok, I need to get everyone’s name, phone number, lot number, email address and I don’t have paper or pencil!   

I called for our first meeting to be the very next day to get started on our song or cheer and to toss ideas around about our derby hat and how we were going to do that.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?