Hal's birthday recap

Hal writes:

My birthday has typically come at a time of year where other events (namely graduations and final exams) have overshadowed my day. But with the advent of Facebook, a number of people who never would have known it was my birthday were able to leave me messages all day long. And I kind of liked it. I also appreciated those who called to sing to me as well as those who sent me e-cards. Better still, the cards that I will be getting in the mail. I use the future tense because there is a lapse in mail services due to nobody sorting the mail on campus now that it is summer, but some students have been hired and I hope that they will be getting the mail to me soon.

So, the tradition with my coworkers is that the birthday boy or girl gets to pick what they wanted to do. I wanted to eat lunch at a favorite of ours, Frank's Place in Shullsburg, but it was closed. So we walked down the street to Brewmeisters. The service was slow, but we were not in a rush to get back to work and enjoyed the time. I had two of my four birthday desserts: a malt with my meal and then a the wait staff brought me a hot fudge brownie with ice cream. Pictured below are some of us behind the bar next to where we sat.

Later in the evening people came over to my apartment and we sat out on my patio. Stef brought over some root beer and ice cream for root beer floats (birthday treat #3) and we chatted outside. Later on in the evening, one my RAs who is known for her baking skills stopped by with another RA with a cake they had made (birthday treat #4). We had a few pieces and I brought the rest to staff meeting this morning.

At staff meeting, we found out our summer assignments. Since I am only working three out of the eight weeks this summer, the number of projects that I am participating in are limited. The biggest project I have is preparing housing for the summer orientation and registration days, which I enjoy doing. After that, we started preparing for RA training. I think I took on a few more things than I wanted to, but everyone got to select some things they enjoy.

One of the traditions that we have in my department is when we have a meeting that falls within a week of your birthday, you get "Happy Birthday" sung to you. But the birthday boy/girl gets to select the style of song. For example, we have had rap, heavy metal, country, pig latin, Louis Armstrong, polka, and other stylings of how to sing the popular song. Well, they forgot my birthday last year, so I have been thinking about what I wanted for two years.

I selected "interpretive dance". It was me who sang the song, but with each of the six words (happy, birthday, to, you, dear, Hal) each person had to strike a pose about how they best felt they could interpretive dance each work. I took some pictures while I sang and they danced.

Pictured below is some of the group with their interpretive pose of "Hal". A majority went with the height aspect. KJ is pointing at her big foot while Kelly is amidst her "Halllllll-agator" impression. I'm not sure why my boss is looking so scared or why Jen decided to impersonate herself and not me.