HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!

Now back to the unrelated:
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Working in the DC has one irrevocable benefit--that in order to finish the shift on time everyday, everyone has to work as a team, and everyone is at the same standing, from highschool dropouts to graduate students in law to forty-something mothers working two jobs. There is something nice in that, in the fact that if you finish your assigned station early, you go and help out the others and if you get behind, other people come and help you, without asking, the smile at the end all the necessary thanks as the lights are turned off and the machines are disassembled. It means that during the rush hour, when people come by hundreds (not even joking), you and the other workers in your station reach such a level of synchronization that you don't need to look up from the tray in front of you to reach out and known where the plate is being handed to you, or see where you're handing it to, knowing that another pair of hands is right there. And it always is. That sort of dependability in a team is immensely comforting. Everyone did their job.

And part of doing that job means helping cleaning up the tables where people eat, afterwards, because people do really strange things there and there're almost NEVER enough people to keep them clean during the entire dinner shift.

Here is my list of odd things I've encountered while cleaning up the tables, most of them involving the small vase that usually hold a spray of flower to make the table look nice:

- mysterious white substance in vase
- vase holding a spray that looked like all of the flowers have been GNAWED off, not even kidding. Chewed looking thing.
- vase with no flower, but holding 3 spears of asparagus (yes, cooked)
- upside-down salt-shakers
- mysteriously empty shakers with no lid, locating the lid half way across the DC
- mysteriously empty shakers with no lid, and never finding the lid (oh gods I hope no one ATE that)
- vase holding what looked like copper sulfate turning into copper hydroxide that, on closer inspection, is revealed to be a blend of the blue Powerade (powerrade? powerraid?) drink, mixed with milk, with the flower stuck in it
-cucumber slices, at really strange places
- ice cream sprinkles, at really strange places and ALL OVER THE PLACE
- flowers, stuck upsidedown into vases,
- flowers, completely shredded and stuck to the bottom of the vase, causing some minor issue trying to remove the wad of shredded flower from the bottom of the vase,
- ketchup, at really strange places
- frenchfries, in vases

I am of the opinion that the list will only grow longer over time, being somewhat in awe of the things that people can come up with, while eating dinner with their friends.