dumpster diving

today at work we had to introduce ourselves to our team (which has several new members) with a fact about us that no one in the group knew. for some reason, partially because of a story another person shared, i came up with this one (which i'm elaborating on for the sake of my blog and tapping into some creative energy).

i used to play a lot of imaginary games with my friends as a kid - house, school, office, and library were the most common. i never forayed into playing church like my friend tammy, but i'd like to think i was just as creative as she was. the most common imagination game was school, and my friend kim olson and i both had great classrooms set up in our unfinished basements. i had 2 real school desks at my house, on old-fashioned one like laura ingalls wilder, and another modern one with the lift-up desk lid and the hole in the bottom of the desk that you had to cover so your lunch ticket wouldn't fall through and onto the floor, to be lost forever when kids run by and the air sweeps it away (that happened to me once). at kim's house, she may have had a chalkboard, but all i really remember is this great giant spool that you'd likely have loads of rope wrapped around, and we used it as a teacher's desk. (side-note: they also had a great hanging wicker chair in their basement, which i thought was the coolest thing ever). so one spring, kim and i came up with the great idea to head to oscar howe (our school) the day after school was out to dive in the dumpster to get old papers the teachers threw out. we figured we'd have great assignments to give to our imaginary students (who were often played by our younger brothers who were roped in to playing with us). i don't actually remember climbing in or out of the dumpster but i do know we had backpacks full of papers that we used all summer long. it's possible there are still papers from that summer stuck in with the rest of the games and toys that remain in our basement. i think it's one of the best ideas my friends and i had to entertain ourselves, along with "taste tests", "hand soccer", and the creation of a neighborhood library in our treehouse.

i wonder if diving in that dumpster is what has caused me to have such a sensitive gag reflex...