Playing With Boys

After 2 ½ years of working with all guys all the time, this week I officially became “one of the boys”.

In truth, I’ve mostly felt like one of the guys for a long time now. They feel comfortable enough around me to engage in general “guy” behaviour and know I’m not going to react like a prissy schoolmarm. Belching, farting, swearing…I’ve become immune to all of it. Talking about women in the many and various ways they do…I don’t even bat an eyelash anymore. Making silly double-entendre jokes about sex…Honey, my mind’s right there in the gutter with ‘em. But one thing was missing to make me feel completely accepted. The practical joke.

Over the years I’ve watched them play tons of pranks on each other. I’ve seen “The Great Tool Hunt” where one guy tied a tool to an overhead pipe in our lunch area and waited days to see how long it took the owner to find it. Meanwhile the rest of the crew knew it was there and snickered to each other every time the owner mentioned the loss.

Then, there was “The Great Sandwich Caper”. “Bob” wanted “Chuck” to get him a sandwich since Chuck was making the trip to the restaurant anyway. Bob didn’t give quite enough money to cover the cost, so Chuck took a bite out of the sandwich, then wrapped it back up and delivered it to Bob...who shrugged and ate it anyway.

And, although I didn’t see this one, “Chalked Hardhat” is a legendary tale of the time one guy put blue chalk dust in another guy’s upturned hardhat. When “Hatless” put his hat back on, he was covered with chalk. He went home to have a shower, but the addition of water to the dust turned it into a blue dye. He came back to work looking like a Smurf.

I’ve been amused by these tales and pranks, but I’ve always felt that there was a bit of separation in their minds between what they would do to each other and what they would do to me. Like they were scared of doing something that might make me cry…or they were just being nicer to me than to each other. Although no one likes to be the brunt of jokes, it builds camaraderie in a strange way and makes work fun. In this respect, I felt kinda like the kid who always gets picked last.

This week all that changed.

I was doing several installations and I thought my foreman told me to install them horizontally. I remember thinking that it was weird because generally this item is installed vertically, however on the odd occasion it goes in horizontally. I put in a couple horizontally, then my foreman called me on it and told me to put them in vertically. I was convinced that he had said horizontally, so I grumbled about it then changed it.

The next day, one of them was still horizontal and I was sure I had changed it. He called me on it and complained that I didn’t know the difference between horizontal and vertical – which I obviously do – and I was incensed because I only put it horizontally in the first place because I thought he told me to do it. I didn’t have the proper screwdriver on me at the time, so I borrowed one from a co-worker who was standing right there and changed it. I thought perhaps I had just missed that one the day before.

A couple of hours later, he called me again and complained that I hadn’t fixed the installation because it was still in the horizontal position. Since he is also known for teasing people and jerking their chains, I thought he was just trying to tease me about not knowing the difference between horizontal and vertical, but he wasn’t and was quite ticked off. I told him that I changed it that morning as soon as he had pointed it out and I called on my co-worker to back me up, which he did. So, then we knew someone was playing a joke on us.

Later that afternoon, another one of my co-workers ‘fessed up that he had switched the position…TWICE. Jerk! We laughed hysterically, especially when he was describing how cranky I got when I had to change it. I think he wasn’t sure how I would take it when he told me, but was willing to give it a shot for the fun of it. Bless his cotton socks! So, although I was cranky while I was changing the freakin’ installations three times, the humor of it afterwards more than made up for it.

I’m sure he has no idea what a gift this first prank was to me. I now officially feel like one of the boys. I will always be grateful that he had the guts to try it.

Still…I owe him one.

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Today’s Treasure: Went to visit Mike, Su and 4-month-old David. Baby giggles and snuggles are the absolute best way to appreciate and live in the moment. Also, amazing lightning show tonight. I love it when the night is lit up like the day for a fleeting second and everything is bathed in that electric silver light. Another great reminder about living in the moment.