Not In the Job Description

If [insert TBD career aspiration] doesn't pan out, I have a great future as an event planner. Jodi, my boss, wanted to have a department-wide social gathering FUN FEST, but who would be able to pull together such a frivolous event when there are deadlines to be met and responsibilities to which to attend and bills for which to pay and mouths to feed (the novelty of always being around people in their 30s and older never wears off. The other day I walked into work and Jodi announced she was expecting her second child, Samara announced she got engaged over the weekend, and Kristin discussed celebrating her 40th birthday the coming weekend. Sure, the AU Career Center tells you how to ace an interview or write a damn good cover letter, but what they don't tell you is how to react the first time someone tells you they're pregnant and it's a good thing and not a total downer)? Basically, when the question of potluck leadership was posed, everyone in the Membership and Volunteerism team meeting simultaneously snapped their necks in my general direction. Yay, interning.

The potluck, which was supposed to be a picnic at Bryant Park but Mother Nature had different plans for us woe alas (the invitation encouraged adherence to a dress code of seersucker), was a great success, and super cute, I might add. The theme was, you guessed it, and each person signed up to bring a different GS-related food item. Daisies brought fruits and vegetables (plants, get it?), Brownies brought desserts, Juniors brought bite-sized and finger foods, Cadettes brought beverages (Gregory brought Orangina, Diet Coke, and ginger ale, bless his heart), and Ambassadors brought international dishes. These pictures don't show the potluck at its peak, with curried butternut squash and Chipotle and coconut oatmeal cookies and so many other delicious things, many of which are still sitting in my cubicle, nom nom nom, but you get the idea:

At my midterm review next week, if they ask me what I've learned so far at GSUSA, I'm going to say that nothing wins the respect and friendship and others like providing them with free food and an excuse to blow off work for two hours.