Work Outing: Carebears and Tapas

The team I’m on at work, we’re a mix of on-site and remote folks. And this week, we had a lot of remote folks fly in to Chicago so that we could celebrate a multi-month project that we had all been working on.

As part of that celebration, we had a work outing planned.

First up, we headed out to a place in Lincoln Park called “Glazed Expressions.” Prior to this, Megan procured a ton of ceramic “Brave Heart” lion dolls (a member of the Care Bear universe, though technically a kind of distant cousin).

Some context: the work our team does supports the Care organization at Grubhub. And the internal name for the application is “Carebear,” and our team name is “Braveheart.”

Most people, when hearing the name “Braveheart,” tend to associate it with the Mel Gibson movie. But really, it’s a Carebear thing.

So since we each had our own Braveheart, we entered Glazed Expressions to add some paint.

Timo, heading into the venue. I didn’t notice (until now) just how geometric the building was (look at those windows).

Inside, an assortment of ceramic figures on the shelves.

I found myself walking very carefully whenever I got close. I’ve seen too many cartoons to know that one small bump and I’d know the whole structure down.

Folks, settling in to paint.

Group shot: L to R it’s Sajit, Steven, Megan, Yibo, Anjana, Timo, me, Steve, Shyamal, and Mark.

Not pictured: Zohair, who’s been working with a different team (Wyld Stallyns) these past few weeks, as they needed another dev for a priority project. He was off with Team Wyld in New York this week. We really do love our 80’s, it seems.

Also, Luis wasn’t able to join us (he’s in Ecuador, but hopefully will be in the States soon).

This is my, er… attempt… at painting. I was trying to go for a Braveheart Brave Heart thing.

I am really, really hoping that the glazing process covers up most of my sins here. Staring at this thing, I became very much assured that I am not a designer or artist.

Team Braveheart with mini Bravehearts.

A nice looking collection.

After the painting, we walked a few blocks to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba for some tapas and a decent amount of sangria.

For as much time as we all spend on Slack and Bluejeans, talking and typing into our computers… it was a nice change of pace to hang out and chat with folks in person. It really was nice to relax a bit and hang out with one another, outside of a meeting room without the demands of a normal business day.

I grabbed a Lyft home, and was surprised to pass by Oz Park: I’m apparently not on the north side all that much, because the existence of this park was a revelation to me.

Beyond the name and theme, the whole look of the park as I passed by was amazing. Made a mental note to come back and visit.

Related:
Hackathon, Finals