Team Awesome ... Not An Understatement

I've never been one who favored working in or with groups. I have always enjoyed being on a team, like in softball or something like that, but when it came to group projects for school, it seemed I ALWAYS got stuck with the slackers. And when I say slackers, I mean SLACKERS. So when I got assigned to "Team Awesome" for a group project, needless to say, I was extremely skeptical and kinda pissed.

Here's some background info. Our professor, Dixie Swan (no lie - that's her name), asked us all to write down our ideal team members for the assignment. Being that I have kind of gotten annoyed a few times with pretty much everyone in class, I put down Dannielle's name and my name (she and I have become really really good friends since meeting each other in this class). She put my name down with hers and then we handed them in. Well, I think Dixie has a thing against us because she separated us. I got put in a group that I thought for sure was gonna suck. In fact, I even called Mom after class to express my angered feelings to her.

So our group starts talking. "Team Awesome" consists of Christine, Megan, Miranda, Dustin, Dylan and I. We coordinate our schedules to meet outside of class the following week to begin our project. Oh, by the way, the group assignment was called "the -ing" where we had to take pictures of at least six activities that end in -ing. For example, running or walking or jumping or cleaning etc. So obviously the assignment was easy... kind of a joke for a college assignment actually. But the assignment was more to prove different roles in a group, different relationships and so on... gotta love it, right? So, we brainstormed some activities and came up with some really creative ones. On our grading rubric, we were going to be graded by originality and creativity with the activities so this is what we came up with : eating, sword fighting (my idea - thank you very much), cuddling, tree decorating, jumping and caroling. Pretty cool, yeah?

So we met up on Tuesday at Cien Agaves, a really fantastic Mexican food place that hosts Taco Tuesday in Old Town, Scottsdale. We dined together, I of course enjoyed some $2 Corona Lights and so did Dustin and Christine. We all started talking and getting to know each other and we started to discover some similarities amongst ourselves. Once we became at ease with each other, we were excited about the project, especially since our ideas were certainly above average. After taking pics of us eating and such, we carpooled to Toys 'R Us for the sword fighting scene. This was probably the highlight of Team Awesome. I don't know why I wanted to sword fight so badly, but I was just really digging the shields and stuff (I am so intense in the sword fighting pictures - hilarious). So we found some pink ponies as our horses, some foam shields and swords and reenacted a battle scene. We were dying laughing.

After sword fighting, we walked next door to Sleep America and crammed into a Sleep Number bed and had the salesman take pictures of us cuddling. This was a real bonding moment for Team Awesome. After cuddling, we went to Target and headed to the Christmas tree section for decorating. We also took pics of cleaning and shopping just in case. After Target, we hopped in the bed of Megan's truck and took a picture of us tailgating. Overall, we took about 45 pictures of 12 different activities even though we only needed six. Pretty cool.

So we called it a night and on Thursday morning in class, we took more pictures. We did jumping and dancing. Then, the following week, we met up at Megan's house to study for our group test and to finish up our group assignment. We took our final picture: caroling. We had to present this past Thursday and it was hilarious. We described what we came up with and what we were doing in each picture. I'm pretty sure the entire class was jealous of our group because we created a surprising bond. In fact, after our first Taco Tuesday, Dustin, Christine and I went back to Cien Agaves to hang out. This past Tuesday, Dustin came out with us again and next week, we're all going for Taco Tuesday again... and to make my point. Class has already ended except for the final on Tuesday. So, here we are, Team Awesome, still wanting to hang out post-semester.

It's pretty exciting that I had success in a group assignment. We all collaborated and had a really good time doing the assignment. Had this group project been assigned to us at the beginning of the semester, I'm sure we all would have been hanging out a while back. Here are some pictures of the Team Awesome success.

Eating at Taco Tuesday

Team Awesome at Cien Agaves

Sword Fighting!

Dustin, Dylan and Their Ponies

Oh Boys

Attacking Dylan As He Licks His Sword Clean

Going For The Conehead

Girl Fight

A Loving Cuddle Session

Tailgating

Shopping Cart Rides: 50 cents

Naughty and Nice Boys

Decorating the Tree

Shopping Girls

Cleaning Target's Aisles?

Awkward Dancing

More Awkward Dancing

Jumping... High School Musical Wants to Hire Us

Caroling Outside Megan's