Romper Room At A Career Fair?

Romper Room at a Career Fair, who'd have thought, but that is EXACTLY what Michael Chapman and I found when we attended a Career Fair on behalf of our recruiter.

A recruiter at work asked Michael and I to attend a career fair in her place as she was unable to make it. We thought, "sure...that'd be fun", plus we got a lot of people from the last career fair and I still had to hire 2 people. To be honest the whole thing was pretty funny.

Michael had an extraordinary lack of judgment and actually let me drive his car to the career fair, as he needed to take a phone call and take notes (although I did not see a lot of note taking going on, strange...). Oddly enough, I successfully completed the task of driving us to our destination without an accident and/or a ticket. *Wipes brow theatrically*

The more entertaining part of the adventure came when we actually GOT to the career fair. First, I have to say it was out in the boonies. I mean it. It was actually by a BARN!!

We should have first sensed something was amiss when we were told to "follow the signs" by the guard in the guard shack, however the signs led us to an empty parking lot with one police car. We asked the police officer for directions (my logic: if you make friends they are LESS likely to actually give you a ticket for something). He sent us back to the guard shack that sent us back to "follow the signs". A vicious circle that had me laughing for sure. I mean, I of ALL people NEED to follow the signs, or I will NEVER get there with my sense of direction, or lack thereof.

We decided to be rebels and this time NOT follow the signs and we eventually found our destination...a barn. That's right...a barn. The career fair was in the equestrian center. Animals were not far away. We had a good chuckle then promptly loaded up the "trash cans" of goodies that we brought to set up and moseyed on into the barn.

We started to set up the "props" for our booth, which was hysterical in itself.(Just look at Michael's expression on the picture below. It says it all). We could not figure it out for the life of us. Now here we are...two members of management, both with Master's Degrees and years of experience and we were dumbfounded when it came to the stinkin' props. I was laughing so hard, and Michael continued to get frustrated and punchy. We actually had an audience of the other vendors staring at us...to be honest I think some were even pointing and laughing. We finally figured out the contraptions that the company supplied us with and were able to set them up. The next challenge was trying to figure out how to make it fit in the tiny booth that we were given...let's just say that it Michael and I were the final two contestants on a design reality show...we both would have lost. Finally, one of the career organizers felt so bad for us she came over and rescued us and instructed us how to layout the booth.





Tired from laughing, Michael and I prepared for the Career fair to begin, when what do my wandering eyes see, but a little old lady coming right at me! The lady from the booth next to me came over to tell Michael that he needed to smile. She continued to lecture him that no one would come over to our booth if he did not smile.

It was then that she uttered the words I had longed to hear..." I used to do a show called Romper room...". That was all I needed to hear. I was star struck. "I LOVE Romper Room", I hear myself saying. Can I have a picture with you?" After that Mary Ann and I became fast friends. She proudly and graciously took a picture with each of us, gave us a signed autograph picture and even displayed her magic mirror that she had used on the show. She even sang Michael and I the song she used on the show...which now that I hear it (talks about cleaning your plate and such) brings back traumatic childhood memories of me sitting at my kitchen table with a plate of cold food in front of me because I refused to eat anymore food. My parents were big on the whole clean your plate thing.






Mary Ann and I were pals...until she tried to get me in a bit of trouble. When one of the presenters was apparently unclear in his communication, she called me over and asked me if I could hear what was said. I had just come from the bathroom and to be frank wasn't paying attention anyway, so I said that I hadn't heard it. She then dragged me over to the main Career Fair Organizer and said, "This is Melissa with such and such company, and she couldn't hear the presentation either. It was COMPLETELY INAUDIBLE. If you want people to pay attention than you must be clear when you speak. Now try it again" (Oh Lord, I thought...now what do I do...my newfound friend is getting me in trouble here).

If you are still a bit confused let me help clarify...."and I see Michael, and Melissa, and David and all of you boys and girls out there". To put this in context, Romper Room was a show aimed at preschoolers that ran between 1954 to well into the 80's. It was a live show that was erased every night to make room for the next day's show. There was a magic mirror in which Mary Ann looks out at the kids (through the television) and calls out their names. Sigh...the good old days. :)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and my newfound celebrity friend and I bonded. Hmmm....never a dull moment...even when you are at a career fair.