I had not climbed a tree in years.

I had not climbed a tree in years, but it was part of one of those insane company bonding games that Wendy, the expensive team-building consultant, was putting us through in this morning's seminar. The idea is that to climb a tree looks like the job of a rugged individual, but in fact involves team work, especially if the climber in question abhors being arboreal. 

Nevertheless, I had to go up there, and I was dressed in office casual, but was not interested in just trying the obvious, so I swapped to my commuter shoes, and up I went. It was not too difficult. After all, I was raised in the rainforest spearing howler monkeys from neighboring trees by myself until I was 11. Then they cut down the forest and sent me to Catholic school where we girls got reprimanded and the boys got molested. That was a real team building exercise, I'm telling you.

So here I am in the tree and Charles starts making monkey noises. That's pretty offensive! When I wasn't eating them, they were my best friends!

So Wendy was trying to calm down the situation and turn it into a "learning experience." It was not a big help that others were stuck and were having difficulty with their trees. I just kept climbing.  "Go on, you little brown monkey!" taunted Charles. He's an important middle manager, and clearly proof of the Peter Principle.