Friday, February 29, 2008

Best. Boss. Ever.

I tend to brag about my boss, Jonathan, from time to time, but it's because he definitely deserves it. He does everything he can as a boss to keep us content, but does a fantastic job of being a good friend, too. I sometimes hear how lucky I am to have a boss with whom I get along, but I realized something new tonight. Jon has been out sick the entire week, and it's definitely not something light. But here it is....

Jon is the only boss that I've had that I would call just to check up on. No emergencies, no questions about the office, just wanted to check up on my buddy. Now THAT is golden.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Ironsomethong

Cliff Notes version: I went to New York. It was cold. I did stuff. I came home.
(Sure - it's all true, but it's not gonna get you thru a test on it!)


Slightly more detailed version:
I took my first real vacation in a long time last week, and I used it to go visit my friend Renee up in Rochester, NY. I got up there around 7ish on Thursday night and we had low goals for the evening. Just ate some dinner, exchanged Christmas gifts and played various Wii games. The drive wasn't too bad, just lonely and long. Sure, I had TomTom and his scattered remarks to keep me company, but we weren't always on good terms considering his unnecessary side-trips that came up for no reason. Don't worry - we talked things out and are doing alright now.

Friday was fairly uneventful thru the day because, even though I had off work, Renee did not and still had two separate shifts to work that day. So her boyfriend, OD, and I mostly lazed around with more Wii-based enjoyment. I opted to go out and take care of some errands, but he insisted we do nothing. Ooooookay. We were responsible for figuring dinner for us all, so we eventually decided on going out to TGI Fridays. OD's car was riding a little funny on the way over, the cause of which (we soon discovered) was a flat tire. Oh joy. We left the car overnight and walked the VERY chilly 1/2 mile back home. But we still got to enjoy a good dinner and a few drinks, not to mention our often-running waiter, whom we suspected to have eaten a big bowl of Heroine-O's for breakfast. Nevertheless, he gave great service and was very nice.


Saturday started earlier than I liked with me getting up and driving OD to his shift (test administering) at some high school 20 mins away. I dropped him off in my car on account of his still-flat tire and said I'd pick him up later. I told TomTom *grumble* to save the location of the school for later reference. OD told me the name was Irondequoit High School, but I was still very sleepy and I tried to type in "Ironsomething", which turned into this blog's title. I blame TomTom and his tiny keypad for jumping around on my sleepy eyes. I go back home and sleep for a while, then hang with Renee for a while. We played Wii tennis to the point that she knocked over a cup of water in a swatting frenzy. To be fair, though, we won the game. We later raced out to pick up OD with little help from TomTom since he didn't really want to save that "thong" location from earlier, plus I could barely remember my route from earlier that morning. Not a morning person at all, remember?

Once we got home, we chilled for a bit (and I learned that Gilmore Girls is kinda good), then Renee had to run off to her shift. OD got obsessive over playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids, so I just kinda sat back and let him geek out a bit. I later reminded him about his flat tire, so we ran out and fixed that up without much trouble. Honestly, I felt like the more competent man between us, and that's just sad. Afterwards, we had some quiet time with our own books, so that was nice. We later made a trip to Wal-Mart, which yielded another Wii controller and ample amounts of beer. OD and I managed to turn Mario Kart 64 into a drinking game. We designed it so that the better driver would have to drink more in order to level the playing field. The result? I kicked his ass up and down, drank more than him, and still dominated. We wound up meeting Renee at a nearby mall, ate dinner at the foodcourt, then just malled around for a bit. Most of our time was spent in the pet store and the Gifts of Asia store with weapons and windchimes and Go stones. Renee did some clothes browsing, so OD and I sat outside and fantasized about sliding under the security gates as stores closed up. (No, we didn't try.) Upon getting home, we changed into comfy clothes, played more games until way-too-late AM, and Renee and I both out drank OD.

Sunday = all driving back to MD. Not much more to say, 'cept I was bitter about never finding a Quizno's despite TomTom saying there was one around where I stopped AND a giant sign I saw from the highway. Drat monkeys...

In conclusion, the evidence suggests that pants are indeed necessary in the workplace, no matter what liberal interpretations might be taken from "Casual Fridays." No, wait - wrong conclusion.... Oh yeah! Overall, it was a fun trip and I was very happy to see Renee again.

Part II to follow shortly...