The Aerie

T-t-t-t-twenty??

Life continues to slog along.

The big news is that my boss left for his vacation more than a week early. He's a nice guy, but a visionary - meaning that every time I'd talk to him he'd load me up with a dozen new things to do, many of which seemingly at odds with things he had given me previously. And of course everything had to be done immediately. I was steeling my nerve to have a conversation with him about the inherent inefficiencies in this system of management, so it was with mixed feelings that I arrived at work last Tuesday to learn that he was gone. He was scheduled to have a month-long vacation starting December 15th, but apparently his grandmother died and he was leaving early. Ya...er, um, that's too bad, I'm very sorry to hear that.

The other news is that they moved my cube, again. I've been here just under ten weeks, and this is my fourth cube. It's definitely a step down from the last one, insofar as the last cube afforded me a nice view out the window. My only view here are autumn-gold walls and taupe cubicle. It's also noisy here, with lots of people talking about Michael Vick and other nonsense in loud laughing groups.

On the other hand, this is an "official" cube. I'm SUPPOSED to be here, and my phone even works. Yay! Not that anyone calls, but IF THEY DID...

The weekend was nice, very uneventful. I stopped by Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and picked up a couple of books, so I spent much of the weekend reading "Dzur" by Steven Brust. Unfortunately I could not remember ANYTHING about the prior book in the series, so I spent Saturday reading Issola, and then Sunday reading Dzur. I have several friends who know the author quite well, and despite what they have to say about him he remanis on my list of "immediate grab" authors: doesn't matter what the book says on the cover, if it's by Brust (or Bull, or either Vinge, or Wolfe or Tepper or MacAvoy...) I simply snatch it off the New Arrivals rack at Uncle Hugo's.

Tonight is going to be a Very Special Occasion According to my spouse (who used to blog during the 1980's using a pencil and paper - something called a "diary"?) tonight is the

(Pausing to breathe in and out of a paper bag for a minute)

Twentieth Anniversary of the Day we Met

Think back to where YOU were twenty years ago. (Those of you too young to remember can just STFU now, I can hear you laughing.) Well, twenty years ago my spouse and I met at an Applebee's in Brooklyn Park, and despite that we're still together today. I am one of those fortunate people who can remember the first instant I saw my spouse. I was in the Applebee's waiting area, and she peeked in the door, her head curiously canted to one side.

It was a blind date arranged through a personals newspaper (a prehistoric Craig's List called "Di's Meet People", for you youngsters), and my first thought on seeing her was, "No, that's not her: too pretty." Seriously, who expects to meet someone gorgeous through a personal's ad? I mean, look at what SHE ended up with!

But it was her. We had both been recently dumped, and spent a delightful evening complaining about our exes. When it came time to leave, I asked her if we were going Dutch or if I was paying - she looked at me as if I were insane. (She hadn't spent as much time as I had dating aggressively feminist college women. Actually none, come to think of it.) So I paid the bill with, honest to goodness, the last seven dollars in my bank account.

It says something about how long it's been that two people could spend several hours at Applebee's and pay only seven dollars. Or it says something about my memory, which could have that number totally wrong. The only number I'm sure of is the zero in the bank account at the end of it.

Still, it proved to be a good investment! And that's such a romantic way to describe our relationship - a good fiscal investment!

Anyway we're going to go to Solera tonight and celebrate twenty years of togetherness. But we'll wrap up early, 'cause we're old and I have to work in the morning...

Posted by Albatross at December 10, 2007 12:47 PM | TrackBack