Evidence I can be in a photo and not look totally horrible:

Guess I should wear purple more often.

That picture was taken outside Logan’s last night. It was pretty damn cold. But we had to wait a long time to get a table…Friday night, you know. Shalah, Samantha and I arrived late, so Elgin, Gene, and Mason were waiting even longer than we did. An odd thing happened, too; they were sitting at a table when we got there, but as soon as we sat down the server told us the manager said we had to leave. Apparently the server had seated the guys without regard for the waiting list, and now the table was needed for a party of 30.

So we trooped outside and sat on a freezing cold picnic table for what seemed like forever, within clear sight of the table we had just vacated, until finally we were seated on the exact opposite end of the restaurant, surrounded by tables full of raucous teenagers.

My food was good, and I was pretty much happy to be inside and chatting and eating, but Elgin swore off Logan’s forever, and Shalah didn’t seem particularly pleased either. Both of them had steak and they both said it was terrible. I had mesquite grilled salmon and mashed potatoes, and I enjoyed them just fine.

I’m beginning to think the bar is lower for me than it is for other people when it comes to restaurants. There’s a guy at work who used to go to Boll Weevil all the time, but he stopped going after one bad experience with a hostess who ignored him. Me, I continued going even after the bread stopped tasting so good and it became a gamble to have the sweet tea. (My patience seems to have paid off; the bread and tea have both been great again the last few times I’ve been.)

After we were finished eating, the others convinced me to go with them to Doubletree hotel, which is right around the corner. So we went over there and hung out in the bar for awhile. It’s a really snazzy place, quite upscale. Gene had a Jack and diet, Shalah had a pina colada, and Mason had some beer I’ve never heard of. Samantha took a sip of everyone’s drink but didn’t order anything. I don’t drink, of course, and Elgin couldn’t because he was on call. There was boxing on the TV next to our tables, and other patrons drifted in and out as we sat and talked.

Kelsey appeared at one point, and then she, Samantha, and Mason headed off to Red Lion to see a friend of a friend of a friend’s band. The rest of us decided that area was a little sketchy and went home instead.

All in all, it was a good time. I’m glad I went!

One of my coworkers, a guy I love dearly, recently received an award from the local branch of a regional religious group. During his acceptance speech he was talking about how he hopes to continue doing good work for the community, and he abruptly broke into song: “This Little Light”. He only sang a few bars before the whole room joined in, singing and clapping, and when the verse was over everyone cheered.

I just wanted to mention that–it was neat. I can’t imagine I would ever think of singing during a speech. (I’m not sure the people I would likely be giving a speech to would ever join in, either.)

In one of those chain reaction tidying up events that occur with me every so often, I started sorting the mail, then cleaning things off the dining room table, and before I knew it I was collecting the Christmas decorations and carting them off to the second bedroom. I haven’t gotten them put away, of course; they’re sitting on the bed. And the Christmas village is still on the bar table. But this is a big start!

While I was at it I got all the dishes into the dishwasher and started it. I also got my CPAP, mask, and tubing washed, and now I’m waiting for them to dry.

Today’s been pretty good, all in all. Work went well–I got some ads done, including one with animation, which was fun. I had lunch at Wendy’s with Fichtel, and we didn’t sit around blankly the whole time ;> After work I went with him and Mullis to Chick-fil-A. The conversation turned to Adam, who left awhile back to be a chief meteorologist on the west coast, and so I gave him a call right then and there. Unfortunately he had to be in a newscast in five minutes, so the conversation was short. In fact, Fichtel’s side of the conversation with him went like this:

“Hello. Okay. Bye. Okay. Bye.”

Other than that, noteworthy features of our dinner conversation included the discussion of farts, burping, railing against faceless corporations and the fact that Chick-fil-A’s decor is like a motivational pamphlet, and Mullis’ fabulous impressions of coworkers.

After that, Mullis and Fichtel headed off to record some music (I’m not sure I can explain the intricacies of this hobby of theirs–I’m just glad I can remember the name “Smies Lieser”–so that’s good enough), and I headed home. Sean wanted Chinese food, so I was going to just pick some up at the drive-thru place near Food Lion, but Sean doesn’t like that place, so I went to our standard people over on Bobby Jones instead and went inside and waited. (However, I mistakenly ordered sesame chicken instead of almond chicken…:P)

I brought that home and commenced with the cleaning-up detailed above.

Since then I’ve just been watching Detective Conan, reading Mullis’ website, and trying to write this post. Sean just got home. I feel like maybe eating a bowl of cereal. I need to check and see if The Apparatus is dry. And after that…bed.

Tomorrow’s Friday! And after work a bunch of us are going to Chili’s. Rock on.