Friday recollections

Wed at 3:30 I hit the road for an overnighter in Richmond. My input was requested at a meeting on Thurs, so I headed to Richmond Wed afternoon.

The weather couldn't have been nicer for the road trip! It was sunny and 73 degrees, so I tossed by laptop and overnight bag in the trunk and put the roof down. The farther inland I got, the warmer it got, despite the fact that it was now evening. I had a terrific, topless drive which made me arrive at the Sheraton shortly after 8:00 in a good mood.

After checking into the hotel, I drove down the street to Famous Dave's Barbeque for dinner. I was starving. While eating my pulled pork and brisket, an 18-year old-looking, sorta cute waiter was clearing the table just vacated by his last party. Not that it bothered me or anything, but I did notice that it seemed to take him a long time to clear the table. I glanced over to see him stacking the plastic beverage glasses, one inside the other, and piling the flatware and left-over food onto the stack of platters. I continued eating, then glanced over again to see him still working on organizing the stuff from the table, as if he could only make 1 trip to get everything off the table and into the kitchen. It seemed to me he could have made 2 or 3 trips from in the time it was taking him to organize the refuse from the meal.

After what seemed like hours later, when everything was just right, he picked up the stack of platters in 1 hand and the stack of plastic beverage glasses in the other. After having taken just 1 step away from the table, a few of the platters shifted and slid off the stack, into the stack of glasses, sending everything onto the floor with a big crashing sound! I turned my head away so the poor kid didn't seem me smirk. A group at a table across the restaurant started laughing out loud at the poor boy's misfortune. Then I counted my blessings that nowhere in my somewhat less-than-illustrious career have I ever had to bus tables. Seriously. I really was grateful.

Upon returning to my hotel room I called Spouse to let him know I'd arrived safely, said goodnight, and watched the American Idol elimination show. Can I just say what a popularity contest, rather than a singing contest, this season has become? I mean, WTF? That super-lame Jason Castro was NOT in the bottom 2, yet powerhouse Carly Smithson got sent home? I'm beginning to wonder if anyone is voting besides 13-year old girls. And while I'm ranting on American Idol, can someone please tell me why Ryan Seacrest always dresses like he's going to a funeral? Every single week he has on a black suit, white shirt, and black tie. Does he think it makes him look taller? He used to dress more 'hip' in the earlier seasons. Maybe Morticia Addams is his personal stylist now.

Thurs was the big meeting, and by 'big' I mean big in importance, big in length (4 hours), and big in scope. We had a high-level meeting about the use and integration of our 4 major systems, designing how we'd like them to 'talk' to each other, and how efficiency, productivity and accuracy would be improved with these measures. I didn't realize until the meeting began that I was the representative selected from within both of the sales teams, which made me feel pretty good. The meeting was quite productive. I learned things as well as shared things, and all of us left the meeting with a positive feeling. I say this because I have participated in similar things before when employed elsewhere, and meeting participants left feeling like nothing would ever change. This was different.

I left the office at 3:00 for my 4 1/2 hour drive back home. Again the weather was ideal for convertible driving: sunny and 83 degrees. I had an awesome drive home with the sun shining on my pasty-white skin, the breeze ripping through my blond highlighted hair, and the radio blasting.

I got home at 7:30, and Spouse had dinner ready, which was great because I was starving (again). After dinner we watched "Walk Hard", a hilarious spoof on the Johnny Cash story portrayed in "Walk the Line". It was funnier than I thought it would be! We went to bed afterward, as the day had finally caught up with me.

A friend sent me this and I just had to share it. I was seriously laughing out loud! (Click on photo to enlarge.)
I'm sure it seemed like a great design years ago, but its time to change the window now!

Tomorrow Spouse & I are going with Rick & Nick to the Carlisle (PA) vintage car show/auction. I'm really excited, even though none of us will be bidding on anything, because I will get to see a lot of great vintage cars. One day I hope to own a 1959 Cadillac. Love those fins!

Crush du Jour: James Ellis