The Date

What can I tell you. The earth moved, continents sunk. There were rainbows and bluebirds. Shit, the earth sprouted magical singing daisies! Jeezus H. Key-Rist, what did you expect? It was a first date.

Actually, it went pretty well. He's making me dinner on Saturday.

The game is on.

I spent an interesting and instructive half hour on the phone last night with Mr. Date. We are on for dinner tomorrow night. The idea of Mexican food was nixed. We don't know each other that well yet. Maybe a few dates down the road, taking the optimistic view that there will be more dates. I have learned the hard way never to take anything for granted.

In other news, the weather is suppose to be warm and sunny this weekend, unless they change their mind at the last minute. (This is New England, folks) So I am hoping to log some gardening time, and maybe see if I can lure my pal Mike out into the garden and possibly indulge in some burritos since neither of us will have to worry about the after effects. It ain't that kind of a friendship. This may be a vain hope since my beloved, bitter, cynical, Mike has been replaced by some giant Hostess cake with a sickeningly sweet, schmoopy center. Really, it is terrible what love will reduce a man too. I may have to content myself with weeding.

I am also going to have to do something about flab control. I got a good view of the spare tire that I have developed this winter because we took some progress pictures at the gym. All I can say is ewwwww.... we are looking at some serious portion control or a summer at the beach wearing a mumu. If I start getting crabby it's the lack of food talking.

The Dating Game

I have a date. Remember I told you about the guy I'd (ahem) met before. With one thing and another we are suppose to get together this week for a date. I mean, we will actually incorporate some activity into this other than, but more than likely including sex. This is all good.

However, Mr. Date called me up this afternoon, which is just fine. I am happy to get calls from Mr. Date. The problem is that he called when I was busy acting in my unofficial role of dept. psychiatrist and I had to cut the call very short as I tried to smooth down a coworker who is having some work related problems that really aren't my responsibility, however, I was having to listen in the interest of continuing smooth relations with my colleagues.

I would much rather have talked to Mr. Date. I would probably have enjoyed talking dirty with Mr. Date, since we were speaking on my cell phone. Instead I had to give him the, "Can I call you later, when do you get out of work?" line, which always sounds like you are trying to put someone off.

This job is interfering with my sex life. I will have to make sure and call him back this evening. It might not be a bad idea to talk dirty.

Back to work

Life is getting back to normal. The problem is getting things back to normal. In my absence things at work managed to implode, and I am trying to deal with unforeseen problems. I have spent the past couple of days setting up meetings with a rather diverse group of people in order to deal with this mess, and running a diplomatic mission getting everyone calmed down. One of the lessons I learned in retail is that dealing with people who are upset involves mostly letting them explain why they are so upset. As long a people feel they have been listened to, then when you explain to them why you can not immediately address their problems, and give them some assurance that you are doing everything you can to try and make things better for them, they tend to calm down. It helps if you can inject a little humor into the situation.

One of the crisis that I am trying to deal with is that one of our offices was flooded when a pipe in the HVAC system burst a pipe. We are now going to have to have the room recarpeted, repainted and refurnished. I called in the house designer and we met with the affected co-workers. In a side conversation, one of the inhabitants of the affected office mentioned that 2 of our higher ups who have a "VERY IMPORTANT VISITOR" were in a tizzy because, due to a certain lack of planning on their part, things were not in place for this visit. Consequently, they were running around like a couple of teenage girls on prom night who couldn't find their shoes in what my grandmother would have referred to as, a state. Because the computer system was down, the job took a little longer and was further impaired by the presence of the hand wringers. One co-worker mentioned this to me, and was speculating about their uncharacteristic need to please.

I looked at her and just said, "Oh girlfriend, they were in my office earlier. They were spreading like a couple of 2 dollar whores for this guy."

She gave me a slightly critical look and said, "I knew there was a reason I like you."

So it goes. Currently, we are in crisis mode. In the way of all things, the state of affairs we are experiencing will become the norm and people will get on with business, with the occasional hump in the road that will be bitched about and overcome.

In my personal life, I am working at getting that back on track as well. Monday and Tuesday I was back in the gym, getting back into my routine. I was doing back, shoulders and triceps, all of which are now sore. Thursday and Friday will involve chest, biceps and legs, so by Saturday I should have the full matching set. I am hoping that I will be able to do something about the 3 pounds that I put on sitting around the house stuffing my face and feeling sorry for myself. While I feel like I am on the high road to turning back into an ambulatory pear, I ran into the trainer, who asked me if I had lost weight. So I guess it's not that bad.

I also got an email from FB who has been missing in action for a few weeks. It would seem that he has also been having health and personal problems, but is now ready to catch up on things with me. I am unreasonably happy about hearing from FB. I have made a concerted effort over the past 17 years to keep any type of romantic involvements as non-committal as possible. I have no one to blame but myself, this is what I get for keeping company with someone who is actually a nice guy. Whatever. We are suppose to get together next week, when hopefully the gross patch of scabby ugliness I am currently sporting on my mid section will have cleared up. I hope FB is ready. This is gonna take at least a couple of hours, and we may have to rinse and repeat. It's been a while.