Rough Week

This week was a rough one. I have written before that I am very busy at work building two college campuses. There are tons of details to those and it keeps me extra busy. Well on Tuesday, our company fired the IT Director. I had been pushing for it for a long time, as I felt he was bad news and setting the company up for disaster. How right I was. The day after he was let go, our email database crashed. As if that wasn't enough, we had problems with a few other applications as well.

I believe that the biggest problem was lack of proper maintenance of the system, but it is too late to put oil in the engine after it has seized! Technically IT does not report under me, but I was stuck taking care of the situation. At the same time three other HR issues came up, my construction projects required attention and I had two safety investigations (did I say that I am in change of the safety program??).

By the end of day Friday, I had pretty much had it. I walked out, called Gary to see if he wanted to hook up and found out he was at an impromptu going away party, as yesterday was his last day at TFI. I got over to the Burger Works and met up with him. There were also about a dozen others that I used to work with and it was great to catch up with all of them.

After leaving there and heading home, I was hungry. I had not eaten all day (yes I continue to do that!) I did not want a burger at the Burger Works. So I started thinking about Vogue and a nice meal and by the time I got to Surprise that is where I was headed.

Kind of scary actually - eating alone. But I decided to be brave and sat at the bar to order dinner. They were very busy as Friday seems to be the big date night. I actually can't remember as I have not had a date for decades. Anyway, I ordered the duck special and a glass of wine, both of which was superb. They have a flat screen TV over the bar that runs these Planet Earth type films, without sound. I found myself watching it and noticing the great colors and the textures the the views inspired.

I had a brief conversation with a nice young guy who asked about my choice of wine. We spoke for a few minutes and he left. Other than that, I was an island of silence in a sea of restaurant noise and people's conversation. In a way it was almost like I have an invisibility cape on. No one paid attention to me, but then I didn't pay much attention to them. I actually became very relaxed - good food, good wine.

I drove home and walked Benny, and then crawled into bed. I reflected on the fact that I had my first excursion into fine dining a la solo and it was nice. I don't think I will be so nervous again. The rough week pushed me to experiencing that which many people would never do. I guess I accomplished something after all.