Yesterday I was informed by Peder the Great (one of the cool Swedes I work with) that there was a meet and greet with on of the VP's of my company. I had watched a webcast a few days earlier and had deemed the VP was worth my time, so I agreed to go with Peder to the function. It was being held at 3:00 PM at the $City_Site. This angered Peder and I a bit since there are TWO $City_Sites...however we are the red headed stepchild of the main site so we are often ignored. With this in mind, Peder and I decided to let the VP know there were TWO $City_sites and would invite him over for a visit.
We arrived and found our way to the caf...we normally have no reason to be at this site..where we signed in (I was not on the list even though I got an invite). We enter and see a small crowd huddled around food and beverages. Peder noticed they were serving Shiner Bock so he had his alloted TWO cups. I declined...I did not need the hassle of Dallas County/City Police pulling me over for a seatbelt check and smelling the tiniest bit of brew on me. Been there, done that and I have the T-shirt to prove it (albeit this happened in NC, not TX), but I digress.
We stayed, chatted with a couple of the senior mgmt (one of which was very new), invited them to visit, listened to a short but informative speech, then headed back to the office. We were gone about 1.5 hours...tops.
I got back, checked my mailbox, my ticket queues and upon finding nothing new to handle, I headed down to Microcenter to see what was on sale. Not that I could afford anything, the surgery bill for the Golden's new knee was $2900...$1000 down, and a charge for the rest...but I can always look. As usual the non-sale prices were high but the selection was pretty good. They had good prices on PSU's and I liked a lot of the PC cases, but I need for nothing right now...my wants are on the back burner.
After killing as much time as I could at Microcenter, I headed over to Razzoo's to meet up with a few of the CoG'ers who were in the area, one who was visiting from SoCal. I was bit early, so I played Spider Solitaire on my PDA until the meet time.
I got in and headed for the toilet to let out some of the fluid I had taken in over the past 2-3 hours and when I returned, Force10 was in the lobby on the phone. I greeted him with a firm handshake and we chatted for about 10 minutes until Stetson and his wife arrived. Introductions were made and held off getting a table until the last members of the group, Hresh and his fiance, arrived . When they walked in, more introductions were made and we were ushered to our table.
Razzoo's has remodeled a bit since I was there last and the new design is not as sound absorbing as I would like. I had to have Stetson and Hresh's better halve's (they were the farthest from me) repeat themselves often...sorry ladies, it was LOUD in there.
It is amazing how when you meet people they can resemble people you know from other areas of the world. I have been told more times than I can count that I look just like so and so from you know where when we first meet. Last night, I noticed that Hresh looks and acts so much like my buddy Knightmare Duck, it was like being back home. I had the feeling before I met him that he and I were not going to get along...but it appears I was wrong (at least from my point of view). He was easy to talk to and since he and KD could pass for brothers, that was ll the better.
Hresh's fiance reminded me a lot of a woman I worked with back in NC named Leslie. She only reminded me of her in her appearance (light colored hair, glasses, height/weight), FMH (as Hresh's finace was introduced to us) is quite a bit more intelligent than Leslie was. No slam on Leslie...she was smart as well, but FMH is a notch or three above that.
Stetson and his wife, while not reminding me of anyone I know, did remind me a lot of the people I grew up with in general...no nonsense, basic, what you see is what you get people. Steston's wife was pretty quiet but he told us it was nothing personal...she had a bad day. Stetson, I hope the move goes well. My wife and I prayed for things to go smoothly.
The first time I met Force10 (a couple of Christmases ago in Dallas at Dave and Buster's), I noticed he looked like an old employee of mine, Jason. I liked Jason and the other members of "Tres Amigos" ... the three dedicated guys who worked my help desk until we were forced to close when we were consolidated to the group in Dallas. I will never forget that. They could have left, but stayed until the last day. Great guys and Force 10 reminds me of that.
We all enjoyed our meal and a memorial photo was taken by our waiter with Force10's camera. No one ordered dessert with the exception of Stetson's wife, who needed a chocolate fix, I know what that feels like...I have been there myself many times. The conversation was rather diverse, but it went back towards I/T many times. Most of us do some sort of support or are very computer savvy so we tended to gravitate towards that. It only stands to reason...that is what brought us together in the first place and the fact that we are all very different. Hresh and FMH are young, are post graduate, and highly intelligent people from Mississippi. Stetson and his wife are basic, no nonsense hard working people who have a few years under their belt (like I do) who hail from Colorado, Force 10 is still looking for "the job" and that hot geek girl to complete his life. He is currently living in SoCal. Me, well you know me. I live by my faith in God. I stumble but I am not foolish enough to dwell on it. I ask God to forgive me and I move on, praying that I do not repeat the mistakes.
The evening (as a group) ended about 9:30 or so standing outside Razzoo's in a light mist talking and laughing. I tried 3 times to leave and failed 2 of them. On my last attempt, FMH asked me if we were going to actually leave after saying goodbye that last time, so I took it as challenge. I turned, wished them safe travels, and headed back to the office to pick up my laptop.
After I got to the office, I noticed that my former manager was there so I said hi to him. We made small talk for about 5 minutes then he went off on a tangent that I still do not understand. Sometimes highly intelligent people have trouble making themselves clear to us common folk. After finally getting away from him (it too 20 minutes), I grabbed my laptop and came home to my lovely wife. She said that little man still needed a walk so I took him and was back in a short while. After wiping him down and then brushing my teeth, I finally got to bed for the night.
It was quite an enjoyable evening and I hope to do it again sometime.
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