Let's Do Lunch Someday

I realized several things when reading my last entry. First, I repeated the word promotion multiple times. I dare you to take a shot everytime the word promotion was written. Actually you could make a drinking game out of various posts where I may say a word over and over. Second, I realized that slightly less annoying boss = SLAB. Hence, my new nickname for my boss the next time I post about him. Slab, I like that! *LOL*.

So Hemingway I was saying that I had an actual interesting story relating to work that I was too tired to mention. It's not about the Slab either (Heh...I just wanted to say slab - heh, said it again - one more time.) Take a sip of vodka each time I say the word SLAB in this post. Slab, slab, slab, slab. Heh...ok I'll stop.

This latest work tale involves Reid (my bowling buddy) and long time former co-worker, now co-employee Deidre. A little history on Deidre since this is the first time I'm mentioning her on here. She's a young lady that I first met day 1 (eight & a half years ago) on the job. Her family's originally from Greece. She was always the nicest person to work with. She's the one who'd remember people's birthdays. She still remembers mine to this day even though we haven't worked together since 2000. Generally she's an all-around nice person, even though at times she's a bit naive.

So Hemingway she's been trying to schedule a lunch with Reid, she, and me (I hope I'm grammatically correct...*LOL*). Each time she's done this in the past, however, she's cancelled at the last second (all of them she says due to job commitments), much to the chagrin of Reid. Reid, you see, wants to ride (and take a ride) in her Mercedes (which she bought three or four years ago..I forget when). The last minute cancellations have occurred with much frequency, to the point that Reid doesn't want to hear about scheduling a lunch anymore.

You know how laidback I am. It's not like I was pressed to do lunch with either so whenever things didn't work out that day, I was like, coo(l). But not Reid. He ranted and raved to both of us about how Deidre is so undependable and unreliable. This was all done over email, of course. The funny thing, Deidre seemed a bit naive to Reid's insults and would interpret them different ways. It was crazy.

It was hilarious because at some point, the two of them were just going back and forth on email, cc'ing me throughout the whole thing. It was amusing but annoying at the same time, especially when Reid kept trying to force me to pick a side. For the record, yes I could understand how the repeated cancellations could be annoying. But since I didn't care either way, they didn't bother me that much.

Reid then complained to me in a separate email how Deidre keeps asking him how everyone's doing (myself included). He wonders why she can't ask people herself, which is actually a valid point. In the years I've known Deidre, she does have that tendency. But I guess I have a higher tolerance for it then Reid does...*LOL*.

The incessant emails got so bad that at one point I even called my good friend and former employee Stan and asked him if he could join the three of us for lunch (whenever that day happened). Stan has his own beefs with Deidre actually (which he has gotten over). While Stan and I converse every now and then, he hasn't been able to get a hold of Deidre, who rarely returns his phone calls. You see Stan, Deidre, Reid's sister Allie (who used to work at our company), and I were like four amigos. We'd go out for lunch twice a week at least. Just like at fellow blogger Karsh's job situation, there were people who were jealous and would always question why we always hung out together. Stan and Deidre both shared a love of real estate. Stan was doing it much longer than Deidre and basically helped show her the ropes as she got her feet wet. So they had an even deeper relationship (nonsexual as far as I know). When Stan left the company in 2001, he hoped to keep in contact with Deidre and myself (and a few other people I won't mention in this blog...*LOL*). He's always had the most challenging time contacting her. Then again I did too, even though we still worked at the same company, just different buildings.

So back to the original story. I wanted to have Stan as an additional buffer. I didn't want to be alone in case those two got at it during our lunch outing. So Stan and I joked about it but the lunch I was trying to get him to attend got canned again (by Deidre).

So Reid, tired of the cancellations, simply told Deidre to just not email him anymore about us getting together for lunch, but to just email me and get him (they work in a different location from me) the day the lunch actually takes place.

Of course, Deidre didn't get it until I explained it to her a couple times. She still emailed us both with future lunch plans, which irritated Reid all the more. When she finally realized he didn't want the emails, she called him a "diva". *LOL*...actually Reid is a diva.

So believe it or not, the aforementioned lunch actually finally happened this past Friday. We met at a Chinese restaurant mid-point between the two offices we work at. Reid didn't get to ride in the Mercedes, though. Actually he drove his car. Heh. The lunch was overall pretty cool, even though both tried dipping to find out if I'm seeing somebody. I managed to avoid answering it directly. Living the double life sucks sometimes. But that's another post...*LOL*.

Let's just say I'm glad the lunch finally happened. If I had to hear Reid bitching one more time, I would've lost it. As it stood, the back and forth emailing thing was getting pretty annoying. Hopefully we won't have to worry about scheduling another one until late next year.

Sigh...speaking of work, I have to log into work later this morning to fix a job that abended yesterday. Technically the person on support (it's not my month) should be doing this. But he didn't respond to the page because he forgot it at home while in class, so I got stuck doing it. I swear...*LOL*

But on a totally different note, I had the most wonderful conversation last night with a friend of mine who's not Eugene...*LOL*. Don't worry, Eugene and I chatted three times throughout the day yesterday. He's still my ace boon coon...:-) But it was cool chatting with this new friend of mine. We share so many philosophies on things. Hopefully things will continue to blossom from here.

Until next time my fellow bloggers.