Speaking of Which...

Allison and I dropped into Barnes and Noble on the way home from work today. We were out and about, taking care of some miscellaneous errands before tomorrow's dental festivities. Generally speaking, our B&N trips are pretty straightforward: Allison goes one way, I go the other, and we meet up later. Usually she returns with a guilty look on her face and three books too many, and I make her put at least one back. Sometimes. That expression is one of the quirks that I love about her.

Tonight we arrived and, as per normal, scattered. I turned a corner and found myself face-to-face with the old COO. Yeah, the guy I mentioned yesterday. Wasn't expecting that one little bit. I also wasn't prepared to see him dressed down (jean shorts, a t-shirt and some beaten-up sandals). Intellectually I understand that he had to own casual attire (everybody does), but it threw me. Call me flummoxed. My brain went through a little reboot right then and there.

I recovered pretty quickly (I don't think he noticed), and we chatted for a couple minutes. Exchanged some pleasantries and I wished him the best of luck in the future. Prior to getting hired he'd spent years doing various consulting work, so I don't expect him having any issues landing on his feet.

He left to find his wife, and I beelined it back over to Allison. She and I snooped for a couple minutes, before heading over to the checkout line to be accosted by the old French lady, Elizabeth, who works the cash rep. Allison, you see, also worked at that particular store for a couple of months before landing a position at the current job. Elizabeth is the top seller of memberships at the store (easily doubling everyone else) because (1) she's an adorable tiny old French lady, (2) hard to understand, and (3) will not – repeat, will not – let you leave until you've signed or re-upped something.

It took somewhere around five minutes to purchase a a blank journal for Allison along with a pair of books and I had to sacrifice an email address to the Barnes and Noble Marketing Gods, but we made it out alive.

Then we went for sushi. Well, I had sushi and she had beef teriyaki. Allison doesn't do fish... yet.

Counterbalance

It's all about equilibrium this week.

To celebrate our anniversary Allison and I went to see Dave Matthews over the weekend. The show, while great — it's Dave — was slightly disappointing. Understandably, they're touring to promote The GrooGrux King, but they didn't play much else. Seriously, I think they played every single song off the new album. But no Ants Marching. No Stay (Wasting Time). I think they only played Crush to avoid an outright mutiny.

The overall sound of DMB is changing. I'm also not sure how I feel about the new sax player. The new guy's got skills (Allison wasn't aware it was possible to play two woodwinds simultaneously), but I miss LeRoi. Something was just different, the vibe of the whole evening. We got our money's worth and both enjoyed ourselves, but without a doubt the last show was a much better time.

You take the good and the bad together.

Bad: The upcoming weekend is going to be full of suck. My wisdom teeth are coming out on Saturday. Not looking forward to that one little bit, no sir. Cross off the whole weekend plus Monday. Welcome to Vicodinland, population me.

Bad: Work is also getting scary again. We had yet another round of "workforce reductions." While it was only around eight people, several of them were close friends, and all of them seemed immune going in. Hell, nobody expected this, not a month after the last cut. I can't help but wonder if they were the lucky ones — they got severance. What happens if the doors close?

It all started Monday, when the owner of the company fired the Chief Operating Officer. It's sounding like they had a fundamental disagreement about the gameplan, and the boss decided that the COO was holding us back as a company. Who knows? But the timing is curious: not three days later and there are boxes in the hallways.

Tomorrow is our quarterly communication meeting. Unlike the previous ones this is a mandatory thing, and they're apparently locking the front doors and turning off the phones so everybody's around.

Good: I got some great news last week, unrelated to the office chaos. I don't want to jinx anything, so that's all I'm going to say on the matter for now.

A lot of highs and lows lately, as my world tries to stabilize itself. Dear World: knock it off already.

Bliss

Yesterday marked my one year wedding anniversary. And things are just as good today as they were then. Better, actually. We've got something strong, and I'm looking forward to many more wonderful years.

Say what you will about eHarmony and the hokey commercials, but don't doubt their results. They found Allison for me.