bread, mixed emotions, naked with the VP

It turns out, I have an upper limit on the amount of bread I can eat in one sitting.  We were at Panera bread and I got the chicken soup in a bread bowl.  With a side of bread. I ate the soup, the bread bowl lid, the side of bread, and then the entire bowl of bread.  

It was delicious, but as we continued our errands, I started to feel… breaded out.  Jim was suddenly walking much faster than I was and I had to ask him to slow down a bit – and reminded him that I’d eaten a pound of bread.

Fortunately, there were no long term side effects of the bread-near-OD – which in a way is almost too bad, since I’ve clearly not learned any lessons.

By contrast, a recent trip to Subway had a group that approached the counter after us order a sub with no bread.

The sandwich artists had a tough time with that one and had to puzzle it out a little before deciding that it was essentially a salad. Also in that group was someone who wanted no meat on their sub – and a third that wanted everything but mushrooms.

I looked down at my sub of bread, meat, and mushrooms and considered.  I get that some people have food allergies or vegetarian inclinations – but out of all the restaurants in the area, why would that group have gone to subway?

And people call me weird.

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It’s been a week of mixed emotions at work.

I found out that one of my colleagues in another office passed away after a long battle with cancer.  She was 52.

I don’t think I got the full story on why, but someone brought around a Wonder Woman cape that we could sign for the family.  I’m guessing she was a fan and I think she may have had it on order, but that it didn’t come in until after she’d passed.  I made it a point to take a few minutes and sign the cape – and I got some cards for other colleagues that had worked closely with her.  The signature was easy – I do know my own name – but coming up with the right words for my friends was much more difficult.  I wrote out what I wanted to say on paper several times to try and figure out exactly what I wanted to say.

Some magic words to make it better and easier.

I finally realized there were no such perfect words to be had and just tried my best.  I’m thinking about their whole department this week and my heart goes out to them all.

I also found out that one of my co-workers is resigning.  He’s got a great job offer ahead of him and on the one hand – I’m happy for him.  He’s going to be making more money at a well established company and that’s going to be good for his career and his family.  On the other, I’m sad because he’s my friend and I like working with him and I’m going to miss him.

On, I guess a third hand, I’m a little cranky at the timing.  School starts in a few weeks, we’ve got some huge projects that have to launch before that, and the stress levels are starting to go up.  I think he’ll have time to get those wrapped up before he leaves and it’s not his fault that it’s now – but the timing still bites.  We’ll get through it, but it’s going to be rough on the webteam for a while.

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I hit the pool after work and got in a fast ⅔ of a mile. I think I may be back to my prior speed and though I had a lap with a twinge in my arm, I picked up the pace and really tore through the water.

I got out of the pool and headed to the locker room – and saw (in my non-glasses-wearing blurry way) that there was a guy standing at the lockers opposite mine.  I said hello and he did too as I started to work on my combination lock.  He rightly guessed that I wasn’t a student (duh) and I turned to shake his hand and introduce myself.  I knew who he was – the VP for Finance at the University – and though he had no idea who I was, we’d actually met several times before.

Including a couple times in that very locker room – in that same aisle of lockers.

Which is not really surprising since it’s common to choose the same locker if you are a regular at a gym.  Nor was it odd that he didn’t remember me – I have adopted a process of “quietly awesome” over the years at work – and fly below the VP radar where I can.

We talked for a little bit about workout schedules and the nice facilities, and by an odd coincidence we both ended up completely naked at the same time – me transitioning from speedo to my work clothes and him heading the other direction as he got ready for his work out.

It could have been more awkward, but we were both doing the standard “I’m very focused on what I’m doing here and not acknowledging anyone else directly at this stage”.  

In a few minutes I was dried off and dressed and he was in his gear.  I wished him a good workout and we both exited in opposite directions.

As I headed to my car with my gear bag over my shoulder, I wondered if he’ll remember me the next time I have a meeting with him.  Will he ask where we’ve met?

“Yeah,” I’ll reply.  “ONAT locker room.  I was the one rocking a blue speedo”

Or perhaps not.