Twelve Long Hours of Work But Still a Friday

Up on time and without any regrets of not enough sleep. I felt good and it was Friday – a Barley’s Friday at that. My mood wouldn’t be enhanced by the day’s weather. Instead, I would have to rely on my own good nature, and lucky for me, I seemed to have plenty of that this morning! I was rearing to go! Without any reservation I whipped out my calisthenics and walked outside with Ykraps. It was chillier than the morning prior, but the promise of a warm weekend heightened my hopes. Back home I flew through my routine and was ready for work well ahead of schedule which meant I had some extra guitar time. And yes, I wore black again today, which always brightens even the dullest of days. I told Mindy on my way to work that today was my final day to harbor and express any bitterness for my performance review that was exactly what I expected. I’ve expressed my feelings for a couple of days. I’m so much more… I was cruisin’ at high speed when I arrived at work. I was in a ‘Friday’ state-of-mind. And as it turned out, it was a good thing. Things were hopping as soon as I hit the door. I was mentally prepared for anything. It was a tough morning. As luck would have it, things slowed just a little around lunchtime, long enough for me to comfortably escape for my afternoon run. I wasn’t even 50 degrees but it still felt fairly spring like even with the dull gray skies. It was a good run, and besides, it was a weekend launching run! The afternoon was even busier than my morning. I was engaged in lots of action all afternoon with little let up. My hopes of departing on time diminished as a couple of nasty issues wouldn’t go away. To add to the mix, I was on-call for the weekend. I stayed at the office well into the evening. I didn’t leave until between 8-8:30pm. It was a long day! Because of my late night involvement, I missed my window of opportunity to get a jump start on weekend chores and tasks. Rather than sweat it, I just took it in stride and resigned myself to the inevitable. I found I was much calmer for doing so. Note to self: the world didn’t end despite me not having my laundry done, the floor vacuumed, the house cleaned, etc. Mindy arrived just around 8:40pm. We spent little time getting in my Trooper and heading to Barley’s. I called Bob on his cell phone just prior to leaving to see if he was there. He was. We hadn’t partied with those two for four weeks. He reported being there with Mary Ann, of course, and his in-laws who were visiting from the Akron-Canton area. We arrived at Barley’s just before 9pm. We greeted our friends and quickly ordered up a beer (IPA) for me and a glass of wine for Mindy. We met Mary Ann’s parents and then sat down for some good ol’ Barley’s food. I was craving a Barley burger (carb. crave continued), so that is what I ordered. Mindy requested the Cuban. My burger was great and so were some of Mindy’s cheesy fries. Over the course of the 2+ hours, I had three beers. Mindy had two glasses of wine. And finally after three months of allowing Bob to stew, he insisted on settling up on our old bet. He graciously picked up our tab. We had bet back in early November which of our NFL teams (Browns/Vikings) would have a better end-of-season record. It wasn’t close. I won! J Because Bob stayed after Mary Ann went home, we gave him a ride home. He only lives a mile or so from Barley’s. We headed to my house. We were there by 11:30pm. We made a bed on the floor in front of the fireplace and enjoyed a toasty fire as well as one another’s company. We also fell soundly asleep only to be awakened by Ashley’s phone call at 1:15am asking if we were OK. She was at Mindy’s baby sitting Jacob and Bella. Mindy woke and headed home. I went to bed.