Wall St

I slept a little late. Well, OK, I slept a lot late. Didn’t get up until 550am. To help heal the wound, I skipped sit-ups and push-ups, at least for the time being. I hurried through brushing my teeth then quickly slipped into my running clothes. I sucked down some OJ, meditated then stretched in all of about ten minutes. I rushed off to the fitness center next.

Hopped up on a treadmill at 510am. Like the morning before, I set it to 6.7 mph at the outset. I ran the 3.2 miles in the best time yet, cranking it up to 8.0mph for the last sprint. Closed her down at 28+ minutes. Felt terrific.

Back to the room, it was 545am. I decided I had time for push-ups. Glad I did ‘em. Shaved, showered then groomed. Slipped into my 2^nd pair of jeans and a black button-up santeen dress shirt. I was ready to go by 610am.

Headed off to the lobby for coffee. I went with a large caramel macchiato latte. Picked up a portable oatmeal bowl too. Shoved that down into my backpack for later. Dave & Natalee were down and ready by the time I had my coffee set-up for the go.

Good timing. The 4 train was just boarding when we made it to the platform. Sparsely populated train. Nice ride! As we exited the

Fulton St

terminal, the skies were cloudy and it was raining. Got to use my travel umbrella. We banked on the fact that the rain would dampen the spirits of the antagonists. It did. There were far fewer of them out to torment us.

Arrived in the office by 650am. We joked around for the first 30 minutes or so before digging into the day’s workload. Breakfast was ready for us by 815am. I made it a point to reduce my carb intake, though I did still have one bagel with cream cheese.

The sky started to clear as the morning turned into afternoon. Dave spent part of the morning organizing a birthday dinner for one of our new work buddies, Jennifer, who used to work with his wife in Dallas. He made reservations for 20 at the Capital Grill in the

Wall St

district. Reservations were for 745pm, which meant we’d be sticking around the area after work until after dinner.

Talked with Mindy near noon. We didn’t talk long. She and the kids were just getting back to her classroom with their lunch. Said she planned to book her flight Wednesday AM. Right now she can get a round trip flight for about $170. That’s pretty good.

Lunch was pasta and meatballs. Damn! Something’s gotta give. I had pasta and salad. Getting old. Worked harder than I have since I arrived. Starting to get used to all the systems, tools, and quirks. That makes a big difference. .

The afternoon went fast, due mostly to staying extremely busy. My home director held a conference call with all of her reports around 3pm. I joined for about 20 minutes.

As 7pm neared, most of us quietly reviewed/discussed the logistics of our dinner plans. The birthday dinner was supposed to be a surprise for Jennifer. The plan called for all of us to arrive there first while Dave walked with her around

Wall St

. The plan worked flawlessly. We left the office and made our way over to Wall St. It’s not too far at all. We actually ran into Dave & Jennifer, but passed nonchalantly bidding them farewell. Natalee, Stacey and I headed to the stock exchange where we enjoyed the sites and took some photos. The area gives me goose bumps. Powerful area. Got a lot of cool pics.

Made our way to the Capital Grill with five minutes to spare. We were guided to a private room in the cellar. Very cool. Used to be a bank. You pass through a gigantic safe threshold in route to the dining room. The table would seat about 24. There were almost 20 of us. One of the women in the group stopped and bought Jennifer a bouquet of flowers. That was nice.

One of the waiters stopped in to share the plan. Once they arrived he would offer them a tour of the old bank and safe, at which point he would open the dining room door to all of us.  The restaurant went out of their way to facilitate our group. As planned, Dave & Jennifer entered after we’d all been there for about 5 minutes. We hollered happy birthday as she entered. She seemed genuinely shocked. By the way, I believe this was her 60^th.

It was restaurant week in NYC - actually extended through September 03. Many local restaurants are offering full course meals for very reasonable prices. The Capital Grill was no exception. We were served some very yummy breads and then a really good salad. Many ordered alcoholic drinks. I passed, going only with water. Dave took them up on the restaurant week wine special, which included nine flights of wine for $25 - a wine tasting experience.

I ordered the filet and lobster tail for $45. And that included a salad, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and dessert. One poor soul in our group didn’t get his steak until most of us were nearly done. And when they finally brought it, he complained that it was too rare. He wasn’t pleased. Mine was really good, but not exquisite. But then again, there were 20 of us. That’s hard to pull off. The staff went out of there way to please. I was very impressed with their professionalism. They handled the event quite well.

Dessert was as assortment of crème brulee, chocolate gnash, and some fruit thing. I sampled just a few nibbles of the gnash. Very good stuff. I glanced at my blackberry and saw that it was already after 10pm. Holy smoke! Mindy eventually called my blackberry wondering what was up. I explained that we were just leaving the restaurant. Had to be near 1030p by then. I was tired, and so were most others.

Despite drinking nine flights of wine Dave seemed to be holding up quite well, although he was a bit more open and chatty than usual. Four of us caught the

Wall St

subway back to Grand Central. Weren’t a lot of folks on board. Didn’t’ expect there to be, either. Didn’t take long at all.

I stopped at the lobby desk to get my laundry. Had it waiting for me right around the corner. I was surprised at just how small of a bundle they had all my clothes in. Had the bag sealed extra tight too, along with my luggage tag and then one of their own too. Took me a while to get it untied and opened.

All my stuff was present and accounted for, but I was a bit taken back at how worn and faded the new articles of clothing I sent off for their initial washing were.  I could only guess that they washed everything in extra hot water. Oh well! It would look like that in a year or so anyhow.

I called Mindy once I had my laundry sorted and accounted for. Once again, we talked only briefly. She was either already asleep or just about to. It was after 11pm. I brushed my teeth and stripped out of my work clothes. I set out the day’s receipts on the dresser so I could enter them into my expense spreadsheet the following morning. Sleep tight night NYSE.