His Excellence Recognized

Yesterday was scheduled to be a truly epic celebration of the First Friday of the Week because it coincided with the birthday of my excellent boss.  In tribute to the quality of the man involved it was even more fun than the schedule called for.  A larger than normal crew from work showed up and a former Assistant General Manager showed up with her husband all the way from Hartford (alright that isn’t so far but allow me some poetic license). This reunited the crew that was in place when I first joined the civilian work force back in 2005.  There was a heavy dose of reminiscing required.

My wife shares a cultural bias against being anywhere on time which has led to a marriage long battle of wills between us.  She’s gotten much better over the years and yesterday was betrayed by one of her own techniques.  I told her that I would pick her up at 3:30 and she had to be ready.  I showed up at 3:25 and she accused me of being late since she was ready at 3:00, as promised.  She had done to herself what I used to do which was telling her to be ready a half hour before the real time so she stood a chance of being ready on time.  Apparently her mind automatically shifted the time she was told back 30 minutes and convinced her that was the time I said.  I laughed while breathing a sigh of relief as we departed on time.

The Brew City Crew

The gathering at Brew City was everything we hoped it would be as the bar staff kept us well lubricated.  We now qualify as well tipping regulars.  We got a little boisterous in recounting the excellent boss’ many idiosyncrasies and he took it with good grace.  He had to leave for a short trip to pick up his wife who took the train in from Boston.  We got so loud at one point that some light loafered guys asked the waiter to quiet us down.  I took no small amount of pride that we could still cause a bar disruption at our age.

My Wife and the Boss' Wife Next to the Birthday Boy

After suitable liquid refreshment we moved across the street to an Italian restaurant for some really, really good food.  Two other couples joined us as we celebrated the excellent boss’ day.  Why is it that the best Italian food can always be found in the small, hole in the wall type restaurants versus a big chain?  That and many of the other great mysteries of life were explored to their logical conclusion over dinner.

Late Night at the Press Box

We were not ready to call it a night once dessert was consigned to its fate so we moved across Worcester to a bar called the Press Box.  I’d never been there before but several refugees from the First Friday event at Brew City were found there and the party continued for another hour and half.  My timely wife finally decided we had appropriately honored the birth of my boss.  We declared victory and bid our farewells.  I’m lucky to have this guy as my boss and I’m glad we were able to let him know how much we thought of him last night; and it was a hell of good time as well.