Work and Sven update
Hole is back. He got fired from Afghanistan - which right there, is probably the most hilarious sentence I'll type all day. :) He got a job as a fitness instructor for the soldiers, and he was pretty excited about it. He was gonna earn a lot of money. I actually feel bad for him. I suspect his endearing nature had something to do with his termination. He's always quite busy pointing out his own greatness, inadvertently at the expense of others, and it's funny, but people don't seem to like that. On a personal level, I was pretty excited about him being there because 1) he'd be there and 2) all that money was gonna be used to buy B out of their apartment. On the other hand, with the arrival of New Girl, I started to miss him something fierce. Hole doesn't actually do much work when he's 'working,' and he sounds pretty stupid when he speaks, but he had started making a real effort with me, and I was starting to see that underneath all his brouhahah was actually a pretty nice guy. I'd actually started to like him. Add to that how completely annoying New Girl is, and I wished him back almost every day. Who knows, maybe in time, she'd grow on me too, but a basic understanding of group dynamics points to a big no. She was so eager to gain my respect and acceptance, she was like a little puppy jumping up at me and taking my work out of my hands. "Here, let me do it." A sweet thought, but get the fuck out of my space. She also thought she could behave with my hard-earned authority and started telling people what to do, while still reporting back to me when someone made a mistake, which, apparently, happened a lot. She was the only one who cared. Mistakes happen - whatever, seems to be the general attitude at my work, which is awesome, and absolutely *nobody* cares whose fault it is as long as it's fixable. Essentially, New Girl needed to Shut Up more than anything. Even more than Hole. At least the things that come out of his mouth are crude, but vaguely funny. Sometimes even downright hilarious. I'll give him that.
So, bad things about Hole being back:
1) He's here.
2) No hope of B getting out of debt anytime soon.
3) Once he finds out about me dating Sven, things will probably get a bit more complicated.
Good things about Hole being back:
1) New girl is out - YES!!
2) I have to admit, I kinda missed him.
3) The hope that he might report back to B and tell him to get his head out of his ass and DO SOMETHING. It's unlikely, but it would be nice.
So yesterday, the show got cancelled and Donnie pointed out that he didn't know what to do with his time if he wasn't going to work, so the bosses decided to invite us all to lunch. And by 'all,' I mean 'those who have worked more than one season.' New Girl, new chef and someone who'd had two shifts were not on the list, which was perfectly acceptable to everyone in the party. It was a pretty awesome initiative, and a pretty awesome day. It may be wrong to differentiate and have an 'in-crowd', but it's pretty cool to be *part* of the in-crowd. And it was nice to be at a work related function (and a free lunch!) with a bunch of people who get along and like each other's company, as opposed to dreading the work experience lately because of one element trowing the whole dynamic off.
Oh, and speaking of work, there's a vignette that hasn't really fit into any of my posts lately, but which truly deserves a mention: Recently, one of my colleagues, Nina, took the time in the middle of serving to tell me: "I just want you to know that you're my absolutely favorite person to work with. I'm telling you now, because this is kind of an off day and that's when it really helps to both say and hear it." I only managed to stutter out an "aww, you're so sweet! Thank you!" before she continued working and I took a moment to recover. And the feeling is completely mutual, but I waited a while to tell her so as not to making it seem like an automated response. "Oh hey, you too," seemed a bit too... noncommittal. I've been cherishing that little gem ever since.
And Sven is coming over tonight! I have to get up and finish cleaning in a sec, but I felt like chatting a bit this morning. I've been laying all the groundwork, like, shaving my legs yesterday so he won't think I necessarily did it for him. And sleeping one night in new sheets so they don't feel all crispy and planned. I've got the menu all planned out, including dessert. I may be overdoing it a bit on the food front, but I feel like actually cooking, dammit, and it seems my ambition level is generally quite high. And honestly, it's all really easy and quick to make. The menu will consist of salmon with sundried tomatoes (my own recipe), rustic potatoes baked with a cream/dijon dressing, a Marroccan inspired carrot salad (secret ingredient is cinnamon - it rocks) with broccoli thrown in for color and for dessert: home made sorbet with pinapple, basil and Malibu Rum. He made his intentions known with flowers - I can do it with food. I've been looking forward to this all week.