Two Tests

Tomorrow I have to drive about 200 miles to one of our other offices to meet and work with a new coworker. I’ll take her out to lunch (on the company, of course), which, I’ve already passed the restaurant test, so I’m not worried about that. Nor am I worried about the room service I’ll likely order later that evening. My big test is going to be the drive there.

Back in my smoking days, I didn’t munch on long drives, because I was too busy chain-smoking. But those days are long gone. No more stinky sticks for me, which would normally mean some sort of sweet or salty (or more likely both) snack for the drive. I can find my way around that. What I’m most pissed off about is that I can’t have a vanilla latte. Boooo! How will I stay awake? I guess I’ll have to find some sort of substitute. Perhaps an Americano with cream and sugar-free vanilla syrup. That could work. I should make a new mix CD for the drive as well. Something peppy. Oh, I love making mix CDs. Yay!

My other test will come at the end of the week. I make an effing killer (probably quite literally, if you eat too much of it) turtle cheesecake. I used to make it for every special event or holiday, but since I starting trying to lose weight, I haven’t made it. I promised my friend that I would make one for him as part of our joint birthday party. I don’t think it’ll be an issue to not have a piece. I don’t really like it as much as others do. I’m just going to have to be really conscious when I’m making it, otherwise I’ll end up licking the spoon/beaters out of habit when I’m making it. If I can get through that, I’m good to go.

Worlds Colliding

I had an interesting time with my boss and coworker Thursday. It turned out that it was just the three of us who went out. Well, then my friend showed up as well. She’s been wanting to meet my boss forever, because she’s heard stories about him, so I invited her along.

I was pretty sure that my boss would let loose a bit, but I had no idea how much. He didn’t even have his first beer down before he started complaining about how much he hates his boss. Heh. I suspected that was true anyway, so no big shock. I just can’t believe he told us. He was extremely candid about a lot of things that night… probably more so than he should have been. But it was definitely a bonding experience.

It was a little strange for me to have people from my work meeting people from my life. Certainly that’s not the first time that has happened. My boss prior to this one became one of my best friends, so she has met my friends and family. But these two are more Work Friends than Real-Life Friends, so felt the whole George Costanza worlds colliding thing, mostly because I’ve told my Real-Life Friend everything about the Work Friends, and she wasn’t shy about asking them about that stuff. And the Work Friends were all, “Oh my GOD, I can’t believe you told her that!” Everyone had a good sense of humor about it, so that was good.

As for me, I drank a whole lot of carbs. I was able to stick with raw veggies while everyone was eating appetizers, and I ate chicken and leafy greens for dinner, but I just couldn’t resist the micro-brews. Ahh well. It was easy for me to pick up the next day where I left off. Sort of. Once again, eating low-carb was simple, but I’m not supposed to have any alcohol at all for two weeks, but we always have Friday night drinks! Heh. At least I didn’t drink beer Friday. After this coming Friday, when two of my friends and I have a joint birthday party, I’ll do the entire two weeks without breaks for drinking. But not before then.