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September 7, 2000 |
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Life is full of rude awakenings. Well, I suppose that, to me, any
awakening is a rude one, okay save for the ones where I am waken by Pam, in her very creative ways.
Today was one such rude awakening. It must've been about 1pm when I heard
knocking on my door. It might've been a delivery man or the like, so I
ignored it. Whoever was at my door persevered and finally I got up and
answered the door. It was Ted and
Allison. They were just finishing some sort of a conference in Seattle and
dropped by. Actually, I knew they were coming, though they were
several hours early. Ted said he wanted to get lunch and wondered how much
time I would need.
I had gotten to sleep only a few hours before and was still fighting the
symptoms of my cold. However, I figured that I eventually had to
get to work. I was still achy from the associated muscle soreness and my
sinuses were still both dry and drippy, how that happens I'll never know.
I told him that I would have to get showered and would be able to meet them
in an hour. Off to she shower I went.
I met them at the local Chili's for lunch. They have good food, Mex-Tex
style food that is so appealing to folks these days. Did you know that
salsa outsells ketchup? Travesty.
I took some of the Day-Quil gelcaps with me and took them at Chili's. They
only last for about four hours, so you really want to maximize their
effect. I did start to feel better, and was arguably even
approached feeling human… not healthy, mind you, just human.
Lunch with Ted and Allison was otherwise good. They're both good people.
To be honest, I think Ted and mine temperaments are such that we still
clash a little, but this may be remnants of our competitiveness, especially
when we were roommates in college. I'm sure that I'm a big part of that,
I've been known from time to time to be somewhat of an irritant.
We catch up a bit, since it has been a few weeks since we had seen each
other. I believe that it was the day of Lucas's graduation party. Pam came with
me on that trip and met many of my friends that day. Ted was
supposed to be dropping off a ticket to the Hurricane game at
Husky Stadium this weekend, since he was driving straight up from his place
and it would be pretty far out of the way to pick me up. I'm sure I could
manage to get to the stadium in some respect or another. Oh, incidentally,
I say that he was supposed to be dropping off a ticket because he had
apparently misplaced them. They may be at home, but he won't know
until tonight when they get home.
After lunch we went to the company store, since we wanted to pick up a few
items. No biggie really; it would only take a few minutes. The store has
moved a number of times, and the latest location is much closer to my
place. Not that this has any other significance, since I was not about to
go back home. I did have to get some work done today.
I did, however, finalize plans with Ted, Allison, and Pam for dinner tonight before I head off to work. As for work,
it was tolerable. These days this is about as pleasant as it gets. It has
nothing to do with the nature of the work, it has more to do with the
conditions in which we have to perform. Even the most appealing of
activities are going to lose their allure if you have to do them with
"a gun to your head". Oh, and get your mind out of the gutter.
Allison had to make a business call. There was the possibility that she
would have to be flying to Taiwan (if I remember correctly) and wanted to
avoid it if possible. The call was going to take a fair amount of time, so
I tracked down a conference room near my office. I went back to work.
She had managed to avoid having to fly out next week. I still needed to
get a few more things done, however, and they went off to play for a little
while longer before we met for dinner.
Allison and Ted showed up at about 6:30pm, which was right on time. We all headed from my office to Pam's new place on the Eastside. Life is so much easier in this respect now… We introduced my friends to Pam's parents, who weren't joining us for dinner. I personally felt a little strange about their not coming along, but since Pam described it as a date, she figured it would be okay. They're her parents; if anyone knows them, she would.
We went to dinner at Shamiana, since they had missed the Indian food there. That was the plan from the beginning; I can't blame him really because it is my favorite Indian restaurant. Ted alleges that the food at Chutney's is better, but he either has poor memory, or bad taste. Don't get me wrong, the food at Chutney's is exceptional, but the food at Shamiana is that much better.
Naturally, I ended up ordering the Major Grey chicken curry. This is where Ted and I got into a discussion. I won't go as far as to say that he criticized my practice of always ordering the same dish, but I'd say he marvelled at my consistency. I suppose the way he looks at it, is that he doesn't see how I could always pass up the possibility that there's something better. I suppose he feels a need to try something different. Maybe I see this as the kid who has to get burned to find out the stove is hot.
Maybe my approach is a little different. First, I know that the Major Grey is the most popular dish; the staff once said that they may go out of business if they stopped serving it. Second, his presumption that I would not be able to try other dishes is false; we normally get to sample a little of each other's dishes, and this is ample opportunity for me to decide for my next visit. Third, I have a good enough memory to remember to order it next time and am patient enough to wait until then.
Ultimately though, he is right, even if all the above things were not in applicable, I would still pick the same dish… Why? you ask. It is very simple. It is a matter of calculated risks. Considering how much I happen to like this dish, it is a risk to order something different that I would not enjoy as much.
This is a better way to explain it… Let's take for example, poker hands. A straigh is when you have five cards in sequential order; a flush is when you have all cards of the same suit (spades, diamonds, etc.). Naturally, you can also get a straight flush which is a combination of the two. Okay, if you were playing draw poker, where you can discard some cards to replace them with new random cards, and you had a flush or a straight and were one card away from a straight flush, would you risk it? Most people would not. Why? …because the chances are fairly high that they'll end up with nothing, and what they already have is a good hand. Naturally, they could do better, but why bother? They'll have a good chance of winning the hand without trying to better it.
I already know I like the entrée; I don't feel a need to experiment. Yes, believe it or not, this took a significant part of our dinner conversation. Although to be quite honest I didn't come up with the poker analogy until much later.
We dropped off Pam at her place, where I kissed her goodnight. We all parted out ways. Naturally, I went back to work, since I had missed so much work today.
I got a call from Ted about an hour later when he made it home. He did leave the tickets at home, so we would all be going to the game after all. However, I would have to meet him outside the gates, in the mad rush of the people coming in to see this college game. [Sigh] Nothing is ever easy.
September 7, 2000