Normality.

Six years ago, to the day, I walked out of the office not knowing if I would be back in on the Monday. I had told all around me, including my bosses, that I was expecting things to shut down quickly and that we wouldn't see each other for a while. They were dubious, but I grabbed everything that I thought I'd need: cables, pens, notepads etc. And despite not fully admitting that I was right, I saw them do the same.

24 hours later, I was out with FP at CB Pub which only had a fraction of the people it normally would for a Saturday night.

48 hours later, while KfW2 was visiting in the afternoon, the call came in: the office would be shut for the foreseeable future, and that was the last time I was in the office full time.

And this is the new normal. 

Sigh.

Work has taken a turn. A deadline that's going to be difficult to hit because we only heard about it today... despite the fact the other team who are making the demands knowing about it for weeks and not simply sharing that detail with us.

No... instead, they tell their boss who tells their boss who tells their boss who tells their colleague who tells their underling who tells... you get the picture.

Is it any wonder the company is haemorrhaging customers?  

Please?

A text message from KfW2. I knew instantly that she was going to follow up and ask for a favour. And she did.

And I agreed to the favour. It's at the weekend and I don't have any plans.

She's really pleased. She always is.

So that's Saturday night taken care of. 

Dream a little dream.

I woken this morning to a semi-remembered dream. It was something that actually happened: a night out with MM and MMBF. They were out celebrating their birthdays (they were born only a few days apart), and MM messaged me and asked me to join them.

What happened in real life was that we chatted, MMBF added me on Facebook (or was it the other way around?), we moved to a different bar after the girls insisted I do many shots, MMBF went missing for about half an hour before reappearing, then MM and I got a taxi and went home.

In the dream, MMBF got very tactile and when MM suggested getting a taxi home, MMBF made it perfectly clear she wanted me to hang around.

I kinda woke up at that point.

I'd always wondered if MM had any ideas about that evening. M was nowhere to be seen, so it was puzzling why I got an invite out. I'd never been shy with M or MM about saying that I thought MMBF was attractive, though I think we all agreed she was too high maintenance for me. And at least one conversation from that evening was MM trying to talk MMBF into not talking to a guy that MMBF admitted was no good for her. So had she any plans for me and MMBF? She never admitted to anything and I never saw anything from MMBF to think that anything non-platonic was on the cards.

A pleasant start to Monday if nothing else, though. 

Regrets?

A question was asked on Reddit a few days ago: "When did you regret leaving a SO?"

I replied that I didn't regret leaving someone, but there was a person where I had second-guessed the timing. The person I was thinking of was CAB. As I've no doubt explained before, we always had an expiry date. She was going to go away for university and I had no desire to have a long-distance relationship. At best, we had six months, though I pulled the plug around the three month milestone.

Had I thought it through, I probably should have just kept on dating her. She was good fun, we had some great private fun even if there was never any actual sex (not through a lack of trying on our part) and I could easily have spent the summer going to bars with her, because that's really all we did. 

A thought that only crossed my mind recently was that we didn't feel like a couple, she felt more like a FwB to me. Was that just our vibe or was her imminent departure for university at the back of my mind and putting a barrier up against any real relationship growth?

But a pleasant enough memory. And here's a picture of Anna Kendrick giving me some serious CAB vibes:

Ups and downs

Family stuff reared its head again today, though thankfully it wasn't serious and only took a few hours to resolve. It did, however, allow me to indulge in my appreciation of women in scrubs. 

Vibe day

It's a dry, bright, sunny day where I live. While it's warmer than it's been recently, it's not objectively warm. But from where I work in my home office, it looks warm. It's what KfW2 calls a "greenhouse day". It does give off real Spring vibes, and Spring puts me in a good mood.

Guess who?

In a fit of boredom in a work meeting, I fired up my phone to play a game. One of the benefits of working from home, I guess. It was a word game, though this fact is unimportant to this actual story. I just wanted to share that I like word games.

Imagine my surprise when one of the in-game adverts fired up (for a local university) and who am I looking at? Only CH!

I wasn't quick enough to grab a screenshot, but hopefully it'll appear again soon, then I can send it to her and see if there's any banter to be had about her being an internet superstar. (There won't be, but I remain the stubborn optimist.)

Back and forth.

For the first time in ages, SSCW was in the office. We got talking, as we do, and quickly fell into our old rhythm. That usually means that I take the piss out of her and in return, she tries to be outlandish to get a rise out of me. It's never worked though, which I think annoys her a little. Everyone else that she's worked with has quickly fallen into her trap.

Her "in your face" attitude is just an act, but few people have actually realised that. Stalky Guy is genuinely scared of SSCW.

I've met her outside of work on a couple of occasions and she's been really... normal. I recall one night I was out with QC1 and she was genuinely interested in talking to me rather than getting a rise out of me. 

But people are always intrigued by our... I want to say chemistry, but I'm not sure if that's the right phrase to use. 

It was great seeing her again, though. 

Walkin' and talkin'

Another night of broken sleep. That's been a factor recently. But another semi-remembered dream, this one featuring KfW2. In it, we were walking around an old European city. I don't know which one, but the weather was glorious and we were just chatting about general stuff.

I don't think there was an actual point or theme to the dream, but that's the general vibe I remember about it. It, as you might expect, reminded me of the nights where KfW2 and I would go out, drink heavily and chat.

I owe her a night out for her birthday. I should maybe try and pin her down for a date, though that's probably not going to be until after the Easter holidays.

See this?

The problem with getting old and having bad eyesight is that glasses are expensive. And my eyes are suitably wonky that I need two pairs of glasses: one for doing my job (i.e. sitting at a desk, looking at a monitor) and everyday glasses for being out of the house and needing to see further than the end of my arm.

I'm fortunate that I get some money back from work - about 20% of the cost of my glasses and eye test, but it's still not a small amount of money and it's still a PITA to claim back.