Opportunity knocks

We’re down to the wire for the company’s annual fundraiser awards dinner event. This Thursday, where a few employees see it as time to party, it is actually hell in the making for our department. Not so much the underlings, but Demi-Boss and Lady-Boss are damned near going insane over the past week.

For some reasons, this year feels more stressful with 2 people heading up the charge than with just Demi-Boss last year. Then again, the former CEO wasn’t this involved with the show.

The madness spilled down to me yesterday as I stayed late and helped them with making notes of all the adjustments needed for the tribute video–and there was a lot–and matching those up with a bunch more of images.

It is just odd how my unplanned stay at work sort of worked out to be a pleasantly surprised evening.

First of all, I learned about the schedule of the Metro 460 Disneyland bus. Pretty much if I miss my Express at 5, I can catch this one every 20 minutes up to 7 p.m. The catch is that Brandon has to come get me at a Metro hub where the 105 and the 605 meet.

But let me tell you, it is a hell of a lot better than hitching a ride on the Freakazoid Express aka Blue Line. Less people and limited stops, like the 701 bus. Perfect!

Hmmm…now this get me thinking about taking the 460 into town on the day that I’m late. Oooh…the first Eureka moment of the day!

So, Brandon was there waiting for me when I arrived. Since I have been craving pizza all week, Brandon suggested we visited our old friends Raffi and wife Russia at the Deli News in Long Beach.

Brandon and Shane have been coming to the Deli News for pizzas and Italian foods since they were very young. 16 years ago, actually. Raffi told us they just celebrated their 16th anniversary in April.

Anyhoo. When we got there, we found Raffi and Russia looking at the empty space next to them. This is the first time in my 7 years of coming here that I’ve seen them away from the counter!

“So, are you guys looking to expand?” Brandon launched the question.

“Hell, no. Are you crazy?”

From that point on, we continued to chat for another hour, catching up on things and talking to them about Shane’s new shop etc. I got a beer and waited for our to-go pizza which we ended up eating there instead.

While we chat, we learned that Raffi was hospitalized a while back for anxiety attack that came out of nowhere. After all 16 years of craziness, he said, now that I’m comfortable with the money and the work and the improvements we just put in, I got a fucking anxiety attack? You just never know when your mind decided to crap out on you, I guess.

It was a good thing we came to see him. We wouldn’t have known! Besides, I needed some pizza and beer therapy anyway.

See? It all worked out in the end. I learned about the new alternative to getting to and from work. I got to have pizza and beer. And we got to catch up with old friends.

Opportunity out of chaos. A great end to a long week.

And now, we wait for USC to kick Washington State’s butt at 4 p.m. Go, Moody and Booty!

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