The major event of the day was our group's holiday luncheon. That is, my customer group, which is where I actually spend my time, vs. my corporate group, which has a potluck next week. They have always done the luncheon at Maggiano's at Tyson's Corner. And so it was. The menu was slightly altered this year, which brought significant grumbling from one person, though I noticed she still found plenty to eat. I will basically describe the meal more ore less as I did last year - large quantities of mediocre food.
Tradition means you shlep across town to eat mediocre food, despite working 2 blocks from one of the best Italian restaurants in the mid-Atlantic region. It's particularly odd that we do so since our director is, generally, a man of good taste. But so it goes and sometimes you go to meals for the company, not the food.
I had forgotten which side of the Galleria the restaurant was in, so parked about as far away as was possible. That gave me an excuse for a bit of retail therapy on the way back to the car. What I really want is the USB turntable that Sharper Image has, since I have tons of LPs I should really digitize. All I bought was a crossword puzzle book (to satisfy a craving), a copy of the premiere issue of Jewish living magazine (which I will report on after I've read it), and a few chocolates from the fancy chocolate shop on the top level. I'm skeptical about that shop, though, because the free samples they were giving out contained banana, which is pretty much the only fruit I don't eat.
I also drove over to The Container Store to pick up a few odds and ends. I want a new trash can, but I can't see spending over a hundred bucks on one, regardless of how stylish it is. I suspect that I will whine about this for months and then decide that it really is worth buying what I like.
I also had a dream that was sort of related to the lunch party. In it, I had rented a large truck to go to the party. The truck was so big, I had to use a sort of elevator mechanism to get to the driver's seat. It was also so big that I had to park very far from the restaurant and walk through a Vietnamese market to get there. While in that market, I saw a cage where the proprietor had a giant cobra (really python sized) fighting a tiger. The cobra slithered off and the poor tiger was shaking and dying of cobra poison.
If you know what giant trucks, giant cobras and dying tigers have to do with a holiday luncheon, please do me a favor and don't tell me.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel