The scene: It is yesterday, Thursday. I am in a training meeting with Partner in Crime and Geekraffe*.
Break Boy: Poppy, I need to see you right now. Come with me.
Me: Um, I’m in the middle of a meeting.
Break Boy: C’mon. Let’s go. Right now!
Me: (to Geekraffe, PiC) I’ll be back? Or, not.
We walk to Break Boy’s office, sit down.
Break Boy: Time to plan the Guitar Hero party.
Me: What?! I was in a meeting!
Break Boy: (staring at me**)
Me: (staring back into those gorgeous sea-blue eyes [damn him])
(le sigh)
Me: Ok, ok. So, what’s the plan? Are we having it this Friday as in tomorrow, or Friday as in next Friday?
Break Boy: I haven’t decided yet. (more staring)
Me: (more staring)
Break Boy: What do you think?
Me: (snapping out of the staring) Ummmm… What about two parties? One this Friday and one next Friday?
Break Boy: Going out of town next Friday. What about this Friday and the Wednesday we’re back at work?
Me: (hugest grin on my face, because the more GH3 the better) YES, THAT IS AWESOME. … So, …. who are we inviting?
Break Boy: Haven’t figured that out yet. (more staring)
Me: (more staring)
Break Boy: You wanna figure that out and get back to me?
Me: (nod)
Break Boy: (more staring) Ok, then. You should probably go do that.***
Me: (staring, nodding)
Break Boy: Ok, bye!
I feverishly rushed downstairs to my office, made a guest list, made an announcement for the double party, made sure they were accurate and included all the people we wanted with NO MORE STARING by Break Boy, then sent them out an hour before the end of the work day yesterday. I sent them as blind carbon copy emails which perhaps sends the right message (“not everyone’s invited, but you’re special so you are”) rather than the wrong message (“ask all your friends if they got an invite! and your boss!”).
This is another one of those Fridays off so I don’t lose vacation time. On the agenda: grocery shopping, bill paying, Sweeney Todd, Guitar Hero. 
—
*I’ve not spoken about Geekraffe before. He’s super geeky (geek), he’s super tall (raffe… giraffe? c’mon, people!), he’s super freaking adorable and hilarious in his intelligence insulting and dry humor way, but we take the nicknames that amuse us and Geekraffe amuses me.
**Let me just explain: I’ve known Break Boy since I was six. In some ways we have not developed our adult relationship past the six-year-old stage. Staring is one of those ways. Except, when we were kids up through until he was 28 he wore glasses. Then he had his eyes lasered so no more glasses. And then you could actually see all the time just how absolutely gorgeous his eyes are, which totally changes the staring game for me. He’s still staring at me to get me to cave on things. I’m staring at him for the same reason but then I get lost in the sea and forget what I’m doing and eventually come back around and realized he’s won the staring contest anyway because I’ve agreed to do whatever it was he asked for while my brain was busy staring into his eyes. He’s kinda evil that way.
***SEE?! EVIL!
December 21st, 2007 at 10:45 am
Don’t let him distract you with his pretty blue eyes while you’re playing
December 21st, 2007 at 11:03 am
Avoid the eyes. AVOID THE EYES!
I thought you had a crush on him!
Go shred, guitar hero. May the Stratocaster (or Fender, or Les Paul) be with you.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:20 am
Amanda, I will not be looking at his eyes, I will be staring intently at the plasma screen.
Sybil, nope, no Break Boy crush. I had one! But that was (math math math… oh, whatever) ~15 years ago. Now he’s just my awesome friend. I intend to be awful tonight and be pleasantly surprised when I’m not.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I like the idea of a Geekraffe. Also, I love Guitar Hero, but have you played Rock Band? That is for real. I’m like a drum phenom!
December 21st, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I am a FuCR who wandered over…I like the name of your blog. I once ran, barefoot, through a poppy field in Turkey.
Anyway, cool blog, I’ll check it out more often.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I havent played the GH yet… I suck.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
NPW, I am scared to play Rock Band for fear that I would run off to form my own rock band and realize that the talents I have in a game do not translate to the talents I (don’t) have in reality.
Sobe, welcome to my home. I have now added it to my list of things to do to run through a poppy field in Turkey.
Geek, if you can get to my proximal location by January 2 you are welcome to come to our new data center to play on the 47″ plasma screens. (Or, ya know, buy your own or bum from a friend. Perhaps way more practical. ;)
December 21st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I loves me a nice datacenter…
December 21st, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Moi aussi. It’s very pretty. I would post photos here, but somehow I think that would be a bad decision security-wise.
I got to walk on its roof in the wind once. I somehow doubt I’ll be doing that this evening. Just pizza and GH3.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
We just expanded ours. Got another SAN. No monitors yet, but we have them on order. Good times, good times.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Oh and good choice on the security thing
December 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Who needs monitors? Everything should just work, and should be remotely accessible.
(I am aware of my smartassedness, yes.)
December 21st, 2007 at 5:09 pm
What industry?
Mine is Medical. (HIPPA Sucks big huevos)
Smartass is a good thing in tech…
December 21st, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Higher ed, but my first job out of college was medical so I’m familiar with the suckage of HIPAA.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Did you go straight into GH3? I’ve heard from some that GH3 isn’t that great for newbies, but is really tuned to GH addicts. I’ve not played it yet (it’s an XMAS gift) and I’m already a GH addict from the other 3.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Yes, I jumped straight to GH3 and mastered easy in two sessions. I was actually playing GH3 easy career with Break Boy at 2am last night while drunk on tequila, vodka, and whiskey. Clearly time to move to medium. (Training on that from now on.) I was born to be a GH addict.