Lately I’ve been trying to hang out with friends a bit more, one on one. For the longest time, it was easy enough to simply show up at work and everyone I socialized with was right there at the workplace. Anymore, I’ll see folks in some occasional group get-togethers, but as fun as those are… I never seem to be able to really get to talk to any one person, in depth.
We had a wide range of food and folks. When I first heard about the visit, I thought it would just be Alex and Linda. Earlier in the day, I found out that Katie, Carrie and Tom would also be joining – folks I haven’t seen in about 8 or 9 years!
We ended up taking the Blue Line over to Wicker Park, and got a table at Rodan. Had a few more drinks and some dinner (lots of Ramen on the table), and called it a night around 10PM or so. Apparently, when I’m drunk… I’m really, really interested in smoking cigarettes. Despite some attempts at peer pressure, where I was leaning on AJ and Justin a bit), there was no smoking to be had. Which in hindsight, was a good thing.
The idea came up for multiple people to all get similar full-size t-shirts… and incredibly, people started to order them independently (from The Mountain and Fab). Meagan had the excellent idea that everyone would hang out at a bar together somewhere (karaoke, maybe), and each shirt would slowl be revealed through a series of photos posted onto Flickr or Facebook. With Chris humongo Allison-faced shirt being the last image in the set.
Yesterday morning, Ben was walking around the Product Development team, handing out these mugs to me, Chris and Justin. I forget exactly what prompted this, but I remember Ben making a joke about how he should get these mugs for everyone. A few days ago, apparently… Ben turned a whim into a reality.
Hard to believe how much time has passed, but after almost six years… Nattaporn (Bee) is venturing out, starting a new job as a web developer with Charles Schwab.
Bee was very subdued in her exit, and me, Justin and Chris ended up running out to catch her, as she was saying her goodbyes.
On Friday, Justin, Ben, Chris and I met up with Phil for a quick lunch. His new office is closer to the Mart, so we decided on Perry’s Deli – an old favorite that many of us hadn’t been to in a long while.
Recently, Chris has been playing a game called Fez and part of the game apparently utilizes 3D. He was in need of some glasses, no one in the office had any… so he ended up ordering glasses online.
Justin and I are at work today, trying to get caught up on some documentation that’s due next week. Though it’s a bit odd being in the office with no one else around, we’ve been remarkably productive.
I don’t really have anything of value to say about this. I just wanted to post the photo here.
On Tuesday, there was a ceremony in the afternoon for a big occasion: Ben had hit his 10 year mark at Emmis Interactive, and was to receive his 10-year watch. We had several folks from Emmis Corporate in town yesterday (in particular our CEO Jeff Smulyan, who would be the one to give Ben the watch).
The game goes like this: one player looks through the Slang Dictionary and selects a word. They then tell the other players what the word is, and everyone writes down their own definition on a slip of paper. The person who picked the word writes down the actual, real definition. All the slips are turned in, and the person who chose the word has to read all the definitions out loud.
Alex, Linda, Johanna and Frida were in town briefly over the weekend. Schedules were a little hectic, but last night we managed to find a little time to hang out together, prior to their departure back to Green Bay. The girls were so big! And on seeing them, it underscored how overdue we were in having visited the Galts. Immediately…
The Seal family has been visiting Chicago, and though we missed them a week or so back… Liz and I were able to catch a dinner with Kevin, Molly and their son Philo. Kevin had a hankering for pizza, so we met up at a Lou Malnati’s near Justin‘s place. There was a bit of a wait, but we hung…
For lunch, a group of us headed out to a (semi) nearby Indian place called Chicago Curry House. Today was the official 10-year mark for Ben, as he officially has been an employee of Emmis Interactive for a decade now! To celebrate, a group of us headed out to lunch together. View of the bar. The interior is quite nice,…