Fun Day

Nov. 21 was our staff luncheon Christmas party. This year it was at Joey's, (Joey Tomato's, actually)

http://www.joeysrestaurants.com/home

It was great!

I was the first to arrive because I thought the drive down would take longer than it actually did. Hehe - never let it be said that I'm late for anything.

I sat by the fireplace until the others arrived, and we sat at a table in the main restaurant until the rest of the group arrived, and then we moved into the private room for parties such as this.

I sat next to Michael, another pianist for the ballet classes, and we talked music and sports. The Flames and Black Hawks were playing, and though I couldn't hear a TV set, there must've been one there, because Michael kept watch on the scoring throughout our party.

We all chatted about a little of everything from work to Twilight (I am not a fan, but I do like to keep up on what's going on) problems with dentist appointments, (Christina) meeting and eventually falling in love years later )Barbara) Baby Keaton's Montreal Canadien's jersey, just a bit of everything. :)

The food was fabulous! I had the Gyoza Japanese pork dumplings but with the hot mustard sauce on the side instead of on top. I prefer the option not to use the sauce if I end up not liking it, or if it turns out to be too hot. The dumplings were delicious and swimming in this garlicky sesame sauce, similar to the sauce that I tasted on some glass noodles at a Korean restaurant once. Mmmmmmmmm!!  They were gone too soon!

For dessert, I had this molten lava chocolate souffle, oh, MAN that was good! Hot gooey chocolate goodness with a slightly crisp outer layer, somewhere between a cake and a brownie and pudding. The chocolate sauce and raspbery puray were great as well. I left the ice cream, it was just plain hard vanilla anyway, and I'm not really into cold desserts or drinks at this time of the year.

Michael also had the souffle, but for a meal he had the Sicilian pesto linguine. Across the table from me, people had the Club Med, the butter chicken, and someone else on the same side of the table as me had chicken souvlaki. I had to wait a bit for my order, because, although they told me the hot mustard sauce could be served on the side, and I said that was how I would like it, they messed up and put it on the dumplings, so they had to do it over. They didn't bring my first order at all, but caught the mistake early, so as all the other food was arriving, I was informed I would have to wait a little bit because of the mistake. And it was not a long wait, maybe five minutes if that, I was impressed! But in the mean time, I noticed how delicious everything was smelling as it arrived. And when mine came, I definitely wasn't disappointed.

So, we ate, chatted and laughed, we didn't have a gift exchange this year, and that's okay too. They are fun, but very tricky especially with such mixed company. It wouldn't have done if we had the gift trade/rotate/pass-along/draw and people getting things that just didn't suit, I.E. pack of mascara that a guy ended up getting. As it was, I traded with someone after the offical gift-trade last year because I got movie passes. It isn't that I can't go to and enjoy movies, though I think that was the initial concern of whoever offered to trade what they got with me. But I don't go to movies, I'd rather wait until they're out on video and watch them for less at home. If I'm sure I'll like a movie, I definitely wouldn't mind going to see it in the theater. But with new movies, there's never a guarantee of that, and I have been to a few that IMO turned out to be a waste of my time and money.

Well, anyway, such was my fun afternoon.

After that, I went home and crashed until about 9 PM. I had been up since about 7:30 this morning because of work. That went well, too, excpet for the usual two habitually misbehaving little girls in the second class of the morning. It's always the same two, and they are incooperative, disruptive, and one of them has held up the class every week for at least three weeks because she decides that about 15 minutes into the class, she has to go to the bathroom. And today, she refused to come back into the studio and take off her sweater. The other little girl was seriously disruptive last week, not quite as bad this week, but I think she's got some issues with authority. From what I've overheard, it's that way at home too, her father gets really ticked when she doesn't obey in class, and they have caused scenes right there at the studio. It's a big stresser on the instructor, and somewhat on me as well, because even though I'm not directly involved, I still feel tense, how can you not?

Other than that, classes are going very well, and I'll be putting the exercises to Christmas music starting this week. Well, some of them anyway, there are a few exercises that no song could work for because the timing is too different. That isn't usually a problem. There is always one or two, though, that just can't be redesigned and still manage to keep all the cues and hints the dancers need in the music for the exercise to work.

So, that's how it has been this weekend. I have no plans for Sunday other than watch hockey if the Flames are playing again and it is being televised. Even if it isn't, maybe Fan960 will broadcast it.

So good day all.

Capri

Posted via email from capri