when you're here, you're family

Today was a pretty good day at work, despite the fact that I had meetings almost all day straight, which is always my least favorite type of day. In fact, I had meetings almost straight from 11-6, with a fifteen minute break right before noon so that I could grab a sandwich and take it to my next meeting. Sigh.

However, I had quite a lovely evening. I left work around six-fifteen, and met Vidya at Starbucks, where we caught up with each other after a v. long hiatus. After checking my blog, I realized that I hadn't actually seen her and talked to her much in over three weeks, which is v. depressing. So, it was nice to have some alone time with her before going to dinner with the crew. We went to Olive Garden, which is an entertaining choice since there are many good restaurants in the general vicinity that aren't chains, but a fun time was had by all. Sri, Adit, and Vidya were there, as well as three of Sri's other friends.

I'm glad that Adit pulled this together - it's been way too long since I've seen my friends. I've been in a rather hermitlike mood for upwards of six months - ever since I started working really hard after coming back from vacation in Ukraine, really, with a brief descent/ascent into friendship again during the period around Claude's departure when we were all making an effort to hang out. The rest of the time, though, I've been so stressed at work and so in need of some downtime/ time to write/ whatever that I ended up avoiding (or, at least, not seeking out) my friends. In retrospect, this was not really wise - while I don't remember most of my solitary times, I have a fantastic and fond set of memories related to my friends, and it would be nice to keep adding to those. So, tonight was good for adding to the memories, and I'm still happy from it, even if I cam home and worked from ten until midnight. Also, Sri is a particularly great guy, and I'm glad that I got to celebrate one waypoint in his voyage to finding employment, even if the worst is yet to come for him.

Now I should really go to bed so that I can make it into the office for another endless string of meetings. Goodnight!