Different Kind of Friday

Today has been a pretty non-standard Friday.

I'm headed to Boston this weekend to see Girlfriend and celebrate her birthday, which is really next week. So between packing and straightening up this morning, I was running late. No big deal, it's Friday.

When I get to the office, I see emergency vehicles outside. Then I see our security guards standing outside, directing people away from the building. "What's going on?" I asked. "Small fire. Building's closed for now. Check back in an hour." Good thing I didn't rush to work.

Nice day out, MP3 player in my pocket, I proceed to take a walk. Stroll over to Best Buy to look around. Bump into some people from work. Chit chat a bit. So far a pretty good work day.

Stop in at Comfort Diner for a late breakfast. What a good meal. I was so absolutely surprised. See they opened a Comfort Diner in my neighborhood a couple of years ago. We went once, thought it sucked and was overpriced, and shortly thereafter were not surprised to hear it had closed. Today's experience, however, was a complete 180 degree shift. The food was awesome. Perfect omlette, great bread toasted perfectly, good service, great coffee, and they were playing the Dead and then Dylan. To top it all off, this enjoyment was had when I otherwise would have been at work. Thankfully the fire was minor, and no one was hurt, otherwise I'd be feeling mighty guilty about my liesurely breakfast right now.

As I was walking to the diner, I checked my voice mail. A friend from college who lives in Chicago is in town. He wanted to hang out this weekend. So I called him back, and he asked how the building was doing. WTF? How did he know? Turns out he was in the neighborhood, and heard people talking about it in Starbucks. Small world. Anyway, I told him that I was headed out of town, but would be psyched to grab lunch. He mentioned that he had some personal matters to discuss. "Is everything ok?" I asked, growing a little concerned. "Yep, everything's cool" he replied. "I'm just with my boss right now, so I can't talk." OK. Cool. We agreed to meet at noon.

I went back towards the office, and saw people milling about. Figured I would mill too, and see what was happening. My friend called again, and wanted to know where we should meet for lunch. We picked a spot, and then chatted a bit. He came out with his news. He is planning to quit his job in finance and go into the priesthood! Wow. Big big news. We talked about it a bit, I told him how happy I was for him, and how I couldn't think of any one more well suited for that calling. I truly believe he will be an awesome priest, and given everything going on in the Catholic church lately, they are lucky as all hell heck to be getting him. I told him that if he was doing this for the right reasons, I couldn't be more supportive. And then we agreed to catch up more over lunch.

Had a great lunch with him. We talked about lots of things, including his new plans. We have very different backgrounds, beliefs, etc... so it is always fun to talk to him. Now it was even more interesting, because his conviction is that much stronger. I am excited for him and the road ahead. He will learn so much, and get to experience so much, and will help so many people. And he is the second college friend of mine to work for the Big Boss, as I have a friend who is going to be a rabbi, so I'll have some great connections. ;-)

Now I'm back in the office. Hard to work after such a full, interesting morning. Gotta pay the bills though... Have a good weekend.