February 17, 2007

The Mice chased us to Happy Hour where we escaped Hawaii, met Dave Matthews and now might be on our way to Alaska

Thursday and Friday I was in the office for a Train the Trainer course. I wasn’t real excited about being in the office after being on site for so long, but primarily because of the mice issue. Yes, I said mice. Yuck!

The hotel across the street is undergoing major construction and the theory is it has run the mice over to our building. At first we thought it was just our office but it is all over our building with the fifth floor seemingly getting a rather large population.

The mice droppings hit the fan about a week ago when a mouse bravely walked across a co-workers desk as she was working. Ewwwwwwwwwww! The exterminator came, laid down the sticky traps that would entice the mice out, which hasn’t been a problem, and said he would be back the next morning to get what was captured. Well the mice started coming out and running all over the place but weren't sticking.

Thursday morning one of the guys went to make coffee and when he opened the coffee drawer there was a mouse looking up at him. Evidently, he did a very masculine man-scream and Shortie saved him and captured the mouse, which she released in a dumpster behind the restaurant down stairs.

So the training room seemed to be somewhat of a safe haven due to its location and it’s a freaking freezer box. When I worked at my desk I was still freezing but I wasn’t going to complain. I didn’t even try to mess with the heater because if it was cold then hopefully it might keep the mice away. The thought of even seeing a mouse just heebeegeebeed me out but it was another excuse to wear the boots.

Fumigating was to commence at 5pm so a number of us took that as a cue to get to Happy Hour as soon as possible. The go-to place was Bistro Europa. I had passed it before but never been there but I followed the troops. The name did not describe the place at all and I would not have expected them to have a pool room.

There were eight of us and WW was the only dude and I think he was digging that. The majority of our group disappeared before the bar started picking up, but WW, Liz and I hung in there. WW was finally playing pool against some worthy opponents and Liz and I were taking in the sights.

WW had stopped playing pool and the three of us were in conversation when I noticed this dude getting closer and closer trying to read our company name off WW’s shirt. He pushed his way in saying he had heard of our company. WW and Liz were very excited about this but I just stayed back because something was fishy here. At first Liz thought he said his name was Mahalo so that is what we will call him here.

At first we thought Mahalo was trying to get close to Liz but then he moved in my direction. I was the only one who hadn’t given my name but I was the only one who had been to Hawaii where he was from so a discussion ensued. When a pool player asked Mahalo to move so he could play Mahalo didn’t move to the side as one would expect but, evidently, grabbed WW’s knee and moved in. This is when WW put his arm around me and moved closer. When the hint wasn’t taken we decided to get out of the pool table area primarily to get away from Mahalo.

The three of us got separated but Liz and I met up and we saw WW at the bar and Mahalo found him. We didn’t know if we needed to save WW but figured if he needed help he would let us know so we could come running and throw a boob in there and break it up. On the other hand they could very well be talking business.

Liz and I were able to procure a table and sat back waiting anxiously for WW to break free or just ready to save him. Finally, WW got away but he never saw us right there behind him. Liz ran to grab him and this cute guy at the next table immediately turned around and we started talking. Ok no one was going anywhere at this point because Red had the attention of this Dave Matthews look-a-like. We got pulled into his group of friends who had gathered with another table. It was a great eclectic group and this dude, who we'll call DM, said he would introduce me but he didn’t know most of these people’s names.

People moved around and I got to hear about the fingerprints WW had on his ass from Mahalo. I told him he needed to throw out the help signal next time because Liz or I could have very well alleviated the situation if he was uncomfortable. As WW and I were talking this big dude took DM’s seat to talk to Liz and the next thing WW and I hear is, “The size of my penis…” WW hopped up to interject and protect Liz.

Meanwhile I notice DM sitting two seats over and I’m left wondering if he’s even interested. I decided I better get my number ready because since he mentioned leaving soon. He gets up to leave and I hugged him and handed him my number. WW, Liz and I left soon after since it was about 1am at this point.

On the way out I mentioned I handed over my number but also I wasn’t sure if he was going to even ask for it. WW said just the right thing, “Guys can get intimidated by beautiful women and be afraid to ask. It’s good you gave it to him because he was a good looking guy. We are going to have so much fun when we have to travel to Alaska.”

My response was a bit mixed with delight at WW’s theory on DM but shocked at this mention of traveling to ALASKA! “What!”

Liz says, “WW, you didn’t tell her?”

I think I had this shocked look on my face as I said, “ALASKA?!”

WW says, “Lots of men there for you! We’ll talk about it next week. Bye!”

Yeah, I’m not sure what to think about that one.