Just in a down mood yesterday. Left work early. Brad was home when I got home, so I suggested we go for a walk. We recently started walking around the neighborhood at night. I like it. Good quality time with him, talk about stuff, even if just current events and such. Since we both were kinda down I thought I could go next door and see if they wouldn't mind if we walked their dog for them. They are really nice people, and just kinda laughed and said we can walk her anytime we want. Cassie is a type of cattle dog. Funny dog. Unsure of herself and they describe her as a big scaredy cat, and said she is even afraid of the dark. During the summer when I hear her outside, I go up to the fence and say hi to her and use her name. Sometimes she barks, or sniffs and then just backs away. Sometimes.
She was nervous at first last night. Used to her daddy walking her, "Why wasn't he coming too? Something ain't right, lets go back." Eventually she got more comfortable, walked ahead more. Everytime we got to the end of a corner she would sit and wait for us to show her which way we were going. We even helped a family we came across, a mom and 2 boys catch their run away retriever Sammy. Stuff like that makes me feel better. Dogs, Brad, walks, and talks.

Today I had a free lunch at Maggianno's. Got the family style, little bit of this, little bit of that. I took a cab with the only other girl invited. Pregnant russian girl, married to one of the managers at the bank. She's nice enough, I'm still getting to know her. Not super interested like I am with Katerina or some other people I met lately. She's republican, no thats not the only reason. She is really mousy looking, but I think there is a little bigot in her. Just a feeling. She seemed really uncomfortable today on the way to lunch when I started talking to the cab driver. He was really cool. Had a mini Pakistani museum in the back of his cab. Beutiful pictures of snow capped mountains. I told I am not a travelled person, so I had no idea what Pakistan was like but the pictures were beautiful, I appreciated seeing them. He said that Pakistan has 3 ski resorts, and the 2nd tallest mountain in the world. He also had lots of pictures of really beautiful women. Had their names hand written underneath them. I asked him if they were models, he said they were actresses. Very pretty..of course I don't remember their names...thats me.

Sometime after lunch Katerina and I decided that we were going on an excursion. Her boss is out this week so she has a little more leeway.
We wanted to go up to the 99th floor and find a place to hang out. We got in the right elevator, but when we pushed the buttons for 100 or 99 they wouldnt stay lit. Some access thing. So we went up to 98. I got out looked around, to see if there was a decent place to sit and do our daily crossword. Offices with buzzers...nothing. Went to 97, same thing, needed a small business access card, then went to 96. Empty office with a push button code lock. She was ready to give up. NOT ME! Tried a few common codes and BINGO! IN! The office was the whole floor. We went in and out of the offices, checking out all the views from every side. As we sat in one corner office a guy came by. After he saw us, he decided we weren't any trouble and just to let us be. He was an architect, the office used to be for Bloomberg. They were going to tear it down, he was leaving. Asked how we got in, and then just shook his head..."Never mind, I don't wanna know." and smiled. We walked in and out of more of the offices, checking out all the buildings, trains, and lake. Gorgeous.

Katerina came by my desk at 4:30 and twisted my arm in going along with her to an after work drink thing. I really don't drink, or very rarely. So I got an iced tea. One of the managers seemed intent on getting me to drink, I told him next time. Katerina is great for situations like that, I'm not a group talker, not usually. Especially work people, more effort than I am willing to put out. So we hung out for an hour and then left for our respective trains. I think I still might occasionally do that again after work. Not my thing, but getting out and being seen seems to be a good thing. Getting a chance to be more familiar with people can help me down the line or for various work situations.

On the way home I picked up some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and Brad and I watched Hellboy. He watched "some" of Hellboy, and napped the rest of the time. I enjoyed it.