DAY FOUR – 18 September 2014
The room
I had was east-facing, so I was able to see the sun come up over which I
believe was the Agoura Hills. This section was made up of rolling hills,
and it looked really nice. Because we had one more work seminar to go
through today, I only had time for a quick walk around the hotel grounds.
It was enough to give me the general scope of the area.
Our
meeting today was only minutes from the hotel. When we got there, my
co-workers humored me (for a few minutes at least) to take a couple pictures
inside the Regional
Center Regional Center
After the
seminar was done, we headed out for dinner. I ended up riding with the
boss of my boss, as it gave us an opportunity to geek out and talk comic
books. Our target locale was a place recommended by the “big boss,” a
nearby pub-type place called Lazy Dog.
This was
nestled away in a shopping complex, so there was a lot of parking
available. We were a large table, and we had pretty decent service.
A lot of that specific information I’d write for the TripAdvisor article about
this place. One of my co-workers (Roy) had a mild allergy to onions and
garlic, so the running joke we had during the week was saying that Roy was a vampire.
When Roy ordered his food, he
asked specifically not to have any onions and garlic on it, and our server (Jacob)
made a note of that. But when the food arrived, and there was a big white
onion snaking out. Jacob went tearing off back to the kitchen to make
sure the dish was corrected. That was good customer service in order to
get things right. By the way, my Bahama chicken (with its jerk-style
taste) turned out okay.
We
returned to the hotel so we could change into casual clothes, as the boss
commented there was a bar across the street that she wanted to check out.
I said I’d noted it earlier, but I hadn’t said anything, as I didn’t want to
contribute to misconception my co-workers have that I’m a drunk who only wants
to be on the beach. Okay, while there is some truth in that, that isn’t a
complete definition of me.
The place
was called Brendan’s, and we saw there was a hotel attached to it too.
(Someplace to think about staying next trip to the area.) Roy didn’t come with us
for drinks, as he had to familiarize himself with the new material in order to
be able to present in the training classes he proctored. The bosses were
buying the drinks, so I was quite happy to enjoy a black & tan, and some
rum punches.
A
conversation had come up earlier (after those co-workers who went returned from
Madame Tussauds), and now there was the opportunity to show the pics. My
co-workers said that I looked like the wax representations of Robin Williams,
and I didn’t agree. (I’ve been told I look like Christian Slater in the
past.) Pictures came out, and were held up to my face, and there was some
resemblance in the jaw-line and perhaps the smirk. That’s as far as I’d
give it. A magazine with Robin’s picture on the cover was later used as a
prop to compare my face to his. Tell me what you think.
While we
were sitting in the pub, we saw our server from Lazy Dog (Jacob) strolled in
with his girlfriend to play pool. When it was time for us leave, it
coincidentally was the same time Jacob was leaving, so we decided to say hi
(and play a little prank). Jacob’s girlfriend didn’t thrilled when this
group of ladies (and me, the lone male) came up to him and started
chatting. She seemed to look less annoyed after she realized Jacob had
served us earlier in the evening. To explain why Roy wasn’t with us, we made an off-hand
comment that he was sick because of the onions that was on his burger
Jacob
started to rant about how he told the kitchen to make sure that order was
right, and such. We let him chew on that a few moments before we told him
the truth. Jacob had a good laugh about it with us. My boss said
that she wanted to have her picture taken with him (not sure exactly why, as
she’s recently married. Perhaps it was just a flirty thing). Jacob
was a good sport about it, though.
Strange
how I’m the one who’s accused of being a lush, and I’m the one who smart enough
to make sure we all cross the road at the traffic light. I might be a
drunkard, but I’ve also learned how to stay alive. Near the hotel was a
Wal-Mart, and someone made the comment about wanting to run in and get
munchies. That just opened a flood gate of buzzed adults who acted like
children in a late-night store. This was where my face was compared to
the likeness of Robin Williams. Sure these were my co-workers, but as we
were launching a new project, it was nice to build some bonds too.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Brendan’s: http://www.brendans.com/
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