We could not afford to sleep in because Cat was coming in to work at 8:00 in the morning and she didn't have a key, which meant that Carrie had to be there at 8:00 in the morning as well to let her in. Carrie actually came into Starbucks with me to buy her coffee, which usually I have to do all alone.
I finally finished off my Rock Pizza for breakfast. I got four meals outta that thing (dinner, breakfast, lunch, breakfast), so that's a pretty good value considering we used a gift certificate to buy it.
I swung by Brandy & Geoff's place while they were packing to give her a present I made. They were watching the last couple of minutes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 6th season, so I quietly watched with them; it's kind of emotional, and I didn't want to interrupt the flow of it. Then afterwards I gave her this drawing I made of her favorite cartoon pinup girl, Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood:
I picked Carrie up for lunch and we had Gnocci al Gorgonzola with broccoli. It was pretty durned tasty. Carrie drove herself back to work so that she could go straight to the mall afterwards and buy cloth stuff for herself.
Around 4:00 I got a call from Nicole at the store asking if I remembered that she mentioned she had a handout she wanted me to make for her. Well, it turns out that her class is today (Saturday), so would it be at all possible for me to make the handout before then? I told her that if she had it ready by 4:30 there was a good possibility that I could have it done on time.
I layered up in a hooded sweatshirt under my trenchcoat, and put on my nice warm gloves that Carrie got me for Christmas, and walked to the store to pick up the handout (Carrie had the car, remember). I walked back home and successfully completed the handout, during which time Carrie came back home.
For din-dins I made salmon patty sammitches. I make the bestest salmon patty sammitches in the world. The key is to make a sauce out of sour cream, garlic powder, and lemon to go on them, and using sharp cheddar cheese. They're really freakin' good.
After 7:30 people started arriving at our house: Geoff, Brandy, Heather, Katie, Melissa, and Mirriam. We broke up into two cars and drove to the Auburn valley to listen to The Boinkers play at The Royal Bear, as Part Two of Brandy's Going-Away Celebrations.
True to its name, it had a stuffed bear in one corner that was wearing a crown. It was also wearing a fingerless glove on one hand and had a cigarette dangling out of its mouth. The place was just a little dive-y and white-trashy, but because of that I didn't feel at all awkward dancing with the lovely ladies, because all of the other guys there were at least as bad at it as I was.
Christine, Lawrence, Cat, Chris, and Viki all showed up to join us shortly after we got there, and there was much dancing and drinking (not by me—I was driving) and good times had by all. Christine & Lawrence were the first to trickle out, and then other people started following.
I gave Brandy a Big Hug and Kiss™ when she left. I'm rather sad that I won't get to see one of my best friends for many months, but the last two evenings were a fun way of sending her off. When she left in the fall she didn't really have a send-off like that. She had a Bead Factory party, but several other people were leaving at the same time she was, so it wasn't specifically for her.
After she left, though, the remaining party members discovered her camera on the table! Oopus! Carrie & I drove Mirriam home, and on the way we dropped off the camera with Geoff, who ran outside to pick it up. There are some good photos on that camera; I should ask Brandy to send me some. Or maybe she'll post them for everyone to see?
BON VOYAGE BRANDY (AGAIN)!
