Laughing Goodbyes

Thursday night was my farewell gala. The bosses treated all of us, including my replacement, to dinner at the Brewer’s Art. Please note that RyGuy doesn’t believe in vegetables, seafood, or an ‘inside voice’. You should also know that the Brewers art specializes in all three. For my vegetarian bosses, it’s a great choice. Poor RyGuy looked over the menu and declared he would have the crayfish stuffed chicken ‘without crayfish’. With disaster looming I glanced at the menu through RyGuy eyes and suggested he try the third item down. He saw it and exclaimed, “Really?! OK!” (it was the most expensive item on the menu). I nodded and he closed his menu, “Steak Fritz it is then.” Now, I don’t know French, but I suspect that wasn’t the right pronunciation for “Steak Frites”. The steak strips and rosemary garlic fries were the least foreign elements in the menu for our “Langsta, PA” boy. I looked across at BossTwo, an acknowledged cheapskate, “Sorry! I just told him to get the priciest item.” With a mocking, dour expression, he muttered in an Eeyore tone, “I noticed.”

Our table was the loud, obnoxious group in the corner. The one you see and pray, “please don’t put me near them!” At one point I tried to say to RyGuy, “White tablecloths mean low volume”; it didn’t register. As RyGuy put it, “Our table spoils the mood if you’re here hoping to get laid.” He didn’t say it discreetly, and I suspect he directed it at the table behind us where a slick looking guy leaned toward a leggy blond.

In the middle of all of it, BossOne said two revealing ‘jokes’. She’s hinted before that no one really knows her, she’s talked of her anorexia, I know from a close friend who struggled with bulimia the masking/lying/hiding that go with an eating disorder. BossOne seems transparent and honest, so I’ve always been curious about what ‘lies beneath’. This past week has shown me glimpses.

In the middle of a conversation about one of our notorious Attention Deficit Disorder clients, BossOne laughed and chimed in, “OTRgirl is the one who diagnosed me as ADD. She said it totally casually. I was so mad I didn’t talk to her for days.” Rosetta asked, “And are you?” BossOne, still laughing, “Of course I am! But I’d had NO idea!” And I had no idea she’d given me the silent treatment. For future reference to anyone who might want to fight with me: I’m really bad with passive aggressive battle technique. The problem with the passive option is that in order for it to be effective, the recipient has to be aware it’s happening!

The other revealing comment was, “I’m so upset about you leaving I haven’t even looked at a map to figure out where Palo Alto is, I just don’t care!” For the last year and a half I’ve wanted to quit and look for a new job and Jrex kept telling me that I couldn’t. He intuited that the relationship with BossOne was more important than a job change. I doubt he fully knew how true that statement was! As I’m watching her process three MONTHS worth of job notice I don’t think she could have handled it if she’d felt betrayed as well.