Italian Food and Decompression

My co-workers and I were knocked out from a busy day / busy life week and needed to enjoy each other’s company for a change. It was brought to my attention that my favorite co-worker’s Birthday needed to be celebrated. Each year we take each other out to dinner to mark the historic event. We took her to her favorite Italian restaurant GG’s, come to think of it, it’s my favorite Italian restaurant too.

It was a nice reprieve from walking briskly by each other asking things like “Did you see the key’s?” or “Do you have any Excedrin?”

Once we arrived and gulped down some cool refreshments, we began to relax. We spoke about subjects concerning life in an Italian family, dealing with tricky situations around every weird happenstance you can imagine, and we added few wisecracks in between. There were lots of laughs because of a prior agreement to avoid conversation around work and politics. Oh… I’m so tired of politics!

We ordered dinner to a friendly waitress who could sense that we were pretty spun out. The Birthday girl ordered eggplant parmigiana with angel hair pasta on the side with oil and garlic, I ordered a huge calzone which was listed as a medium, our other buddies ordered the shrimp scampi and sausage and peppers with spaghetti.

GG’s outdid themselves. One of my co-workers who is hard to impress said that the meal was “outstanding”. But, the best part of it was the way we changed from tired stressed out people into children who were free from it all laughing and giggling and stuffing our faces.

I secretly ordered a couple of chocolate mousse cakes for the end of the meal. We all sang a rather scary version of “Happy Birthday” and relaxed enjoying the safety of each other’s company. I am amazed at how want is sometimes accompanied by need. We needed a reason to celebrate. Good thing she was born prematurely. The timing couldn’t be better.