Diana's 22nd birthday

Today, April 24, 2012, is Diana's 22nd birthday. What a busy day it was, indeed! Started off with a job interview for me in this building in Camarillo. Nice building, huh? There's even a movie theater across the parking lot and food places within a couple hundred feet!

The job is that of a technical writer who will work with a group at the base at Point Mugu doing some stuff that I can't talk about here or else they'll kill me. I chose not to take any pictures inside this building or during the interview. Something told me that they'd have a problem with that.

My interview lasted all of about 20 minutes, which is really on the short side. However, I seemed to click with the guy who would be my boss. On another note, he said that 30 people had originally applied for the job and he's narrowed it down to three. I am one of the three.

Upon leaving the interview, I was in such a good mood that I got on southbound U.S. 101 and headed to the San Fernando Valley. Almost like it was trained to do, my car exited at Tujunga and drifted into the left lane. At the bottom of that offramp, the left lane turns left, and the right lane turns right. By a mysterious coincidence, Henry's Tacos is reached by going left. Even more mysterious was that it was about lunchtime. What were the odds?

Here's proof that I ended up at Henry's. The car in this picture is just like a car that I find in my driveway every morning, and even has the same license plate frame: DIABETICS DO IT SWEEET! (Yes, yes we do.) There cannot be two exact cars like that!

So, what to have today? As I stood at the window wondering what to order, I suddenly got the feeling that I'd been here very recently. After some thought and a puff of smoke from my ears (that's the old brain working), I remembered that I had stood in the very same place just last Saturday, a mere three days ago. So that settled it: a combo burrito, hold the onions, but add rice. See? Here it is on the menu in all its glory, but just not the "add rice" part. That's on Henry's secret menu. Of course, now that I mentioned it, it's not a secret anymore.

Moving on with the day, I headed home, but stopped at the library to get on the Internet for awhile. Got in touch with Diana to find out what was going on later, since it was her birthday. Turns out that Lori took us up to the Cheesecake Factory in The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks. Diana works there at the abercrombie kids store (yes, the name is in all lower case, and that really annoys a certain blog-writing spelling and grammar Nazi). When I suggested to Diana that she stop and visit her co-workers, she politely declined. Had we not been out in public, I might have gotten smacked--and deservedly so.

We brought her boyfriend, Chase, with us. See, here's proof:

(That's Chase on the left, by the way.) So, it's Diana's birthday and I snuck the waiter a note to let him know that we wanted to honor her special day by bringing her a special dessert. In the note, I drew a little map of our table and seating positions with Diana's name circled so that he'd know who the birthday girl was. They even wrote "Happy Birthday Diana" on the plate with some brown stuff that was probably icing of some sort. Ever cautious, Diana decided that it was in her best interest to say a prayer before diving into unknown territory.

Everyone at our table got a slice of cheesecake of some sort for dessert (except yours truly for reasons that everyone already knows). We ended up bringing a bunch of our dinner and dessert home, and Chase and Diana took off once we got there.

All in all, Diana had a nice birthday. She got a few nice cards, a Disneyland annual pass, dinner out, a nearly re-employed dad, and a fun, relaxing day at the Santa Barbara Zoo with Chase. You can't ask for much more.