A Quick Trip to Bloomington

I left this morning for a quick trip to Bloomington.  I departed a little later than I had planned as I walked, cleaned and packed after I dropped Cam off at school.  The trip down wasn't too bad.  There was some traffic and construction, but I was still able to pull into Brett's apartment complex well before 3.  He had just gotten off of work and I thought that we'd have time to hang out and relax before his mixer tonight with Grant Thornton.  It didn't quite work out that way as once we started talking about his interview tomorrow, we realized that he needed some new clothes.  We called Doug to get his opinion on what to buy and soon were on our way to the mall.  Although it took a little time, we were fortunate enough to find a khaki pair of pants, blue tie, blue shirt and black belt.

Brett and I were both relieved that we found exactly what he needed, and that we got done just in time to pick up Cal and Hannah-Marie.  Cal needed a ride home and HM had class.  We gave her her birthday gift as she turned twenty today, dropped them off where they needed to be and still had plenty of time for Brett to get ready for his dinner.  I took him to Irish Lion close to 6 p.m.  We practiced on the ride over making small talk and thinking of questions that someone might ask tonight.  He felt more than prepared by the time we arrived.

I stopped next at Meg's.  She and I then met Parce at Taste of India to celebrate his 70th birthday today.  Cal thought that he would be busy, but in the end joined us as well.  We hadn't seen him in awhile and enjoyed catching up.  Meg and I ordered the buttered chicken while Cal tried the goat curry.  Parce tried some of Cal's goat and ordered chicken for himself as well.  The dinner was delicious.  We stopped at Starbucks afterward so that Parce could get his birthday coffee and then dropped Cal at HM's for her birthday celebration.  Meg wanted to study so we took her to the library.  I spent the next hour at Parce's apartment visiting with him about his trip to North Carolina and upcoming camping excursion.  I hadn't met his dog, Eleanor yet.  I knew she was a Great Dane, but was still surprised with just how big she really was.  She was really friendly and loved to be petted.

Brett called around 8:40 to let me know that he was done with his dinner.  I couldn't believe how long he was there.  He was very happy with how it went and filled me on all of the details including who was in attendance and what was talked about during the dinner.  It was fun to listen to him talk.  I was glad to be a part of his adventure.