Reuben Reuben I've Been Thinking...

We're a small office. Really, just five of us who inhabit this office space in downtown Salt lake—so it's intimate and cozy most of the time. There has been times with different staff over the years when the atmosphere has been somewhat terse or testy but for the most part the current staff get along very well. We usually recognize someone's birthday with a meal of that person's choosing usually somewhere near by where can get to without resorting to burning carbon based fuels. My birthday is actually tomorrow, February second, GroundHogs Day. But we decided to celebrate my day yesterday because on the day of my birthday a major event, for people with disabilities , is going down up at the State Capitol and most of the Council staff will be there and since the event is a box lunch event—no time for a birthday lunch tomorrow, and today one of the key staff members is out of town, teaching at a neighboring air base so Monday was the only day during this week, my birthday week.

Our office is fortunate to have a major out door mall just a block or so away, will with in rolling or walking distance and besides a fine foo court the Mall hosts a number of good establishments where one can get a good hot meal---for price. When I was first asked which establishment I wanted to eat at I naturally defaulted to McGraths where they serve fine fish and chips and other offerings from the sea. But with the revelation of the past couple of weeks I decided to change our meal destination to Applebees based on my need for more healthy food choices now an for the rest of my life. Not that Applebees is now the Mecca of healthy food Applebees does offer some entrees which are less greasy.

Everyone in the office made it over to the restaurant at 11:45, We lost one participant when our office manager went home to some mysterious disorder. I hated to see her go but better she then me and then it was four. The meal went well, we talked and joked and flirted with the aspects of death which face each of us in the relative near future. The four who made it to lunch yesterday are baby boomers, some of us are more hammered then others but all four of us have been under the anvil more then we would have liked. But, it is surprising at how well we get along. We, for the most part, love old time rock and roll, programs which help folks with disabilities especially developmental disabilities. We see ourselves as part of the State system but a part from the State system in may ways we believe the State is the cross people with disabilities and their families have to bare. We actively to bring change and bring about better options for the people we serve. We're not necessarily the “good guys” we just get caught doing good things more then the legislature. Oh and by the way I had the Reuben Sandwich which delicious and deadly...