Tonight Office Hours faced its strongest challenge yet and survived remarkably well I think. Erik and I left work and made our way to the Hideout, only to find that it was closed for the night for a private benefit. We wandered around the neighborhood for a while but didn't find a suitable replacement. I'm no help with suggestions at all and Erik was just about ready to give up and cancel the night when he received a call from Sami suggesting an alternate venue. Through a series of Dodgeball messages and phone calls, Erik was able to alert enough a surprising number of people to our new location. Being at my core a relatiively antisocial person, I enjoyed the smaller turn out. Still, I think I've been making some progress interacting with others and managed to engage in a few conversations at least.
Just after midnight we arrived at the War Room for some late night I don't know what. It was mostly a DJ playing music although there was a guitar player who would pick out a few odd notes every now and then. Later in the night a singer took the stage and made the music a little more interesting. As the rest of the group took to the floor, I reluctantly joined them. I hope there weren't any cameras or other recording devices present at the time to record my inept attempts at dancing. I started off trying to sway to the music but that pretty much left me missing every single beat. My next attempt was more like jogging in place. This was a little more successful at keepintg me in the rhythm but made me look ever more foolish.
As the night ended I split a cab with Erik back to Belltown. It was just a little too cold for me to make the longer walk home. I'm actually surprised I survived the night as well as I did. I was certain that the 20 minutes on the elliptical machine in the morning or the three times I walked around the park in the afternoon would have left me too tired to make it through the night. But at 2 am I feel almost as alive and awake as I have all day. I guess my new exercise routines have been making a difference after all.
