~Friday~ I drove in to work this morning and parked in the Van Allen parking deck with one of the five daily parking permits I have left for 2010.
I’ve mentioned here before that when you take public transportation to work at NC State, you get 12 parking permits each year to use as you please. I have four more, which means I can use one a week over the remaining month in this year. Yay for that.
I had no meetings at work today, for which I was thankful, and as a result, a fairly productive day was had. Yay for being left alone.
I met some of my favorite colleagues for drinks after work at the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, which I was looking forward to more than usual since they’re under new management and they’ve added mixed drinks to their menu.
I met Jen, Leslie, Erin (Jason’s wife), Jason, Laura, David, Marco, Nick, and a guy named Charlie (I’m pretty sure that’s right), who doesn’t work with us, but was a student of Laura’s at one time. I think that was everyone.
In spite of being teased by a couple of comments about how what I was ordering fit in with my recent taking re-control of my eating—the risk one takes by living an open, authentic life—I had paced my eating today to accommodate what I was going to eat and drink there. I got an order of their soft pretzels with some beer cheese dip, and I ate a portion of Leslie’s order of picked chips.
It was easy to limit my drinks, because as it turned out the new mixed drinks there are far too expensive at $7.00 a pop for too small a glass, and not even poured with a heavy hand.
In spite of all that, the view of the skyline was nice, the company exquisite, and the conversation stimulating, and that’s what’s really important to me in the end. When I got home, however, I did send this e-mail to the owner:
| Subject: Customer experience and feedback
Hello Andrew, Not that you’re probably looking for customer feedback, but here’s some. I was delighted to hear that the Brewpub had started serving mixed drinks since I’m not a beer drinker, so I was excited to be coming out there tonight to join my colleagues for some after-work drinks. Unfortunately, I won’t be coming back with the price of the bourbon (house) and Diet Coke that I had. $7.00 is just way too expensive for that drink. Stop by The Borough sometime and order a bourbon and diet. The glass is at least a third bigger than what I got at the Brewpub and they use a heavy pour there… and it’s $5.50. I almost always drink at least four drinks, but tonight at $7.00 each I stopped after two, solely because it was not value for the money. So, I would have had (at least) 4 (at $5.50 each) and spent $22 on drinks, but instead I stopped after 2 for $14.00. So in the long run you lost money on me tonight, plus I won’t be returning to drink at those prices. Anyway, I don’t expect you to do anything about this; I just thought I’d share how one customer experienced the new mixed drinks offering in case it turns out to not be too popular. At least you’ll know one person’s reason for not coming back. I’m sure there are a lot of customers who will be willing to pay that, though, so I doubt you’ll reconsider your prices. If I note that they change though, I’d certainly come back and enjoy the nice view there while hanging out with my co-workers on occasion after work. Sincerely, |
I left there at around 7:00, and once home, changed, and headed to the gym, which closes at 9:00 PM on Fridays. I did 200 (10 sets of 20) ab crunches, followed by 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, enough to burn off one of those soft pretzel’s worth of calories. That’s my story, and it’s sticking to me.
I stayed in this evening, and started The Help, which is a little slow-going, or perhaps it was just because my eyelids were so heavy. I didn’t get much read before falling asleep, but I did enjoy what I did read.