So last week on Wednesday, my coworkers threw a surprise lunch for me and I did not suspect a thing. Of course, this all came about because I gave a Christmas present to everyone and they wanted to return the favor, hence why I wanted my gift-giving to remain a secret forever (or for a few days, I kept going back and forth on that point). Now, we usually have a group lunch on Wednesday and Simon on Tuesday cryptically asked me if I was going to be there tomorrow. But I've always been there so I said "yes" and thought that Simon was giving me some sort of hint that I'm not reliable or something.

I should say that I did miss yesterday's lunch because I totally forgot about it. I woke up early enough and I made myself lunch and ate it and as I was walking out the door to go to work I realized that there was a lunch meeting that I was going to miss since I was leaving at noon and it takes me an hour to get to work. Writing of which, BART just got a bunch of money to start extending its lines to Antioch, Livermore, and San Jose. When I heard San Jose I thought it'd be nice if the line went down by my work, though now I realize it's much closer if they extend the line from Fremont rather than San Francisco Airport. Then again, extending the line from Dublin to Livermore is like 10-20 miles.

Ideally, if BART went to the Caltrains station (or thereabouts) in Belmont then I could take the BART from Concord straight to Belmont without switching trains. Important since then I could sleep because it'd be a good hour and a half to two hour ride one way. Yes, my commute time would skyrocket, but hopefully I'd make it up since I could sleep or read on the train so it would not be totally wasted time. I imagine the fare would be $6 or $7 one way so that's $60 to $70 a week. Compared to a car which (when gas prices were at an all-time high) ran me about $50 a week including bridge tolls. But wear and tear would be a lot less if I didn't drive a lot. Still, I wouldn't do it often because it's still a long time travelling.

Anyway, back to the story. So I arrived Wednesday and bought lunch (large chicken caesar and a large soup at the caffeteria, it's great). And then Simon tells me that we're all going out to lunch today. Doh! Ok, whatever. I'm thinking this must be a last minute thing since I haven't heard anything about it. I ask Dave if I missed an email or something and he said no, it was all spur of the moment. Hey, I like group lunches so I didn't mind.

We take two cars and go to Chao Praya, coincidentally the Thai restaurant that Steph loves and that I took her to on her birthday (well, the day after her birthday). As I walked in most everybody else was already there, even the QA people which should have alerted me since normally QA wouldn't be invited to a group lunch (barbequeue, sure, but not a sit down lunch at a restaurant, we have too many people in the group). Also, as I was trying to decide on where to sit, Simon insisted I sit at the middle of the table. Looking back the clues, though not obvious, should have alerted me. But no.

So Simon presents me with a gift from the group, a gift certificate from Dark Carnival (which Dave must have suggested since that is a very specific book store). I also got an electronic gift certificate for Amazon (which expires after three months, those fascist bastards -- can I help it that I'm not an Amazon.com fan?). And still, I thought that Simon took the opportunity to present the gift during this impromptu lunch. I still hadn't figured out that the lunch had been designed for me. Even when we paid and they refused to take my money, I thought it was a nice gesture. But it didn't dawn on me until after we got back that the whole lunch had been organized well beforehand. I'm so dense sometimes.

It was a good lunch with way too much food. And of course when I got back I had that lunch I had bought. A few hours later, even though I was full, I ate the soup. Food is there, must eat it. Hungry, too full to eat. The salad I ate when I got home, though it was pretty soggy by then. Still a good salad though. All in all a nice day and I was touched by the gesture of my coworkers.