2019-11-18 - Friendsgiving and Ugly Sweaters

It's mid-afternoon on a Monday and Justin is actually out of the house! Instead of being holed up in his office losing himself in work he's.. well, at least he's out in the daylight. The fact that he's on his laptop still wrapped up in work is just the nature of the beast sometimes. He's found himself a comfortable chair at one of the tables along the wall and has a large coffee in front of him that he is drinking while answering email, and enjoying a bit of the warmth of the sunshine coming through the windows.

Dahlia has been trying to be less home bound herself now that she's finally not sick and feeling more like herself. She's taken up running, because she's still not been feeling super socialable. She feels out of touch with pretty much everything and that's just going to take some time to work out. She's running a long the Boardwalk this morning, nearing the end of her run since it's starting to get a little busier. Coffee sounded good! She slows to a stop in front of Espresso Yourself and slips inside. Blinking a bit when she spots Justin and makes her way over to him first. "Hey you." Flashing a smile. "Trying the whole portable office thing out?"

Justin glances up when he hears the familiar voice and grins when he sees Dahlia. "Hey," he says in return greeting before glancing down at the laptop and says, "Guilty as charged, I suppose. I was meeting with one of my programmers who is in Seattle for a conference before he headed up to Vancouver and just ended up staying here since it was nice out and I didn't feel like going back home yet." He nods toward the counter and says, "Want to join me and distract me from working?"

"I'm just happy to see you outside." Dahlia teased affectionately, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "'Course I will. Lemme put in my order. Do you want anything?" She'll wait and get his order if he does then she'll go to the counter. Hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. Then she'll return to the table since they'd bring it out. "How've you been doing?"

"If they've still got any blueberry muffins, I'll have one of those," Justin says when she goes up to get her order, and then goes back to answering email until she returns. When she does, however, he shuts everything down and closes up the laptop, tucking it away in its case. He folds his arms on the table in front of him and says, "I'm doing alright. Should have told me you were going running. I would have waited and gone with you." He usually runs first thing in the morning pretty much every day.

Dahlia relaxed in her chair and grinned a bit. "Next time. I just recently picked it up. Good way to get out of the house without having to really go anywhere or do anything." She mused, tightening her ponytail a little. "How's Caleb? I'll bet he's like. Twice the size of when I saw him last by now." She chuckled. "Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?"

"Caleb's good. He's getting huge. You'll hardly recognize him. Until he careens around a corner and crashes into something chasing a toy, then it's like, yep.. that's definitely Caleb," Justin grins. "He's still growing into those feet." He settles back in his chair a bit and shakes his head slightly at the mention of Thanksgiving. "I'm debating whether I'm going to fly down to L.A. or not. You?"

Dahlia laughed again at the image. "I'm not sure yet. I was thinking about asking Declan if he wanted to maybe do a...friendsgiving sort of thing? Invite people over, hang out, everyone brings a dish and we just hang out and stuff. I highly doubt that any of my family is getting together for Thanksgiving and all."

"That sounds good, actually," Justin says. "I'm not even sure if my parents are doing Thanksgiving at home this year. Sometimes they do, sometimes they're traveling. I should find out. Would you want to do it at the house? I think that could be fun."

"Definitely more space at yours." Dahlia agreed. "Even if he's not up for it, I'd still like to do it around Thanksgiving time. Figured we can invite friends, neighbors, I could invite the people from work and all that. Maybe just put a little thing out on Friendzone inviting people too. Good way to make new friends."

"Sure," Justin says with a grin. "Let's do that, then. I'll call mom and let her know that I'm doing Thanksgiving at home this year. I don't think she'll mind one way or the other. We'll just do something later, maybe in early December." He chuckles. "I will leave the inviting up to you, then. I'll invite the like.. two or three people I know. You're far more social than I am."

"Kind of, sort of." Dahlia grinned. "Even if it just ends up being a few people that's okay too. " Her drink and his muffin came out around then and she thanks the waitress before pulling the cocoa close. "Mm I haven't had hot chocolate in foreverrrr it feels like. " Licking just a bit of the towering mound of whipped cream off the top. "You got anything else going on today?"

"Just a few people is fine, too," Justin says with a smile. "It really doesn't matter to me if it's two or twenty. It'll be nice to celebrate in the new place. I'll see if Easton and Bennie want to come by, and perhaps Hyacinth." He takes a sip from his cup, then, considering who else he might invite. He doesn't really know many more people than that, and Dahlia and Declan, of course. When she asks if he has anything else going on for the day he shakes his head and says, "Just more work. But, I can do that at home, later. No calls today."

Dahlia nods. She'll put out some feelers and some people will surely bite! Either way it'll be a good time. "Then we should hang out a little more today!" When he says he doesn't have anything pressing. "You can pick out a sweater so I can make you an ugly sweater for Christmas! ...Maybe I'll make Caleb a sweater too." She giggled

Justin squints at Dahlia a little dubiously at this whole ugly sweater thing and says, "I really don't get the fascination with the whole ugly sweater tradition, but if you really want to make me one, then I suppose I can find one that you can defile." He reaches out then to tear a piece off of his muffin and takes a bite. "And sure, I'm glad to hang out and delay going back to work. Had anything in mind you wanted to do?"

Dahlia just flashed a grin. "Perfect." She chuckled, taking a careful sip of her coco. "Besides dragging you to the thrift store to get a sweater? Not really. There's a couple cool looking movies out I think. Maybe we can hit one up. Haven't been to a theater in a hot minute."

"We could do that," Justin agrees easily enough and then shakes his head. "Do you know when the last time I've been in a thrift store was?" He pauses for a moment and says, "Never. I've never been in a thrift store. Can't you just buy ugly sweaters pre-made these days that don't have to have been pre-worn?" In most cases, Justin is pretty down to earth, but the thought of wearing someone else's hideous clothing doesn't quite seem up his alley.

"Thrift stores have plenty of golden gems inside. " Dahlia mused. "I used to get all my clothes from there pretty much. Still do sometimes. Then pretty them up with the sewing machine. Either way. I guessss we don't have to." She feigns disappointment and then chuckles again. "We should go for a funny movie."

"I'm going to take your word for it," Justin chuckles and says. "Okay, we can go and look, and see if there are any hidden diamonds in the rough. I'm trusting you." He takes another sip of his coffee, grinning at her feigned disappointment. "Sure, we can go for a funny one. Got any in mind? I don't even know what's playing right now."

"We'll see!" Dahlia pulled her phone out. "Uhhh I have no idea! Lemme look." She types in a few things to take a look. She lists off a few movies that could be potentials. At least one of them sounds like it should be good. "Any of those sound good?" She set the phone down to drink more coco! "One of them is animated."