04/23: Hej Då Tyrens!

My time at Tyrens eventually had to come to an end. I was with them for over a year and a half - a time filled with good times, interesting work, tons of laughs, and more fika breaks than I can possibly ever remember. To celebrate my final weeks my co-workers took me out to Kvarnen for an evening of Swedish food, good times, and lots and lots of booze.

The whole week leading up to the big night people kept asking me "Are you ready for Friday?" I had been asked if I had been adhering to a strict liver workout regimen (a ridiculous question to those who know me well).

When we arrived at Kvarnen and folks asked me what I wanted to drink, I obviously looked at them with mistrust. Despite my excellent drinking physique, the frequent questions had me a little gun-shy, which proved to be good in the long run as I paced myself early.
After a round, my co-worker and last project manager Erik seemed to be front loading his drinking. His reason? He didn't have much time to hang out since he had to get back to his fiance and infant daughter. That sounds like a good idea right?
For the record, I don't actually think all that was intended for him. Hard to say though.

From left to right: my boss Dag, fellow former Lund student Fredrik, and 5th floor pal Petra.
Woo party!

Awesome picture. Everyone's completely distracted and then there's just my boss raising his glass high. Hilarious.
Here's the crew:
Stay thirsty my friends:
Proof that I wasn't the only one drinking:
Caroline and Petra
Ruya and me, enjoying a few cold ones:
Mats and me: We got each other's backs apparently.
Petra and Mats are discussing various recipes including Baconnaise:
Whatever I'm yakking about I'm sure must be very profound.
Here's one of my favorite photos from the evening - my co-workers settling the bill. I have no idea how much the whole night cost, but all I know is that it didn't cost me a thing which was awesome.
It was shortly after the bill being settled that things got a little fuzzy. I think folks were a bit tired of my relative sobriety and so they decided to accelerate the evening:
Shot of snaps number 2 (or was it 3?).
Back last fall I bought Dag a celebratory drink when he was officially placed as our department manager. The shot: a prairie fire. He got me back by buying me the most heinous shot of snaps I've ever had.

Can you drink me now?
Mats and Lotta: Classy
Mats and Lotta: Weird
Caroline and her boyfriend Andreas (left) with Frederik. As you can see, Tyrens is a close bunch.

Me and Dag. This random girl latched onto him and wouldn't get the hint and get lost. She was an odd one.

Thoughtful:
Distracted:
Time moved really weird - not island from Lost weird, but just weird. After we had eaten and had our drinks we looked at the clock and it was midnight. After another quick round: 1 am. At this point attrition had taken its toll and a few folks had called it a night. Eventually the party moved from the bar area to the dance floor, which as you know is my arena. So after busting a few moves and taking home a break-dancing trophy we decided to stumble our way to Burger King for a quick snack before I managed to make my way home.

The night was a blast, and certainly made for some fun photos. I certainly got more than a little wasted, but I think I earned some serious street-cred by holding my own. I owe a lot of that to my mom's frequent recommendations to "drink a glass of ice-water after every drink."

It was great having folks take me out and naturally it was super awesome to not have to pick up the check. All in all, it makes me feel a bit bummed to be leaving such a great group of people and at the same time it makes me want to quit my jobs more often!