I guess you could say my attention has been diverted into several other aspects of my ever evolving life at the moment so as to keep me away from this, the tangential chronicle of just such a life. But thanks, Tristan, for pulling me back in for an update.
The move went...painfully. Thanks to Brent and Austin, I was actually able to complete the move, but my minimalist life went bankrupt a couple years back. I moved up to DeKalb with my entire earthly possessions packed into my Blazer (with one suitcase on the roof). I moved up to Madison in a 17' U-Haul truck, with two suitcases in the Blazer. Getting old apparently entails getting more stuff...or maybe it's just being single in a two bedroom. But the important thing is that everything got moved in, and only my office is left to unpack and organize.
And Madison...damn. I don't know why I hadn't been up here in the past two years, as its only an hour and a half drive from DeKalb, but I'm already in love with this town. And when I say in love with it, I mean bordering on the type of affection one develops for New Orleans (to my NOLA peeps, don't worry, it's still first in my heart). But this is just a great city; bike lanes on the major roads, bike paths criss-crossing through the city, every restaurant is unique with all their main sauces and spices made in-house, bountiful fresh, local produce, with a strong organic leaning, and bars with personality. I can definitely see myself enjoying the next four years.
I'll get into the school stuff in another post, but as far as my life right now, tonight is my last night of training to bartend at The Old Fashioned. It's a tavern/pub (the title of this post is linked to their website) which stakes its claim on Wisconsin Pride. That means they've got picked eggs, cheese curds, fried eggs on burgers, and their entire beer selection is Wisconsin brewed, outside of the "imports" of Bud and Bud Light. But that still leaves them with a dozen beers on tap and a good three cooler cases of bottles. Ah, and their bar is 49.25 feet long. So that's where I'll be spending Sunday and Monday nights bartending. At the onset, I asked to both serve and bartend, as bartending is somewhat stressful and it's good to have a break to actually deal with people more. But, as it turns out, bartending at the old fashioned is nothing compared to the crap I had to deal with bartending at the Ruby's in DeKalb. So, maybe when school starts up I can either drop the Saturday shift or trade it out for some other bartending gig.
Is that crazy? Having five discussion sections to teach a week, plus my normal coursework, in addition to bartending? Well, that's for another post. In the meantime, I'm getting quite settled in and enjoying the new surroundings. The internet is a little fuzzy up here, but if I can get it to act a little more consistently, I'll try to get back to updating this. In the meantime, send word or give me a call if you like.
Namaste'.
Labels: Madison
