I’m trying to explain that I’d like to get up and get stuff done but this girl is not understanding me and doesn’t seem to care.
Category: thought
Declaring the start of The Winter of Wine tonight with this unlabeled selection from our friend Nan’s winery. This one is from her wine club and is bright and young but still very drinkable. Like a really good Beaujolais.
Nineteen years ago today, this lady and I went on our first date. I’m still smitten.
Looking For A Quiet Place
“I don’t know exactly when I stopped being able to tolerate environments like this,” I yelled to my wife three feet across the table from me, “But it seems recent.”
“I know,” she yelled back, “it’s like somebody flipped a switch and suddenly…”
“I know right!?” I replied as she took the words right out of my head. “I mean, we’re old now right? Maybe this is something that happens to everyone at a certain age…”
I continued, “I just want a place where we can have a nice cocktail or glass of wine and have a conversation at a normal volume. Some soft music or jazz playing below conversation level in the background. I know we don’t go out as much as we did when we were younger but those places don’t seem to exist anymore. Everywhere we go is like this is.”
We were at a recently opened new, hip, cocktail lounge. It was late-ish and they couldn’t seat us in the main section right away so we opted for their speakeasy-esque “dive bar” in the back. Being new we were not quite sure what to expect but almost as soon as we entered we were hit with the realization we had made the wrong choice. It was LOUD. The early 80’s hair band soundtrack was turned to 11 and, thus, all of the young and over-served the bar was full of had to be even louder. The cocktails were mediocre at best (I suppose this also might be by design to give it a “dive bar” feel). Despite every effort to try we couldn’t even find ironic humor in the experience. Our only goal became to finish our overpriced terrible drinks as quickly as possible and leave.
But other people seemed to be enjoying themselves. We’ve recently noticed that this seems to be the norm now. Every place we go — for a beer, for a cocktail, for a nice dinner — is JUST SO LOUD.
But, here’s the thing. This doesn’t seem like a change in all of these places. It feels like a change in me. We’ve been to several places recently and had the same experience. It feels like these sorts of places have always been this loud and what’s changed is my ability to adjust, tolerate, and possibly even enjoy it. But here we are.
Them Handy Sisters: An A!R Exhibition By Sultana Isham – New Orleans
If you are or will be in the New Orleans area in the next few months, be sure to check out this art exhibition/installation by Sultana Isham about my Grandmother and her Sister at The Ace Hotel. I’ll be down to see it myself in 10 days or so.
“An eye for an eye would leave many people blind.”
It’s a good plan.
Have you taken the time lately to appreciate what a marvel of engineering your hands are?!?! I mean, come on! Hands are freaking awesome! So useful. Seriously, look at them! Look at how they work. So cool!
Hands. Hands!
Last night’s entertainment…
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
The burning keeps me alive
My wife writes on our professional blog about making connections:
Steve is a New England Mayflower descendant, and has had generations of family members who have understood the power of making these connections. He also deeply values the inherent power of these exchanges, understanding that they draw alliances both between the people he is introducing — but also with himself.