This has been a hell of a week – with a rather epic conclusion. To sum up:
I woke up at ass:30 on Monday to catch the 5:25am train to New York. Worked a day for the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and caught the 7pm train back home. Spent Tuesday writing a report for them.
On Wed, I caught the 2:40, no wait 3:45, ummm maybe 5:00, aw hell – 7:00 flight to Indianapolis – getting to the hotel at ass:15. Fortunately, the little pub around the corner was still cooking pizza – so I soaked in the Americana of a bar / restaurant where they still allow smoking. Turns out that I had sort of missed midwestern people. They’re polite. They’re friendly. It was weird – plus they were all smoking.
Worked Thursday and Friday for The Man – which was actually a joy. I only rarely get a gig where the organization is not yet entirely aflame. I hope that with a little judicious advice, I might have been bale to steer them away from the most common mistakes I’ve seen. Wound up sampling both Granite City brewpub, and Scotty’s Brewhouse. Downtown Indianapolis has been savaged by the recession. The only things not boarded up are bars. Seriously. It’s bad. Fortunately, it’s an urban college campus – but man – it’s bad.
Today, after work, I drove back the IND and swapped out my crappy car for a hot little Mustang. Also swapped out the corporate card paid rental contract for a stone cold FREE rental on my frequent traveller points. Of course that’s “free,” paid in nights away from my wife and grey hair – but hey. FREE.
Got on the road around 6pm and hauled ass up to Ann Arbor, to attend a wedding this weekend. Rolled in to the hotel around 10:30pm. Checked in, and then decided to go get a pint at Arbor Brewing Company. Technically, I had two – since they had cask conditioned, hand pulled versions of both a barrel aged stout and an IPA. That place has been doing microbrews since before microbrews were cool. They provided the kegs for my wedding. I’ve got loyalty.
On a side note, if anyone has a line on their old-school “beer, just like mom used to make” shirts – I’ll take one of those for a birthday present. Thanks. I wear a men’s medium. I’ll swim in a large.
After that, I decided to sit and soak in the atmosphere (since the city wide party was only just getting started at midnight), so I found my way to the old Rendez Vous, which offers both (a) roof deck seating and (b) hookahs. Ordered my hookah-for-one (mint flavored) and settled in at a table. I was just seriously getting into the RSS feeds on my phone when the kids at the next table were like “hey dude, you wanna sit with us?” So I moved my hookah over, plugged in the hose from their dead one to my live one (duh, I can’t kill a whole hookah), and chatted with 20 year olds for an hour. They were actually pretty cool. I tried to avoid talking about The Good Old Days, but I did have to brag about going to the Rose Bowl the last year that Michigan didn’t really suck at football (1997). Ah kids. They were at the phase where they had already invented drinking – but they haven’t invented mid-life stress and management responsibilities yet.
Eventually I excused myself, being actually tired – and also wanting to not get sucked into some weird spiral of being the old dude attached to their endless 20 year old party. It was nice of them to invite me over – but it was also appropriate to bail after 45 minutes. Now I’m back at the hotel – fully prepared to sleep until whenever:20 tomorrow, prior to an early lunch at either Zingerman’s or Seva – followed by WEDDINGFEST.
Epic. My life rules. Is totally normal.
–EDIT–
Turns out, on inspection, that I left 100% of my toiletries in the other hotel this morning. Toothbrush, razor, pomade, floss, various pills and additives. The whole ke-boodle.
So, I don’t rule so much as I might have implied.
Rasafracka.
