Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Greetings from Texas

So here I am, killing time in my favorite BCS bar, waiting for the owner/my friend to show up so she can get me into the funky hotel across the street at the reduced band rate. I suppose I can't complain much, it isn't like sitting in the AC, sipping gratis well-drinks while I wait for her to save me a hundred bucks or so is a hardship.

Other than that, things have been good so far. Had a great first afternoon, bar-hopping with one of my best friends. A couple years ago I loaned him $7 grand, which he parlayed into a bigger loan to start his moving business. Now he's a millionaire. We met up at his new office building and, after showing me around, he gave me something to show his gratitude.

It was a t-shirt.

That he proudly said cost $6 bucks.

Fucker.

I mean that in the best possible way, of course.

And he did offer me a job at a salary of twice what I'm making now, which was tempting, though I declined as I don't want to spend the next several years booking cross-country moves for anxiety-ridden, penny pinchers virtually guaranteed to curse my name before the business concluded, regardless of how good or bad things went.

Tuesday I spent exerting more brain power in 6 hours than I have in the previous 6 months. It was fun, but totally draining. My colleague and I picked things up again this morning and blew some more brain cells on advancing our respective careers. After a crappy deli lunch, I went to meet a different colleague, do some more work, then hit up a birthday party at a wine bar for a guy I didn't know and spent the hour cooing over the 4 month old baby of some other couple I don't know. That probably doesn't sound like much fun, but it was nice.

Tomorrow is Day 3 of the mega-work crush with my aforementioned colleague, then 60 hours or so dedicated to hanging out. Probably some lunch at the Dixie Chicken, a little bar-hopping somewhere, then a mellow backyard cookout on the 4th and an early-ass AM plane ride on Saturday.

Not the worst way to spend a working vacation, I suppose.

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