Good times

So I managed to put the weekend on cruise control and find myself feeling pretty relaxed and lazy as Sunday gets ready to become Monday.

I didn't do jack today. Slept in, got up, caught up on a few emails, took a nap, woke up about halfway through the first quarter of the Browns game, got up and watched the rest of the game, and have just sat around doing nothing ever since.

Yesterday had a little more action. After my post, I went over to MOCA to check out their Artscape 2008 event. I must say, I was quite disappointed in this event. I'd been hearing folks talk it up for quite some time, and was really looking forward to the opportunity to browse some affordable yet interesting artwork. That wasn't quite what this thing was, though. Instead, it was just another one of those local etsy-vendor group sales. Nothing against etsy or the whole urban crafts movement - that's actually kind of cool and a good way for talented folks to get a little back on their investment and hard work - it just gets a little irritating wasting time at events you think are going to be more art/less craft oriented. Last year's winter bela dubby event left me feeling the same way. One such event per year is definitely enough for me, and you can't really beat the Bazaar Bizarre gathering.

Not to be too much of a downer, though, I have to admit there was significant upside to the day. I met up with a particularly cool pair of people at the show and afterwards headed over to have a few beers (and earn some parking tickets) with them at the Coventry Winking Lizard. We enjoyed our fair share and each discovered some delightful new brews, and managed to do so without thoroughly upsetting our waiter.

Waiter Dude was a little skeptical about us, though, as he actually (and hilariously) admitted to us later in the evening. When he first came to our table, we didn't know what we wanted. This doesn't strike me as a great sin, as the beer list is 100+ selections long, but his initial displeasure was evident. Kelly picked a beer pretty quickly, but if memory serves, they were out of stock. I picked one when Waiter Dude (WD from here on out) brought her second choice over. Jose, however, was still deciding, and WD made it clear this was unacceptable.

After a while, the three of us have selected and received our first beers and WD starts in on the food order requests. At first, we smile and say we are fine. 3-4 minutes later, he's back and asks what we want to eat. We say we haven't looked at the menu yet and I even say we'll wave him down if we want something. He tells us he'll be back in 5 minutes for our order - the unspoken part being that we really better know what we want by now. This marks good and bad developments. On the good side, WD is no longer enemies with Jose. On the bad side, it is now clear he hates all three of us.

Over time, we order food, more rounds of beverages, one of Jose's friends shows up and we all have fun. Eventually, Jose makes a joke to WD about getting back in his good graces and, as noted above, he actually admits that we weren't good customers at first. Now, I think our behavior was entirely appropriate, but I also think it was awesome he admitted that he was initally disappointed in us.

WD ended up being a pretty cool dude, new to the area and pretty nice and interesting once we started talking with him. This time a year ago, I was in a situation much like he is now, exploring the city, finding lots that I liked, and looking for cool folks to be friends with. Listening to him talk about his adventures in town, it made me grateful for some of the good fortune I've had here in meeting people, definitely including the folks I was with that night.

The fact that Jose insisted on picking up the check didn't hurt, either...