Little rose

July 30, 2004 in Uncategorized | No comments

Ugh, overslept this morning. Hit my snooze button one to many times and my alarm stopped going off. I run a conference call at 09:30 on Friday’s and since it was five till nine I knew I wouldn’t be getting to work on time.

So why did I have to run my conference call on my cellphone this morning you ask? Last night around 21:30 or 22:00 I had a craving for a Dogwood Decadent X. So I headed to the Gravity Pub with my roommate to get my fix. Turns out they were out, (maybe forever I need to call Dogwood) so I had to substitute five Guinness’ instead. Guinness is a great beer but I was definitely in the mood for a Decadent but I got over it halfway through my second glass. Anyway the Democratic National convention was on the TV and Alexandra Kerry was speaking. Apparently it was cold on stage because the headlights were on. This was cause for quite a few from the bar, the majority of which came from a decent looking woman probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She kept sticking out her breasts and tweaking her nipples in a display that was supposed to represent what Alexandra did before going on stage. I was considering offering my assistance but I had a feeling it wouldn’t go over well. When John Kerry came on I was pleasantly surprised with his speech, I don’t agree with all of his views but he made an impact on me. He had some good lines as well, my favorite was “And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States.”. All in all I think he did a good job, let’s just hope we can boot Bush out come November. I am beginning to have more faith in that outcome.

After the speech and my five beers I decided to (actually my bladder decided to) use the restroom. I hadn’t been to Gravity Pub in a while so I was checking out some of the new graffiti. There were a couple of cool quotes “On the plus side, I did knock over the sunsphere” “Shut up brain, or I’ll stab you with a Q-Tip” and of course “All your base are belong to us!” I took pictures of them but they were blown out by the flash. After I finished relieving myself my roommate and I went over to the Inman Park Patio.

I didn’t really want to go over there but Gravity Pub was my idea and my roommate tagged along so I figured I would return the favor. He was under the impression that something was going on there. I was a little skeptical because it’s basically a good date restaurant, not the kind of place you go just to hang out at. My suspicions were confirmed correct when we pulled up across the street. It was pretty much empty with the exception of a few guys. We weren’t in the mood for a sausage factory so it was off to the Brewhouse Cafe.

Recently Georgia raised the maximum beer alcohol content from 6 to 14 percent. The Brewhouse happens to have a few of the higher alcohol brews. I chose an Imperial Stout made by my favorite brewery Samuel Smith. My roommate chose a hard to pronounce Belgian White which came in wine bottle sized container, he didn’t like it very much though. My beer was great, although I would say it was closer to a Porter than a stout. Then again I was drinking Guinness previously so it might have been an unfair comparison. We were sitting outside on the patio right next to the sidewalk. It was not very crowded and it was very nice outside. The moon looked almost full and it was shining (I guess I should say reflecting) through some scatter clouds. A very cool effect, I love it when I see that. One of these days when I get my 300mm lens and extension tubes I’m going to get a good picture of it. I decided to order jerk wings, chips and salsa to soak up some of the black gold in my stomach. They came out at the same time which kind of sucked, I was hoping the chips would come first. Some of the chips were greasy but the dry ones were good. They gave us a mix of red, blue and gold chips, I love it when they do that, adds some variety. The salsa was delicious, not very hot but tasty. While we were eating a homeless man came up and stood in front of us. I waited for him to say something, after a little pause he asked for some chicken. Now I get asked for money all the time in Atlanta and my standard response is no. However I have nothing against giving away food since I know it’s going to good use. After handing him a wing he started to leave just as a waiter came over to shoo him off. About five minutes later he returned with a minature rose. As I took the rose from him he extended his fingers exposing his palm, greasy from the wing I gave him and asked for more. I hesitated since I only order twelve wings to spilt between the two of us and I was hungry. A couple of seconds passed by and I handed him another wing. He promptly asked for another to which I replied “that’s it”. Considering my rejection he spotted my pack of cigarettes on the table and asked for one. I handed him a cigarette and he left. That was the last time I saw him.

My interaction with him has been bothering me today. Usually when I am solicited by street people (I say street people because not all of them are homeless) I look them directly in the eye. However with this guy I did not make a lot of eye contact. I’m not sure why that is maybe it was the drinks or maybe something deeper.

After he left I said to my roommate, “that must be really tough, having to beg for food like that” he replied “I wonder if he would’ve asked us if we were eating carrots and celery?”. To be honest a though like that had never crossed my mind, I figure if you’re hungry you will take what you can get. My roommate assumed he was just a guy that wanted some wings, that seems a little far fetched to me but you never know.

As we were getting ready to leave our waiter was have some sort of altercation with a girl. It ended by them yelling at each other and our waiter throwing a chair into the plastic they surround the patio in during colder months as she was leaving. I made a mental note to myself to leave him a good tip.

So that is why I over slept this morning, I guess being up until three the previous night didn’t help much either. Oh well, I can always sleep on Sunday.

Watch out for flying chairs.

-Alex