Posting from the branch office

I wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I called in. That stupid allergy medicine again. It’s almost enough to make me stop taking it, but then I’d be sneezing all day. Anyway… I decided to take the laptop to my branch office on Union to do some work. That way I can spend some quality time with Frenchie and the goldfish.

For those of you who missed the Commercial Appeal this morning, there’s an article on a 28-story housing complex to be built at Third and Market. The article says this will be a luxury complex designed to attract affluent empty-nesters and doctors and researchers from St. Jude. It was unclear whether these units will be apartments or condos, but I’m guessing condos. This is great news for downtown. The presence of those tenants will draw additional businesses and services to the Uptown area and really turn it into a true neighborhood. I’m also happy to see development on Third – most of the activity so far has been on Main, with a little spilling over to Front and Second and the side streets. Downtown development is expanding outward, and that’s a very good thing.

Also in the Commercial Appeal – I didn’t see this because I read the web edition, but was told by Josh who spends a lot of time in the Union branch office – Shane Battier took out a full-page ad thanking Memphis for the time he spent here as a Grizzly. With all the bad press some NBA players get about being thugs and/or greedy, it’s been great to have someone like Shane in town who is truly a class act. We will miss him.

They have a hot dog eating contest on TV here at the Union branch office. People are stuffing hot dogs in their mouths two, three at a time and fighting to keep them from coming back up. I really don’t know if this is appropriate television for people to watch while they eat lunch.

I’m thinking about removing my initial downtown crime posts which I put up June 5 and the following several days. If I do, I’m not going to delete them entirely, but rather I’ll move them to another part of the site and add META tags that tell search engines not to index them. That way I can still refer people there if needed, but the posts won’t come up when people do Google searches for Downtown Memphis or some of the businesses/developments I mentioned in those posts.

My reason for leaning that direction is a conversation I had yesterday at Walgreens with a guy who works here in the center city, whose job is definitely to promote downtown. He was supportive in what he said and agreed that “there are a couple of problems”… but I could tell from his nonverbal communication that those crime posts may be making life difficult for his organization and other organizations/companies downtown. I don’t want to do that… I love downtown and want to see it grow, and the problems are now beginning to be addressed through Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis. I don’t know… I’m going to think about it for a few days. If you have an opinion on the matter let me know… if I don’t know you personally I’d appreciate it if you give me your full name and what your connection is to downtown (do you live here, work here, own property here, develop property here, etc.). Ultimately the final decision on the matter will be mine and mine only, but I’d appreciate constructive feedback from my readers to help me make the right call.

Hmmm… think I’ll shut the laptop down and go over to the Second Street branch office. That office has a great dress code for its employees, and everyone knows it’s my branch office because there’s a plate on the wall with my name on it.

All right. I’m here at the Second Street branch. It took me forever to get down here. I was walking down Second behind two fat corporate guys in suits. They were walking veeeeeerrrrryyyyyy ssssllllloooooooooowly and they were so fat that I couldn’t get around them. Life at the speed of business… if the business has a 14.4 dialup connection.

The Second Street branch office is lucky to see me much at all anymore, since they didn’t take me up on my repeated suggestions to hire some Romanian employees. I had a talk with one of the Romanians last night… her name is Diana, but I’ve privately nicknamed her Fluffy because of her hair. She told me that she’s a dental student and that dentists in Romania make about $2,000 a month, or $24,000 a year. Wow. She can make more as a waitress over here than she can as a dentist back home. Now I understand a little bit better why they cram so many people into a tiny apartment, so they can hold on to as many dollars as they can.

Fluffy also told me that there are not four Romanians in that apartment as I had thought, but five. There’s a Romanian guy living there too. I met him later in the evening – nice guy. I will heretofore refer to him as The Luckiest Man On Earth.

I’m actually glad there’s a guy living with them, because they have a neighbor who is going to be real eager to get to know the girls and they should probably keep him at arm’s length… don’t want to name any names but (raspy voice) PAULIE-PAUL! HOW YOU DOIN’, BUDDY BOY? MAN, I TELL YOU WHAT, I TOOK THE BOAT OUT ON THE LAKE THIS WEEKEND AND…

Two neighbors they should keep at arm’s length… there’s also the guy who makes a really good cup of coffee.

Man… the Second Street branch office is great… I don’t even have to get up to go to the water cooler… there’s a girl who does it for me… and the water tastes a little like Labatt Blue. Must’ve been a fire at this branch office recently, because I see a sign about a fire sale.

Here’s a shout-out to regular blog reader Uncle Paul from Denver… come back to Memphis and visit sometime soon, Uncle Paul!

Re-thinking my plans for this evening, assuming I feel well enough to go out. My original plan was to go to the Madison rooftop and see The Dempseys this evening, but I’m now thinking I may do the Peabody rooftop instead, since I saw The Dempseys last night at Blues City. Let’s see… three sweaty guys with musical instruments and a bunch of old people crowded into a small space… or hot babes in tube tops. Yep, it’s looking like the Peabody is the way to go.

Right now though, the way to go is home, for a nap. YEAH, BUDDY BOY, I THINK I’M GONNA HEAD HOME AND HIT THE HAY FOR A WHILE… even doing his voice in my head makes my throat sore. Anyway, back later with more of this nonsense.