Paul Ryburn's Journal

This one’s going to start off on sad note, sorry.

One night a few years ago, on a Saturday night I had plans to meet up with some friends at Raiford’s. As many of you know, I like to dress up when I go there, and I selected a baby blue leisure suit to wear, along with disco medallion and platform shoes. As I walked down the Main Street Mall, one of the local homeless guys called out to me. “Dude! That suit is bad-ass, man. Where did you get that suit? You lookin’ sharp, bro.”

From that point on I’d usually see him a few times a week. He’d often be sitting on the bench in front of Family Dollar, or I’d see him walking around on Main Street or Second Street. “Suit man!” he’d call out to me. He rarely asked for money – maybe one time out of 10. Usually he just wanted to talk.

He’d see me walking down Main on a Friday night and call out, “Suit man! How come you ain’t got the suit on?”

He’d see me walking down Main at 10:00 on a Tuesday morning and call out, “Suit man! How come you ain’t got the suit on?”

Last summer, my friends called and said, “Hey, we’re thinking about going to Raiford’s Friday night. Want to go?” Of course I said yes – doesn’t take much convincing to get me to Raiford’s. I was excited. Finally, the guy would get to see me in the suit. That would make his day.

Walking around that week, I saw him on his usual bench. “Look for me Friday night,” I told him. “I’m going to have the suit on!”

That Friday, I walked around all over downtown with that suit on looking for him. People thought I was out of my mind. Why was I wandering around in a blue leisure suit? Finally I found him. “Suit man!” he said. “Lookin’ sharp!”

A few months later, he disappeared. To tell the truth, I didn’t even notice. There were other homeless guys sitting on that bench.

So last night about 11, I went out, heading toward Blues City to see The Dempseys. As I walked down the Main Street Mall, a guy in a wheelchair rolled up to me. I started to walk away, since I didn’t recognize him and figured he was there to ask for money.

“Hey man! Hey! Remember me? You know me!” It took me a minute… he didn’t look like any of the guys in wheelchairs I had seen downtown before. Then he said, “Where’s the suit, man?” And I realized it was him. “Yeah, man, they cut my legs off, diabetes, you know, so I’m in a chair now.” Wow. I had seen him walking around for years, and how his legs were gone. And yet, he still had the same smile on his face. He hadn’t changed a bit except for the legs.

Maybe I’ll take a Tuesday morning off work sometime soon and put the baby blue leisure suit and walk around downtown, just for him. So what if the rest of the city thinks I’ve lost my mind.

Okay… on to happier things…

I went and saw The Dempseys last night. They had a great crowd… there were several girls dancing their hearts out in front of the stage. One of them had a tube top on but it stayed up. Blast!

In between sets I went over and sat at the bar at George Paul’s Last Call and watched TV, and saw a commercial for a DVD set that looked really cool. It’s called The Midnight Special, and it’s performances from a TV show of the same name that ran from 1972 to 1981. There are videos from bands of all genres of that era – Elton John, Ray Charles, Blondie, the Bee Gees, Aerosmith, etc. Looks like a fun DVD set.

So now it’s Sunday. I just posted my Deal of the Week on my Commercial Appeal blog. Here are the plans for the day:

11 AM – 2 PM: Sit at Sleep Out’s and drink
2 PM – 5 PM: Sit at Sleep Out’s and drink
5 PM – 9 PM: Sit at Sleep Out’s and drink

As you can tell, I have a full day planned. After 9 I may do something different, like go to the Flying Saucer and drink. And see the waitresses.

I would like to extend my compliments to NTN Trivia, provider of the video crack that keeps my ass glued to the chair at Sleep Out’s all day. They used to interrupt the regularly scheduled trivia with a game called “Raceday,” having to do with the week’s NASCAR race. Now I’m sure Charly would do well at that game, but could we have a non-redneck trivia option too? BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY, LET’S GO RACIN’, BOY! So anyway, just now, Raceday was about to come on, when a new screen came on.

“Vote for what you want to play next – (1) Raceday or (2) Countdown.” Countdown is the normal trivia game. Needless to say, the bar voted 100% for Countdown. Goodbye, Raceday!

And hello, champagne. Time to put the laptop up and get this party started.

For the first time I actually participated in Fish Races last night at Sleep Out’s. Here’s how it works: They set up two rain gutters near the front of the bar. Two people compete at a time, one in each gutter, dropping a goldfish out of a styrofoam cup into the gutter, behind the start line. Each competitor then squirts his or her fish with a water gun, encouraging the fish to start swimming. First fish to cross the finish line wins. Winner advances, NCAA tournament bracket style, and the overall winner gets a $50 bar tab.

I think I got a defective fish, though. My fish would swim about six inches forward, and then get scared and go back behind the start line. No matter how many squirts I gave him with the water gun, he wouldn’t keep going. What a stupid fish. Doesn’t he realize that his purpose in life is to swim really fast so I can win a free bar tab?

After Fish Races I headed up to Blues City Cafe to see the Dempseys… I got there at 9:30 and as I walked in they were on stage saying, “We’ll be right back after a short break, folks.” WTF? I thought The Dempseys weren’t supposed to even come on until 10:00 or 10:30. I went to the back bar (George Paul’s Last Call) for what seemed like 30 minutes, which is the length of their usual break. But it was more like an hour… oops. I walked back over and the first thing I heard was, “That’s it for tonight, folks. Thank you.” and Ron the drummer got on the mic and said, “Paul! Where you been?” I missed the entire show!

Later on I found out that both The Dempseys and The Gamble Brothers had been booked for the weekend. Last night, The Dempseys went on early with the Gamble Brothers to follow. Tonight, the order is reversed so The Dempseys will take the stage about 11. Maybe I’ll try again tonight. I sure have been hanging out at Blues City a lot lately, wonder what’s up with that?

While I was there I decided I was hungry, and decided to flip a coin to decide between the crab au gratin entree and a half rack of ribs. The ribs won. So I got a platter of ribs and fries and beans and slaw – it was huge, glad I didn’t order the full rack. While I had my back turned some of my ribs and fries got donated to the “Feed Romania” campaign. But that’s okay. I mean, we have to feel a bit of pity for Romania. America has produced all kinds of famous historical figures, including leaders like Washington and Lincoln, inventors like Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison, and sports heroes like Babe Ruth. But who is Romania’s most famous historical figure? A vampire. Dracula. That’s the best they can do. So if I can donate some of my rib platter to help Romania catch up, I’m happy to do it.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to sit at the bar and stare at that beautiful rack. I mean the ribs. Really.

While I was sitting inside Blues City, I looked out the window onto Second and the cops were really cracking down on the cruisers. I mean, they were on foot, approaching every car, and if you were doing ANYTHING wrong – even a tail light out – you got pulled over. It was good to see. I wrote a news article about it on the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis website, so click over there for the full story.

Don’t know if they’ll be back tonight, but if you plan on coming downtown to party, I highly recommend you appoint a designated driver or take a cab.

Earlier this afternoon I was sitting at the Saucer, and a guy came in wearing the following T-shirt:
“NOBODY LISTENS TO ME UNTIL I FART”

Walking back up to the Union Avenue branch office, I noticed a sign outside Sawaddii advertising that martinis are half-price for the ladies Wednesday and Thursday. So if you’re female, that might be a good pre-rooftop option on Thursdays.

And that’s it for now. I’ll be at Sleep Out’s for my normal brunch shift around noon tomorrow, but I have also heard that it will be a party after 4 – dollar PBR (although that’s every Sunday) and I also heard something about dollar jello shots. And although they’re not on special, I have a feeling duck farts will be consumed. Enjoy your weekend and be safe!

Today is the beginning of early voting for the August 3 elections. Depending on where you live, you could have to tab through as many as 23 screens on the voting machines – it’s the longest ballot in county history. So this is definitely one where you’ll want to early vote and avoid the long lines.

I want to mention a couple of candidates who I support. These are people I know personally and whom I admire and respect. I want to make it clear that I am writing to express my support of these candidates as Paul Ryburn, individual/citizen, not as Paul Ryburn, co-organizer of Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis. RSDM does not endorse candidates.

For County Commission, District 2, Position 2 – Novella Smith Arnold – Novella and I met at the downtown Blue Monkey, where she would go for Sunday brunch after church. She and I talked on several occasions, and she is one of the most gentle, compassionate people I have ever met. We spent time talking about the things she saw as a prison and hospital chaplain, and about her push for HIV/AIDS awareness in prisons a few years back. She’s a Republican but her actions are those of a progressive. Very rarely have I met a person with such a kind, gentle heart. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have representing me on the County Commission.

For US Congress, TN District 9 – Steve Cohen – I’ve admired Steve Cohen ever since I’ve been in Memphis. In 1996, when I was teaching at the U of M, one of my students arranged for me to meet him and get involved with his campaign (for the same Congressional seat, which was won that fall by Harold Ford Jr.) Steve is a man who stands by his priniciples – I can remember a couple of cases where he was the “1” in 30-1 votes in the State senate. This is a man who will not be controlled by special interests and will do what is right for the district. I also admire his persistence, having pushed for the state lottery for more than 20 years and finally seeing it through. The man truly has a passion for government, and almost 30 years experience. Get goin’, vote Cohen!

All right… what else is going on…

Never made it to the Peabody rooftop for tube top watching last night. I was starving, and I decided to hit the Tap Room for dinner. If a beer joint sounds like an odd dining choice, keep in mind that they share an excellent menu with King’s Palace. I had the seafood pasta and it was outstanding. Although, it was awful hard to pass up the Chicken Pontabla – chicken covered with cheese and Cajun spices over potatoes. With that menu you just can’t miss. You have as much chance of getting a bad meal at the Tap Room/King’s Palace as you do of meeting an ugly Romanian girl.

Plans for this weekend… well, I don’t have a whole lot of plans. I’ll probably stop by Sleep Out’s tonight for Fish Races. Sunday I’ll be at Sleep Out’s for brunch, of course. And Monday I may go down there and eat during my lunch hour (they have Wi-Fi, so there may still be a lunchtime post). What can I say, it’s a good bar. They cleaned the lines so the PBR is good to drink again, and they definitely deserve my support after making an EXCELLENT hiring decision recently.

It’s also possible I’ll make a return trip this weekend to Blues City to see The Dempseys, who are playing there tonight and tomorrow at 10:30. Could end up there Sunday for FreeWorld as well.

Downtown development continues… this morning the Commercial Appeal ran an article on a new residential development at Union and Lauderdale, just east of Danny Thomas. Great to see downtown expanding eastward.

If anyone out there develops .NET applications and is looking for work, shoot me an e-mail. A recruiter called me yesterday looking for someone to do a 2-year contract working in ASP.NET/VB.NET, about 50% maintenance and 50% new code. Pay rate is very good. I can’t take the position because I’m in the middle of the City Schools contract.

Speaking of which, it’s time to go back to work and earn my money. Happy Friday afternoon.

I’m still at the Second Street branch office (see previous post). I’ve been hitting the water cooler pretty hard so this post may not make as much sense as the last one.

Apparently the Second Street branch office is changing the T-shirts they sell… a waitress, um, I mean, a branch office employee, is standing on a chair taking the “YOU’RE KILLING MY BUZZ” shirt out of the display case.

Snozberry is the band that is playing the Second Street branch office tonight. $3 cover. I saw them once before, about six months ago. I can’t remember anything about the music they played but I do remember one thing. They had these girls who danced in front of the stage and they were called “Band-Aids.” At one point the lead singer got on the mic and said, “Between the Band-Aids and the waitresses, I have masturbation material for the next month!” Er, I mean, between the Band-Aids and the branch office employees… oh, screw it, never mind.

Been cruising around MySpace… am I the only MySpace user in Memphis who doesn’t have a pic of themselves at a bar drinking with Mendi?

The new shirt that is going in the display case says “it’s not rocket science”… you’re among the first to know. She’s up on the chair again… ‘scuse me a second… (leaning way over)… okay, I’m back. I saw that shirt at the East Bumblefuck branch office on Sunday… what’s up with East Bumblefuck getting new shirts before downtown?

Earlier today at the Union branch office, there was a guy in a T-shirt that said, “let me drop everything and work on your problem.” I want to buy about 150 of those and have them shipped to my former company, the one that did rebates.

I also see a lot of guys wearing T-shirts that say “i (heart) hot moms.” I want a T-shirt that says “i (heart) romanian girls.”

There are two TVs visible from the big, long conference table at the front of the Second Street branch office… they’re both tuned to ESPN2, where a domino tournament is on. God… they could switch it to Oprah and it would be an improvement. Can TV possibly get any more boring than this? …wait, yes it can, forgot about golf.

Oh, another T-shirt I saw yesterday as I wandered through Peabody Place… “Oklahoma Bucks.” Hey dude, there’s a misspelled word on your shirt… that should be an “S.”

Looking for an elegant space for a private party? Stella just expanded into its basement. The space holds up to 100.

Last December, my friend Carmel and several of her girlfriends were sitting at a table at Stella. Dr. Bob was sitting at the bar and sent a round of drinks to their table. It could have something to do with the fact that Carmel was wearing a tube top.

Other than the Stella announcement, there was absolutely nothing in this post worth reading whatsoever. Now it’s definitely time for a nap. Logging out, shutting down…

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.

A couple of months ago I mentioned that I went to American Apparel, the new clothing store at Main and GE Patterson in the South Main Arts District. I spent some time going through racks of clothing and didn’t really see anything I liked. The clothes weren’t bad or anything… I just found them kind of… well, boring.

But yesterday I was made aware of an item they sell that definitely isn’t boring. It’s a women’s clothing item called a “romper,” and I highly recommend this item to my female friends.

Here’s a link.

A romper is a one-piece tube top/shorts combination. The one selling at American Apparel is made of terrycloth. They also have a velour one, but it has a strap so technically it isn’t a tube top.

What a great invention. Whoever created this deserves a Nobel Prize or something.

(Something’s wrong with the blog template I’m using… I got it from a third-party site so it will take a little time to troubleshoot… sorry if this blog looks funny in the meantime.)

Not sure if this first item should go on this blog or the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis site… hmm… since it’s from Pawtucket, NJ I guess it’s not really an RSDM thing. Anyway, here’s a news story illustrating how tube tops can be used as tools to commit crimes.

Woman in tube top abets theft

The Rapscallions trivia team finished in second place last night by one point… we would have finished first if not due to the actions of a traitor named Pam. Hang on, let’s post a pic of Pam:

There ya go. That’s Pam. The one that’s not me, obviously. Up until a few weeks ago she was a member of the Rapscallions. But one night we were at Big Foot and we were kidding around and I jokingly kicked her off the team. I was kidding. But what did she do? She went and got her friends from Drinking Liberally and they all started showing up at the Saucer on Tuesday nights. So yesterday, the Drinking Liberally team beat us by one point. Oh well, it could have been worse… we could have lost to Republicans.

As punishment for her traitorious actions, Pam is no longer allowed to sit at the bar at Sleep Out Louie’s for Sunday brunch. If she comes in, she has to sit at one of the tables, and maybe, just maybe, if we’re feeling really kind, we’ll talk to her.

At least we got a $25 gift certificate for our second-place finish, bringing our certificate collection to $220 total. We’re gonna have a big party soon, probably this month.

Speaking of Drinking Liberally, they’re still having their regular Thursday night meetings at Dish. This Thursday will be a special meeting, as they will be hosting Gina Cooper, the organizer of the YearlyKos conference, a gathering of 1,000 liberal bloggers from across the country. She will be there to brainstorm with Memphis on how Kos can promote local blogospheres. Click the link to the Drinking Liberally site for details.

I’ve been busy the past couple of days trying to help the Romanians locate furniture they can borrow for their 3-month stay in Memphis. It’s so odd to me as a spoiled, well-off (by their standards) American to listen to them… they could buy cheap air mattresses to sleep on. “Oh, no. We do not want to do that. We will sleep on the floor if we cannot find mattresses to borrow.” Air mattresses are like 19 bucks each. Geez, that’s just barely more than six bucks a month… I’d gladly pay that not to sleep on a floor. I did a little math and realized that for what I have spent at restaurants and bars since Saturday, I could have bought each of them an air mattress. It makes me realize how much abundance I have and how I take much of it for granted.

When I drove them to the mall on Sunday, they got thirsty. Now when Americans get thirsty, each of them buys a bottle of water to drink. The Romanians bought one bottle and passed it around. They offered me some too, which was sweet of them. My lips got to touch the bottle that touched the lips of four beautiful Romanian girls… although I would have preferred to eliminate the bottle altogether and… never mind, we’re getting off topic here.

Flipping through the new Memphis Flyer to see what’s going on… Friday at Davis-Kidd there’s a book signing by G. Wayne Dowdy, author of Mayor Crump Don’t Like It: Machine Politics in Memphis. It’s about Boss Crump’s rule of the city from his election as mayor in 1909 until his death in the mid-’50s. I doubt I’ll get out that way for the signing but it sounds like an interesting book to read.

Also, performance troupe Stomp is at The Orpheum this weekend. If you haven’t seen their show, you should go, it’s great. Tickets are $15-50.

Early voting for the upcoming election begins this Friday, July 14th. Later this week, I’ll be posting about a few candidates I support. To those candidates, if they’re reading: since I extended Tube Top Month until July 31, I’m going to have to figure out a way to tie tube tops in when I mention you. But right now, lunch break is over, back to work.

Well, let’s see what I can find to talk about today…

First of all, congratuations to my friends at ReMax on the River on the excellent article written about them in the Commercial Appeal’s business section. They’re good folks and have been big supporters of Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis. If you’re looking to buy a condo or home downtown, these are the people to talk to.

By the way, if you haven’t visited the RSDM site in a while, check out the News section, where I’ve put up an article about a safety brochure we’re creating for Downtown guests.

After I got back downtown last night, I stopped by Sleep Out’s, where my friend LSU Mike supplied the Drunken Quote of the week, referring to Subway sandwiches: “I sure understand why they call it Subway, because the next day it comes out of my ass like a freight train.”

My plans for this week, which are all tentative at this point:

Monday: Pint Nite, of course! Los Angeles blogger AngieDawn will be making a rare Memphis appearance, so I look forward to joining her for a beer at the Saucer. Later in the evening I’ll probably hit other downtown bars in pursuit of tube tops and Ro-girls.

Tuesday: Back to the Saucer for beer, trivia, and waitresses. The Rapscallions will be short several team members this week, but then, a lot of times when we’ve won, it’s been with a smaller team.

Wednesday/Thursday: At least one of these nights I plan on catching The Dempseys, who will be playing at Blues City Cafe at 8 pm on Wednesday, and on the Madison rooftop starting at 6 pm Thursday.

It was a pleasure meeting regular blog reader Groobie Baby this weekend. You know, if Groobie Baby put on a tube top, she could call it a Groob Tube.

Charly writes,

“So, I think all the beer I’ve been drinkin’ lately has taken its toll on my memory – who is this Master Polo kid, and why the fuck does anyone give a damn about him??

I’m a little lost.”

Master Polo is one of the most well-rounded individuals on planet Earth. Although his main interest is snowmobiling, he is also an adamant collector of Buffalo nickels, and an avid Terrarium enthusiast. “Clearly I am guilty of enjoying all of Mother Earth’s gifts,” he writes. To use a Mikeyism, you ain’t just whistling Black Sabbath there, my friend. And his taste in music is absolutely exquisite – “all the pre-Ringo Beatles stuff.” YEAH! Pete Best RULEZ!!!

So I’m sure you can now understand why I have to meet this guy. And Charly, congrats on finally making a new post to your blog after 15 days off.

A couple of people have also written, asking whether the Romanians are here legally. Yes, they are. Here’s a link to the State Department’s website outlining the program they’re on.

Speaking of Romania: Billy Idol will be playing a concert in Bucharest at 8 pm tonight. Now that I think about it, due to the time difference that means he’s playing right now as I type this.

Serrabee has put up one of the funniest posts I have seen in a long time, concerning the purchase of a mini-fridge from Craigslist. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who uses the term “East Bumblefuck.” However, it’s a San Francisco post, so I guess they weren’t referring to Cordova, Germantown, Collierville and the surrounding suburban sprawl.

All right, I’m done wasting your time today. Back to the cubicle for an exciting afternoon of writing batch scripts to move web applications from the DEV server to the TEST server and then to the PROD server. Yay!

Well, I didn’t make it to brunch today after all… nor did I make it to a party in my building, thrown by a friend of mine to watch the World Cup finals. Instead, I spent the afternoon in East Bumblefuck. The Romanians wanted to go to the mall, and so I agreed to drive them to Wolfchase.

To catch everyone up on the Romanian situation: The blonde from last year is back. The brunette is not, which doesn’t surprise me since she didn’t like Memphis much. There are three new Romanians, two blondes and one who is about halfway between brunette and redhead.

So we drove out there and they wanted to stay for four hours. I quickly realized I did not want to spend four hours shopping for women’s clothes with four girls speaking a language I didn’t understand, so we agreed upon a meeting place and I went off and did my own thing. I found some really nice casual shirts at JCPenney of all places. They look hip and funky enough to wear them to a bar or club, yet dressy enough where I can get away with wearing them to work as well. I like shirts like that. And they were marked down from $40 to $24. One was marked down to $4.99.

After making a complete loop of the mall to see which customers were wearing tube tops, I decided I was hungry, so I went to the food court and bought a slice of stuffed pizza with sausage and ham. When I got done, I looked at my watch and it was only 2:00. “I don’t want to spend two more hours in this mall,” I thought. Then I remembered that I happened to be right down the street from the Flying Saucer – the new East Bumblefuck Flying Saucer that opened six months ago. So I got in the car and headed in that direction.

And I got lost. Strip mall after strip mall after strip mall… there were so many of them and they all looked alike. After turning around a couple of times, I finally found it. It’s a very nice bar (although I think the downtown one is better) and I actually knew people there. So I sat and watched the two overtimes in the World Cup game, but I had to leave before the penalty kicks decided it.

So I got back at 4:00 and the girls were sitting outside and showing each other their new clothes and talking in Romanian. I understood “da” (yes) and “no” (no) and I think I heard one of them say “chocolat” one time and I assume I know what that means. The rest was all gibberish. Nevertheless, I will attempt a translation:

“Who is this guy who drove us out here? He is hot.”

“Oh, that is Paul. Yes, he is hot.”

“Do you think he likes Romanians? He is very cute.”

That’s my best attempt at interpreting what they were saying. Anyway, they loaded their bags into the back of my car and I drove them home. Now I’m heading out to the Saucer – the real Saucer, the downtown one – and I’m walking. Good to be home.

Welcome to my blog. I know that many of you plan on coming downtown tonight. Part of downtown’s appeal is the diverse crowd that it attracts, particularly on Saturday nights. To help you get the most out of your experience, I thought I’d post a people-watching guide.

As you stroll around downtown, you may notice some young gentlemen dressed mainly in red, with baseball cap tilted to the left, left pant leg rolled up, left shoe untied. They may also wear a bandana on the left side. These young men are announcing their membership in either the Los Angeles-based Bloods gang, or in the Chicago-based People Nation/Vice Lords gang.

You may also notice some young gentlemen dressed in mostly blue, with baseball cap tilted to the right, right pant leg rolled up, right shoe untied. They may also wear a bandana on the right side. These young men are pleased to announce that they are members of either the Los Angeles-based Crips gang, or the Chicago-based Folk Nation/Gangster Disciples.

For more good downtown people-watching information, you can check out this page. Once armed with this information, I think you’ll be surprised how many people you can identify on the streets of downtown on a Saturday night.

Oh, and if you see a guy staring at girls in tube tops, that’s probably me.