back into your head

When I lived in San Luis Obispo, my home "office," as it were was the Black Sheep Bar and Grill on Chorro. It wasn't always the case but during my employment drought a friend of mine started working the day shift there and a couple of times a week just to get out of the house, I'd take my laptop or a book up there and go hang out with John while he worked. John and I would shoot the bull about music and I'd get to talk to someone other than my cat for an hour or so.

John moved on to another job about the same time I started working at Wild and Nicole came back from her hiatus. I love Nicole. Since the Sheep is a lunch spot too, I'd stop in and see her a couple of times a week and have the vegetarian chili and talk music and fashion and Hello Kitty and of course boys, I mean what is good girl time without gossip about boys. Also the Black Sheep became our after work happy hour spot. No idea why, there are a million bars in SLO county, but Teresa and I would go to the Sheep after work for a Safety Meeting, which was basically us whining about our jobs and boys. Hey what's girl time without some whining about boys? You know this is 50% of what we do, when you're not around guys...

While I was making the transition from SLO to Chico I used to go the Black Sheep and make phone calls on their back patio. AT&T picked that week to just destroy service in my home area, so my phone was useless at the house. I had to go to SLO for one thing or another every day anyway, so I just blocked out time to sit in the back where it was quiet and do my thing. And gossip with Nicole about my plans and sometimes, yeah I'd get weepy and scared and Nicole was always ready to tell me I was doing the right thing, that I was going to be great and that I was going to be happy, just like a good friend does. And a couple of weeks ago she sent me a card that made me laugh so hard...

It's funny to think you can miss a bar. And really it's not the bar I miss, it's the familiarity, the friendships I made with a few people who worked there and the ability to walk in, ask for "something red," to drink (I tried that here, man that didn't go as well as I would have liked) and pick up mid conversation where you left off.

It's a Monday morning, which was normally a Black Sheep lunch day for me. Vegetarian chili, Tegan and Sara, Betsy Johnson bags, gossip gossip gossip and a hug to get my week started. I miss it.