A most excellent weekend so far. I took off early Friday and shot down to Atlanta. FancyD met me at my hotel, and we rolled into Downtown. She busted my SG cherry, in a big way. It was treat for such a nautical enthusiast to see the largest aquarium in the world. We were literally standing in a glass tunnel where nineteen foot whale sharks cruised lazily over our heads, and hundreds of colorful schools of reef and pelagic fish shimmered by in flashes. Squadrons of stingays, coming over us was magical, and seeing a beluga whale come up and peer at D, with a hard on no less, was especially strange and surreal. Well, the girl is hot, what can I say? 
And thanks for putting up with all those tangents I got onto back there....
Onward. I never thought it was possible for a guy to feel like Cinderella before. She took me to a bistro where her best friend is the chef. It was very classy, and I felt out of place, but everyone made me feel welcome. I was totally in D's shadow when she parted the billowing red curtains on this balmy night and strolled into the flagstone courtyard. She waved and said hi to lots of people as we made our way to the bar. All eyes seemed to be on us. Sorry if I can't remember everyone's name, as I was overwhelmed with more new faces than I typically see in a month. I don't interact with the general public in my job, and am used to the same few people all the time. So the bartender is heartily shaking hands as I try to pay for our drinks, but it's on him, he says. I feel I need to let him know I'm not some long lost friend that she's never bothered to introduce, but that we've only just met. Seems the opposite effect. Everyone seems to warm up to me even more....
So there comes a point when the conversations are deep yet pleasant, while we're eating about the tenth dish that's been brought out, from the same plate, that she's a pretty damned good friend. It was, I swear, the best food I have ever eaten. I felt like I was hanging out with a movie star. She needed to make her rounds, catching up with friends for a few minutes back in the kitchen, so I hung out at the bar. I felt so welcome there you have no idea. I caught the waiter's ubiquitous eye as he strolled past. "So what's up with the bill?" "What bill?" I didn't want D. paying for any of that since she'd just bought the tickets to the aquarium... "It's been taken care of." "By who? she didn't pay for that, did she?" "It's on the house. Don't worry brother." "Well, thank you then." "Come back and see us again, Dean...."
It's not often a teary- eyed chef who is totally passionate about her work, the same way I am about mine, shows you baby pictures and gives you a hug before you leave. D. had leaned over and said it was such a surreal experience to be on the other side of the table. We were pampered all evening long. To someone who works wood all day, and rarely goes out, and then never to such a fine restaurant, well, SURREAL, you have no idea.... I was fucking stoned on a Disney ride....
So new priority on things to do list is show FancyD a good time in Charlotte. Uh, no pressure.... Long as you don't mind going out on the lake....
So then the carriage turned back into the pumpkin. But, Oh, I was in my element....
This morning I hopped up zippetty do da excited to be at the IWF. I strolled around and took it all in. All the woodworking world's best are here. This is where it's at. The cutting edge. It was becoming PAINFULLY obvious that, apparently all the thousands of us at this convention ALSO had goatees on their faces. It was like a goatee convention for woodworkers. Everyone cocky as fuck and thinks he's better than you. Like that fucking five o'clock rush hour traffic down there. Like merging onto a freeway at seventy and asshole looks sideways over at you when you want to get in. Same attitude. Like
fuck you....
I sidle up to the DeHart reps. Looks down at my tag. "Oh, Dean, nice to see you." "Uh, have we met?" "NOT actually, but I heard a lot of things about you...." "Well, then I apologize in advance..." "No. No-no. Hey- I thought you were with Masterwood?" "Nah, I'm back out in the trenches. I negotiated a sweet situation though...." Sorry. The glee I get whenever I drop that line for the first time....
Later upto a California kid, eyeing a serpentine muntin bar in the lights, "You know, with this programming, you can like make THIS... and reclaime the bead, like THIS.... and when you put it back together, BOOYAH. it looks like one piece of wood because. BASICALLY. It was...." Big, huge fucking grin. A fuck you grin. But bigger than the others.... "So, where'd you get that code? "It's AWESOME code, you see here, it compensates even for grain orientation, optimizing feed rates and rpm for angle of attack into the grain."
"That's cut with DeHart tooling right?" "Uh, how did you...." My last apprentice. Couldn't surpass the master. "...know... Uh, yeah, same person gave us both..." "You know," I said "This, I was doing three years ago, when I was CRAWLING in the cnc world. I've since learned to walk, run, and even FLY. You can tell John H. that little tidbit...."
So anyway enough boring ME. Even though I WAS on cloud nine. That's enough serotonin there to go for a year, and I got it all in a 24hr period.
Good luck so far. I should totally ride this out then. Good, I settled it with Holly, my dog, and she agrees, barking excitedly when I looked over at her quizzical brow and asked,"You wanna go fishin'?"
"Woof. woof. woof...." NOW how the hell can you say no to that cute happy face and that tail wagging? I better get to bed then...
And thanks for putting up with all those tangents I got onto back there....
Onward. I never thought it was possible for a guy to feel like Cinderella before. She took me to a bistro where her best friend is the chef. It was very classy, and I felt out of place, but everyone made me feel welcome. I was totally in D's shadow when she parted the billowing red curtains on this balmy night and strolled into the flagstone courtyard. She waved and said hi to lots of people as we made our way to the bar. All eyes seemed to be on us. Sorry if I can't remember everyone's name, as I was overwhelmed with more new faces than I typically see in a month. I don't interact with the general public in my job, and am used to the same few people all the time. So the bartender is heartily shaking hands as I try to pay for our drinks, but it's on him, he says. I feel I need to let him know I'm not some long lost friend that she's never bothered to introduce, but that we've only just met. Seems the opposite effect. Everyone seems to warm up to me even more....
So there comes a point when the conversations are deep yet pleasant, while we're eating about the tenth dish that's been brought out, from the same plate, that she's a pretty damned good friend. It was, I swear, the best food I have ever eaten. I felt like I was hanging out with a movie star. She needed to make her rounds, catching up with friends for a few minutes back in the kitchen, so I hung out at the bar. I felt so welcome there you have no idea. I caught the waiter's ubiquitous eye as he strolled past. "So what's up with the bill?" "What bill?" I didn't want D. paying for any of that since she'd just bought the tickets to the aquarium... "It's been taken care of." "By who? she didn't pay for that, did she?" "It's on the house. Don't worry brother." "Well, thank you then." "Come back and see us again, Dean...."
It's not often a teary- eyed chef who is totally passionate about her work, the same way I am about mine, shows you baby pictures and gives you a hug before you leave. D. had leaned over and said it was such a surreal experience to be on the other side of the table. We were pampered all evening long. To someone who works wood all day, and rarely goes out, and then never to such a fine restaurant, well, SURREAL, you have no idea.... I was fucking stoned on a Disney ride....
So new priority on things to do list is show FancyD a good time in Charlotte. Uh, no pressure.... Long as you don't mind going out on the lake....
So then the carriage turned back into the pumpkin. But, Oh, I was in my element....
This morning I hopped up zippetty do da excited to be at the IWF. I strolled around and took it all in. All the woodworking world's best are here. This is where it's at. The cutting edge. It was becoming PAINFULLY obvious that, apparently all the thousands of us at this convention ALSO had goatees on their faces. It was like a goatee convention for woodworkers. Everyone cocky as fuck and thinks he's better than you. Like that fucking five o'clock rush hour traffic down there. Like merging onto a freeway at seventy and asshole looks sideways over at you when you want to get in. Same attitude. Like
fuck you....
I sidle up to the DeHart reps. Looks down at my tag. "Oh, Dean, nice to see you." "Uh, have we met?" "NOT actually, but I heard a lot of things about you...." "Well, then I apologize in advance..." "No. No-no. Hey- I thought you were with Masterwood?" "Nah, I'm back out in the trenches. I negotiated a sweet situation though...." Sorry. The glee I get whenever I drop that line for the first time....
Later upto a California kid, eyeing a serpentine muntin bar in the lights, "You know, with this programming, you can like make THIS... and reclaime the bead, like THIS.... and when you put it back together, BOOYAH. it looks like one piece of wood because. BASICALLY. It was...." Big, huge fucking grin. A fuck you grin. But bigger than the others.... "So, where'd you get that code? "It's AWESOME code, you see here, it compensates even for grain orientation, optimizing feed rates and rpm for angle of attack into the grain."
"That's cut with DeHart tooling right?" "Uh, how did you...." My last apprentice. Couldn't surpass the master. "...know... Uh, yeah, same person gave us both..." "You know," I said "This, I was doing three years ago, when I was CRAWLING in the cnc world. I've since learned to walk, run, and even FLY. You can tell John H. that little tidbit...."
So anyway enough boring ME. Even though I WAS on cloud nine. That's enough serotonin there to go for a year, and I got it all in a 24hr period.
Good luck so far. I should totally ride this out then. Good, I settled it with Holly, my dog, and she agrees, barking excitedly when I looked over at her quizzical brow and asked,"You wanna go fishin'?"
"Woof. woof. woof...." NOW how the hell can you say no to that cute happy face and that tail wagging? I better get to bed then...
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
Do you see the watch in the bottom corner, look real closely and see what I saw?