What i think i know

So here's a couple things I know. I have the attention span of a very small, very dull barnyard animal. Lazy too. I just can't seem to put pen to electric, flat screen pseudo-paper cause it seems like way too much work. Turning off said brain and rotting on Big Brother or old episodes of Heroes is so much easier. That one thing I know.
The restaurant/food industry as a whole boggles my mind sometimes, for good or ill. The diversity it presents to us all who either find our way or get sucked into it's grips is staggering. Just a few short years ago I found myself surrounded by brothers/sisters in arms all in the same boat. Where we were, what we were doing was good. It made sense. But the winds of change blew through hard, swept us off and on to lots of different places. Our roads were all quite different which is part of the good of the business. It has tons of avenues and corridors of all shapes and sizes and accommodates all those willing with a variety of results. I like the roads that have been placed before my willing feet. I am proud of where they have led. I have kept mental maps of those close to me in the business and the roads that were laid out before them and I am proud and honored to know them all and where they are today. That I know too.
The ills of this profession I know of also. I know that it can be an unforgiving machine. It takes the "I love what I do," taps that artery and attempts to bleed you dry. At times anyway. I think any profession can do that I guess. But the mere act of creation, the art of it, the sense of it around you, is addictive, very much tied to ones soul, and can be easily exploited. Long hours, picking up extra shifts, picking up the slack of those who just do it for a paycheck, coming in early cause you want to know whose hands set things up in the right fashion, staying late to make sure that things get cleaned, put up, and simply treated with the respect they should be treated with so you can come back the next morning and be at peace....all of that, every which one and thing creates clouds. It can mute the outside world. The faces and voices which hold us to the earth outside those spaces seem to blur. That's not fair or right or just. Of course it's not all the time occasions but "hey, it feels like I haven't seen you in a week," to the one you share a bed with happens and it's tough and true. That I know.
I have had the pleasure to have lots of dining out experiences as of late. Good, bad, ugly. I paid $18 for a med rare Kobe burger w/ Foie that came out well-ass hockey puck at a seemingly very respectable restaurant. I had decent food but horribly slow service at another local place. I mean 2o plus minutes for 1st course cold apps. But I love knowing my town and all it has. I also love the girl I get to share all these food experiences with. That I know most definitely.
It would be nice to start taking pictures of dishes, discuss what's current, and jot down 5 sentences every few days, oh, and stop writing about what I'm going to write about and then never do it. Those things I know and will work on...eventually. I gotta get back to work.....kidding. Till next time.