Those of us lucky enough to be locals to Hamburger Square get to see some beautiful (and sometimes crazy) things every day. We enjoy each other’s fellowship, share in the pains and thrills of being in a growing downtown, and use each other as sounding boards to our frustrations. But for the most part, this corner is good and blessed by hardworking and creative folks who put their dreams out there every day for everyone to share.
It’s pretty impressive to look into Ellenburg and Shaffer and see the beautiful creations of the talented artists working there, and the gift of their beauty just sitting there in the windows for all to see. Christina at Just Be just couldn’t be any more dear and welcoming to everyone who comes in, and in addition to making her own lovely jewelry, she supports many local artists. Ches at O’Kennedy’s works tirelessly in different charities and is committed to making things better for everyone around him.
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. — Albert Schweitzer
Sometimes, just a walk around the corner and a smile from a neighbor is all you need.
I just finished hosting Wednesday night trivia at The Green Burro and it struck me how much fun it is to be there and experience a good time with good people. There are some trivia die-hards who rarely miss a week (and one of you is going to owe me a chair pretty soon :) but I won’t mention names). I hope you feel like you’re leaving a little bit smarter each week, I know I do. And I appreciate so much your devotion to some good, old-fashioned fun. It really is a highlight to my week.
Thank you. Seriously.
I was sitting outside today watching the bubbles from Just Be pouring out and spilling into the sky. It was such a beautiful day and a clear blue sky and it just made me happy to be here on this corner.
I went and got a necklace from there with a beautiful quote from Mother Theresa that reads:
We can do no great things, just small things with great love.
Life is good.
Okay, so, I belong to a few committees concerned with the progress of downtown. One of them I have been attending for 4 years is the Downtown Advisory Committee which is held by the city on the second Tuesday of every month. It is open to everyone.
We were both at the same meeting and somehow Mr. Hammer came away from that meeting with completely different information than I got.
“Really, this was just a bunch of city staff with a couple of token downtown business people. This is the group that decided the best thing to do was to just ticket all the delivery drivers who parked illegally and that is exactly what they would have been doing if City Councilmembers Tom Phillips and Mike Barber and Mayor Keith Holliday hadn’t put a stop to it.”
It was quite interesting to see a journalist interpret something in the way that he did. The head of parking enforcement turned around and looked Mr. Hammer in the eye and told him that he, and more specifically not the parking committee, was the one issuing the warning tickets as a matter of public safety. As a business owner, I’d be an idiot if I favored penalizing delivery drivers, and therefore stopping commerce downtown. It’s a real shame that Mr. Hammer decided not to ask me how I felt. Instead, he printed a gross misrepresentation of my true stance, as well as that of others.
After that experience, I am not sure I would believe anything he writes.
We took our sons to their first soccer game of the season. I noticed my younger son wasn’t going after the ball. In fact, he was running circles on the opposite side of the field than the action was. So I whispered loudly to him, “Hey, Gabe, go get the ball!” To which he replied,
“But Mommy, you told me not to take the ball away from my friends!”
If you have seen a donkey dressed in green overalls walking around downtown, he is “Big Ass”, the mascot for The Green Burro. We took him out for a stroll to Green Queen Bingo and he made a lot of friends. He doesn’t usually don the wig and apron. Just this once…
We just went live with a new computer system this week, so please don’t hate your bartender or server if they are a little frazzled. The switchover was not as smooth as we had hoped. We really are trying to serve you better in the long run.
As Benjamin Franklin once said,
“Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
So relax, and have another beer in the name of God. I think Benji was onto something…
I was sitting at the bar when two women approached the bar and ordered drinks, one in her 50s, the other her 20s. Ross, the bartender, asked the younger one for ID and the older one said, “What, you don’t need to see mine?”
Ross, clearly embarrassed, said, “No, ma’am.”
She started yelling at him, “Do you know how much I spent to look like this? I spent a lot of money to look this good! You need an attitude adjustment. I look good. What’s your problem? There’s no need to be rude. Ask me how much I spent to look like this.”
(originally uploaded by saralegs)
Wisely, Ross just walked away.
I was headed to The Green Bean for my latte when I heard a lot of commotion on Elm St. There was a guy sitting on the corner of Elm and McGee handcuffed and screaming obscenities at one of our bike cops. I was very impressed at how calm the policeman remained while this obviously inebriated man screamed the nastiest things you can imagine at him. I needed to walk past, and noticed another guy sitting nearby smoking a cigarette, laughing and really enjoying the whole thing. I made eye contact with him, his eyes glassy he said with a big grin, “That’s my brother.”
I said, “Can’t you talk to him, calm him down?”
To which he replied, “Nah, let him go to jail.”
This really doesn’t have much to do with the corner, or maybe it does. I sent my oldest two to school this week for kindergarten and first grade. They were counting down the days until the first day of school - they were so excited. So my younger one comes home — he’s had a great day: played lots of games, learned new songs, made some friends — and he asks me, “Mommy, can we go to the beach tomorrow?” And I say, “No, baby, you have to go to school.” His eyes get really big and he says, “Again?”
Boy is he in for a rude awakening…
