Bloomsday now and then

Today is Bloomsday and my fave Irish associated holiday.

There's a lovely restaurant and bar in Cleveland Heights called Nighttown. It was named for the red light district from James Joyce's Ulysses and it (Nighttown) was and is a great place.

Once upon a time back in my law school liquored lost years of the late 70s/early 80s Bloomsday at Nighttown was not just a Joyce-ian homage but a customer appreciation event.

On the day, the place closed to the public for a bit and it was ticket only admission thing for regulars.

Somewhere in my stuff I've hung onto for no sensible reason, I've an admit one ticket for Bloomsday at Nighttown.

And even with all the rivers of Scotch and washes of wine I consumed in that place, I have wonderful memories of both the place and the date. Scotch, a good wine list, great house salad and oh those ribs, did more to make me a James Joyce fan than a required reading list.

While I've never really been up for a marathon Ulysses reading and kicking my see less of me more often effort back into gear made a pub crawl not a brilliant option, I decided that I'd been too long away from The Field. So walkabout sent me toward the Gaslamp and Guinness.

I rolled in ahead of the Bloomsday bus pub crawl crowd and in time for a pint on Saturday happy hour pricing. I was lucky enough to also arrive during our Lisa's shift and it was really all good. The trek and drink wasn't really on the see less of me more often effort that got a bit derailed (read re-losing pounds) in the last few months but it was worth it.

The down and back route was 7+ miles and even though I did have a bit of jostle and such from the perhaps too regulars and the Bloomsday bus brigade, my conversation with the oh so very charming, funny, interesting and entertaining visiting Ian was just a total delight.

Okay, so I suspect that others overhearing a conversation that touched on, among other things GPS, GIS, geography, programming and meta data might have done an eyes glaze over egg head episode had I not been burning daylight and other commitments I could have continued the conversation long after we parted company.

And just to throw some knitting into the mix, I was working on the decidedly orange (Bloomsday is a secular holiday praise be) 2x twine bag , out back and while at The Field.