This evening after work, I’ll be attending my first bartending class at a local college. Woohoo, four and a half hours of playing with colored water and bottle-spinning! Unless the first day is full of lectures about the historical origin of alcohol, the period of prohibition in the old South, and the molecular chemical breakdown of ethyl. That would not be fun. I remember in high school, for a full period of German class, our teacher Mr. Englyng (Dwaine and I now have a phone # and address, but we have yet to call him) talked about the beer making process and hops and fermentation, complete with diagrams drawn on the whiteboard. Sure, beer is a part of German culture and the discussion was held in the German language, but I learned very little. Mr. Englyng even remarked toward the end of that period that I was quiet that day. Yeah, no kidding! What do I have to contribute in a beer discussion?!

I told my judge yesterday that I would be leaving early to take a bartending class every Tuesday this month. He was surprised, but said, “I think you’ll be great at it!” He said there’s something about an occupation that entails physical exertion that makes you feel like you’ve put in a good day’s work, things like being on your feet all day during bartending and like his old college job of working for a moving company, loading heavy furniture into a moving van. “I think you’d be making money hand-over-fist,” he continued, then paused. “I’m afraid you’d be making so much money, however, that you may leave me.” I reassured him that he has nothing to worry about as I can’t even tell my parents about the bartending class and possible future gig. I can see it now:

Mom: WHAT?! You had a REAL job and now you’re serving DRINKS to people? You did not go to college to serve alcohol!
Me: Well technically, I did…

Eh well, it’s just 5 weeks, not much of a life investment to open a new door. And we do come out of the class certified.

I did a test drive from work to the college yesterday, and the drive SUCKED. There’s construction on the main street that the campus is on, reducing the 3-laned road to a single lane in both directions. I also didn’t buy campus parking, so I’m a little afraid that my car’s gonna get jacked parked on a street somewhere. We’ll see how it goes.