Here is an entry from my personal journal today…

22 JANUARY 2008

 So yesterday I strolled into my favourite little Irish pub these days, in downtown Franklin. I needed to grab a decent meal before working all night.  This place is small but usually quiet.   I sat down near the bar and placed my order.  I then pulled out my copy of “The Sun Also Rises” by Hemingway and started to read.  Five words in I realized that I wouldn’t be able to hear myself read from this location. I was sitting next to an extremely loud talker.  (Those of you who know me know that I can get a little bit ‘Seinfeld’ on certain issues. This is one of them.) Seriously…when you’re at a table with one other person and the entire place is quiet, do you need to talk so loud that the cooks in the back are in on your conversation?  Some people never learned the ‘6 inch voices’ rule in school.  So trying not to look too put off I gathered my book, satchel and glass of water and moved towards the front of the pub; closer to the windows that reminded me how cold out it was.  I began diving into the pages of my book when a couple came in and sat at the table right next to me.  From a swift observation it appeared like a first date of sorts.  The dude was dressed in the common apparel of Nashville/Franklin.  A look that says, “I try very hard to come across as a famous rockstar.”  But those types never quite get it right… They buy really expensive brand named clothes but don’t know which pieces to wear together… or how to wear it.  For example Diesel jeans with an Affliction t-shirt tucked in and hair so perfectly frosted at the tips and gelled that it looked like a wax mold… Please.  Anyway, that was the type.  I became distracted from my book yet again while he began to talk loudly about how cool he was, what bands he considered playing for and what all countries he had been to and was planning on going to.  Then he did it… he began to bash on U2 like i’ve never heard.  Saying how horrible of a songwriter Bono was… how his work in Africa was a joke… how awful they are live… what started his verbal vomit was him telling the girl that someone he knew gave him two tickets to see U2 live in Dublin and he laughed at them and said, “no thanks.”  I wanted to get up and punch him in the jaw, but my food tasted too good.  In an Irish pub, drinking a Guinness and bashing on U2… something is wrong with that guy. And of course his date was laughing and agreeing.  So knowing that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my book I finished eating, paid the man and headed down the street to *bucks; thinking that just maybe I would be able to enjoy a mocha and read my book there for a bit before working all night.  To my dismay it was packed full. Maybe they should expand, or add on a quiet room for me to read in. Hah, if I ruled the world.