So I have developed quite a little routine in my life. It consists of going out and eating and drinking then participating in athletic activities in order to counterbalance the effects of said eating and drinking. Yeah, it's a tough life I lead. Or appear to lead. Case in point (boom), Thursdays.
Now one thing you should know about DC is that everyone plays soccer. It probably has to do with the fact that DC is such an internationally cognizant city that we all try to solidify our place in the bigger picture that is the world by playing soccer. Or it's that no one really knows anyone when they get here because it's so transient that one way to meet people is through a social activity and since everyone in DC is all fit and such (Only like Boulder, CO is more active. Look it up.) they combine being active and social into one thing and soccer (and softball and kick ball) are easy to put together. Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that on Thursdays I play soccer and then we go out and drink.
Now I can't do this every night, so I have been sacrificing Fridays, including that last one. Sorry Friday. Please don't hold it against me. It's work's fault, really. I have all this momentum going during the week that when it is all said and done (and it is definitely done for me when I leave. sorry for you if it's not.) all I really want to do is sleep. Or get law school applications done, which, coincidentally, is what happened last Friday. Not sure what I am going to do when those are done. Probably go out on Fridays, too. Or get a second job to pay for my socializing. Having friends is expensive.
Do you remember when I went to the beirgarten in DC called the Biergarten Haus on Memorial Day Weekend 2011? If not, there are links to all the different posts I have had over the course of this bloggy on the right. I am not going to do that, though, because I went back Saturday and I don't want to be held responsible for knowing what I wrote the last time in case I repeat what I said then.
Well, me and a couple friends had the idea to get to the Biergarten Haus somewhat early on Saturday to beat the crowd, which, in hindsight, is my excuse for not being a cool person Friday and staying in. So at like 1230 we head on over. Then we drink liters (LITERS) of october fest beer while chewing the fat and watching college football. Please keep that chewing the fat phrase in mind. It will make another appearance shortly. But, if you don't, that is OK, I will remind you.
Then, after the liters of beer drinking, the eating of a delectable burger, the spending of way too much money on the things I just mentioned, and the passing of several hours, I go home because Tennessee is on TV and sitting around drinking all day is way more exhausting that one would think. And I had to get up early on Sunday to counter all the drinking with a soccer game at 10am and had I stayed out that would not be possible for me.
Early moral of the story: Sundays are for sleeping in. Fact. Not adhering to this is just unwise. Things are just too quiet about the city at that hour for this not to be true.
But you know what? The earlier you wake up, the earlier you are able to get out and do things when the time is right.
So I decided to utilize my early readiness to go out and be a productive person, even more than I already had been by participating in a recreational soccer game that ended in a tie. So, what do I do? I decide that I should probably finish up this law school stuff and go somewhere in the city I have never been before. The blogworthy location of the week is Big Bear Cafe in a neighborhood that I thought was Bloomingdale but apparently is actually one called Eckington, which I have never heard of before.
So, even though I am not a hipster, or least I, who tries to be as unstereotypical as possible, do not consider myself to be one, I am considered the hipster of my house of seven people. But those standards are low. In any case, a friend of a roommate that used to come by used to be like, "hey have you ever heard of Big Bear Cafe? you should come down, i think you would really like it." I did not know why this was being said to me because it is a coffee shop and if I am going to go to a coffee shop I am going to go to one much closer to my house. Then I found out it is like hipster central in DC and assumed this girl also saw me as a hipster and thought I would enjoy being around other hipsters. Wrong and wrong. But I was intrigued. So I am probably a little bit of a hipster but moreso I am more of a person intrigued by places I have not been.
So I get down there and while at first I was just nervous about not fitting in at this coffee shop like I am at every other one I go into because I am not familiar their local customs or the number of regulars, I was also nervous about not being hipster enough. But that did not deter me nor cause me to doll myself up in my best hipster gear available (read: party pants).
And then I found a regular.
Do you remember when I asked that you remember the "chew the fat" phrase? Well, after some chewing of the small fat with this regular, we got to the bigger pieces until eventually I asked him if he knew of the etymology (insight into Jeff's likes and interests interlude: I love etymology, or the study of the origin of words) of the phrase "chewing the fat."
And this is what he said because it didn't take too much time for me to figure out that he was one of those quite wise middle aged guys that even I enjoy speaking to:
"Well I think it was the Depression when it first came about. Obviously, there was a lot of unemployment, like twice as much as there is now, if you can believe that [I can't]. And these hobos, who previously were hardworking men because back then there wasn't really any other type of work, would make their way around town and the country by foot and hitchhiking and train hopping. For many people during this era, especially the poor, good food was hard to come by, so every part of the animal possible was eaten. Most everyone would eat any part, except the tendons and other difficult to digest parts like that. These parts became known as the fat, even though they are not quite. Anyway, these vagabonds would congregate out behind restaurants and places where they knew people would be discarding scraps of food. They actually developed a reputation for this activity, so much so that once the scraps were handed out, which very often included a lot of the tendons and animal parts like that they would sit around talking while trying to chew them, the fat. Next thing you know, all sitting around and conversing is known as "chewing the fat." "
Learning. That is how you know your day is well spent. I really should talk to people more often.
But yeah, I didn't get any of that law school stuff. Another side effect of being a social human being: not being as productive.
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