Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thankful Thursday--September 15

So for starters this week, I'm thankful for readers (mom) who don't complain when I forget a post.  I've consciously not posted this week (no changes to the house and no creativity in the last couple of weeks just made it too tough to come up with a post), but today, I just forgot.  In fact, I even forgot it was Thursday until mid-way through the day!

Second, I'm thankful this week for J's job.  It's been one of those weeks that he's worked several long days (he came home around midnight Tuesday and after ten last night, then left again this morning at five).  In the beginning of our relationship, I hated when he worked long hours.  Since the recession started, though, I've really learned to appreciate long days.  In the world of billable hours, short days (or even your average 9-5) is a bad thing, because you'll never hit the targets that way.   We've had a lot of average weeks the last couple of years, and that makes for a stressful J, so I've learned to look at long days in a whole new light.

Finally, I'm thankful for Sunday football at Harry's.  J and I kicked off our seventh football season together on Sunday at a local bar (We did watch the 2005 Super Bowl together, but since that is the only game of the season that we watched together, we don't actually count it).  In the fall of 2005, J mentioned wanting to go somewhere to watch football (J roots for the Colts, and they often aren't on TV here, so you have to out to a place that plays all the games to catch them). For some reason we went across town to a sportsbar that J knew had several screens.  When we arrived, we discovered that the place had closed and was re-opening as Harry's.  (Side story--there's a really good steakhouse in Lexington called Malones.   The folks who opened Malones have expanded their offerings and Harry's is a horse racing themed sportsbar that they own.  This Harry's is the second one in town and the first on the side of town where we went.).  The Harry's is actually in a building with a Malones and Aqua (their Sushi bar), but neither of those had opened yet.  In fact, we entered the bar through what is now the emergency exit because the main entrance was still under construction. We discovered a line of tables that parallelled the bar and found that we could sit looking at the bar (and the three screens of football games) in front of us and (if we got the right table) watch the two games on the wall behind us reflected in the bar mirrors. 

J fell in love (with Harry's.  Not sure he was there with me, yet).  We settled into a routine of heading to Harry's just before 1:00 on Sundays, ordering an order of nachos to split, then grazing our way through the rest of the early game (and sometimes the late game if the Colts didn't play until 4:00).  I usually didn't last that long.  In the first years I took homework with me.  Later, I took work-work.  The Sunday before our wedding, we took bluegrass seed and tulle to prep the toss favors for our reception.  We got to know waitresses and managers.  Then, a few years ago after the football season ended we discovered St. Raphael's.  By the time the next football season rolled around, we were regularly attending and the drive across town after services made it tough to arrive in time to get a good table.  We stuck it out for most of the season, but last year we were in search of something else.  Lucky for us, the folks who own the whole Malones/Harry's/Aqua company had opened a third site--conveniently located between church and home!  So, making a very long story not too much longer--I'm so thankful for Harry's and a new season of memories with J!

So what are you thankful for this week?

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