Minnesota Nice

This evening was a mixed bag. The promise of the evening was to have dinner with a couple friends at restaurant before it went out of business: Auriga in Uptown on Hennepin Ave. While the meal promised to be expensive, it also held potential to be memorable if not for anything than to spend some time with funny folks.

Around 6:30 pm, my friend picked me up and we were on our way. A little later we find out out from our friend that there is a 1 1/2 hour wait. We decided to give it a go and headed over the 2021 at the Walker Art Museum to wait it out. The fried egg rolls helped to quell my pangs of hunger until we made it back to Auriga around 8:15 pm. Along the way, there were some aggressive "homeless" guys asking for money. They were upset that we were not offering and followed us a couple of blocks. The 6 ft + German friend took up the rear. As it turns out, he's got some training in Kung Fu, no kidding.

Okay, we're next on the list the hostess tells us. Twenty minutes go by and a table for 4 shows up that other people get before us. There is some bitching and my carpool friend makes a bad dig at me being the third wheel and how I should take off. In the meantime, I see that there's some chemistry going on between the two so-called friends. At 8:40, I give up and tell them I would take a cab home. Waiting 2 hours to *not* be seated is unacceptable, going out of business or not.

So, things are sucking a this moment. I decide to take a walk to clear my head. I've been wanting to try out the public transportation in the city, but never got the chance. While I was passing a bus stop, a bus stopped. Funny how that happens. I hop on and ask how to get to my apartment. The driver tells me to hang on and take a ride to the station (and pay on the next bus). While double checking where I should catch the 21, the driver tells me that to stop and grab a transfer. I say "I have not paid yet" and he says "don't worry about it". As he drives off, he yells the stop I should get off of. That is the friendliness that Minnesota promised me before I became a Minneapolis transplant.

This reaffirms my decision to pick up my entire life and start anew in Minneapolis 3 months ago. It's been a great run so far. My apartment is a good value, really well located, and is close to my client site. My investment in starting an IT business paid off with landing a great client. My efforts to make friends and do some dating are starting to return some potential quality relationships. Though, I don't think I'll be going to going-out-of-business restaurants with the same two 'friends' again. ;-P