not to sound like a broken record or anything, but if my work computer crashes while i'm in the middle of a journal entry one more time ... well, i'll probably (stupidly) continue to not type my entries in microsoft word, where i can save them to memory with a swift key manuever, and then transfer them to the journal when i'm done.

i don't remember what i was going off about this afternoon, but i know i had three chunky paragraphs. i'm too tired to try to recall. it probably had something to do with glen burnie. no, the glen burnie shitstorm is not quite over. the owner of the bartending academy called me this morning at work. he was a little pissy, i think. he kind of thought i had decided to not do the story and flaked out on him. it boiled down to a pseudo-miscommunication, a message i left him that he never got and a ton of work getting dumped in my lap when my boss went on vacation. so we kinda made up and rescheduled the interview for the evening. i didn't really care. as painful as it is that glen burnie is not off the radar just yet, my editor really wants a bartending sidebar, and i'll make $75 from it, so what's to lose? one of the bigger motivators, however, was that i have an interest in bartending, and i wanted to kind of see what the rates and class set-up were like.

well, this guy floored me during at the end of the interview.

i told him i was interested in taking the course so i could get my certificate; whether i'd end up bartending as a hobby or maybe renting my services for private parties or maybe taking it on as a real job, i want to bartend because it seems fun and interesting and a great way to make money. it was then that he said to me, "if you want to take the classes, give me a call and we'll hook you up."

holy cow, did something just click into place? i guess it depends on how you define "hook you up."

i, of course, will be defining it as "allow you to take the classes totally, completely, 100% free." so as soon as i can get a few more things, i think i'm going to get hooked up. the only thing that scares me is the course final: mix 20 perfect drinks in 10 minutes. terrifying. totally, completely, 100% terrifying. and, i'm guessing, totally, completely, 100% worth it.