Using Addiction To Get Closer To Someone

We should discuss this more.

Hey. Maybe this is a story about me and my mom, or you and your dad, or some other dynamic. Give it a shot.

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I will try to commence with a story.

When I first came to Fort Worth, to interview for a job that I now haven’t had for a decade, I did the interview, then went to the hotel room and wrote three (3!) blog posts. I did three because the interviews had ended at 2pm — PS that office is now a WeWork, lol — and I didn’t want to start drinking at 2pm. I know myself. Instead, I went out to drink at 4pm. The first place, almost diagonally across from the hotel, was a bar called Flying Saucer. I have since been there potentially 900 times. I was actually there last night as I write this, although I do go a lot less frequently now. Anyway, there’s your backstory.

At the time I first strolled in there, I liked the people I had just interviewed with and all that, but I was still on the fence about Texas conceptually. I had lived in Houston when I was younger, but I also had another offer in Boston. The Boston offer didn’t seem to be enough money to live in Boston, but I was newly married (that didn’t last either) and most of our mutual friends were in the Northeast, so I kinda leaned Boston for that reason too. Point is, definitely on the fence.

That first time at Saucer helped me a little bit. Yes, alcohol is a social lubricant, and I often use it as such. But all the people at the bar were nice. The bartender was nice. I haven’t seen him in two years, but for a while, he was a “friend” of mine in that we interacted when we saw each other out, but never planned anything together. (That is actually a middle-tier of male friendship, I think.)

When I left, I was feeling a little bit better about this community. We ended up moving. A lot of shit has happened since. This post isn’t about all that.

Instead, about five years later, maybe four, there was another moment at the bar.