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Assorted Bob Transition Bob

My walk of shame

My walk of shame was pretty low key. It wasn’t even 8:30 a.m. yet, so there weren’t many folks in the office to see me collect my stuff, grab my coat and shuffle toward the elevators. In my 30 years of working in media, this is the first time I’d been laid off. But as I walked home (yes, I was working in an office that was a 10 minute walk from the Logan Circle row house we’re renting), I starting looking at the situation as an opportunity. My former employer had been fair with my termination package, so I have some time to sort through things and decide what’s next. I also made a vow:

I’m going to make the most of this transition. 

The afternoon was spent securing a new phone and switching my number to it. Conveniently, this could be done at the Verizon store across from Shelley’s Backroom, my favorite D.C. cigar bar/watering hole. While I waited for the Verizon folks to connect with my former company to do their magic, I smoked a Padron 3000 maduro and downed a pint of Guinness. I then collected my phone and went home to meet Lara for dinner at another of our D.C. favorites, Bistro la Bonne on U Street. Great French fare without the hype that is screaming up and down the 14th Street corridor (not that I don’t appreciate Le Diplomate when we manage to secure reservations).

With a belly full of moules frites, we walked over to the Gibson, a speakeasy that can be tough to find if you don’t already know about it. No signage. Dark hipster vibe. Insanely good cocktails. The ascot-clad bartender whipped up a mescal-based concoction that proved the perfect nightcap for the first day of my new life …

One reply on “My walk of shame”

Clement, as always. I think you’re on to a great life philosophy here…stickin’ it to the man by livin’ it up…your escapades the past few weeks look more invigorating than my escapades of the past year!! The best part about The Gibson is that there’s so much candlelight and candle wax to be had…it’s like a spa as well as a “speakeasy” (don’t get me started on how the new hipster replacement for the word “bar/any place with a liquor license” turns “speakeasy” into a synonym…). By the end of the evening it’s like I’ve had one of those awesome “as seen on TV” paraffin wax hand glove-makers that I remember wanting as a kid…I haven’t seen any of those lately…I wonder why that was ever even a hot market.

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