I was invited a couple of weeks ago to this sort of quasi-business dinner last night. A couple of our guys were up from Atlanta, dealing with the Bank of Montreal. One of our BAs here got reservations at a place called The Milestone. It's an upscale bar and restaurant in the mall where Lablaw's is at Yonge and Empress. Nice place. I got there ahead of the others. The Brick brews a set of beers just for them called Palamino; I had the honey red. It was really something! And I sat there for about half an hour, watching yuppie types come and go, looking at TV talking heads going on about the federal budget, drinking a house beer on Yonge Street. I got this really weird feeling, a moment of self-realization, and I was surprised to find myself who I was, where I was. I realized it was a pretty good place to be in. I mean, people tend to make the best of things wherever and whenever they are, but not all that many in history or even now can consider that sort of thing just casual.
The guys from Atlanta were pretty cool... you know, just guys. A white guy, Ron, and an Asian guy, Jay. You could tell Jay was not originally from the South, though he did say he'd lived there 20 years. He had a Northern accent (he sounded like the three Canadians there more than a Georgian...). The talk was about BBQ (the real thing, pulled pork and all that; got me thinking about that festival every summer on Front), the SWIFT wire protocol, how people working at Canadian banks hmmm and haw and don't want to commit to anything (expressed by one of the Canadians)... it was a nice place and good company.
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