Two Very Different Places in Birmingham.

I lunch at the food court in the Pizitz Building. It was delicious. It was a good thing that I brought my appetite. The booth we had lunch from has a New Orleans theme. It tasted just like home.

I lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Surprisingly, the places that are open are quiet. If this were New Orleans, where 1:00PM is the new noon, Mondays are among the busiest days of the week for restaurants that stay open. The rhythm of a Birmingham week is very different from New Orleans.

There is some kind of amateur baseball thing going on. I was talking to a family from Tulsa and they asked if I am from here. That did not take long. I told them no. I don’t know anything except how to behave in a restaurant and become a regular in very short order. “Everyone seems to know you,” the wife and mother said.

Well, I have been in Birmingham three days.

Just as last year when I was in the real world, being from New Orleans acts as a passport. Happiness loves company. I am making all sorts of new acquaintances. Let me just list a few I have made over the past three days:

Thus far, they are Michael, and Paula, and Alexis, and Blake, and Bree, and Sophia, and Julia, and Aleia, and, now Justin and Sophia. How do I remember all these names? When they tell me, I write it down so I don’t forget.

I do not write things down to remember them later. I write things down to remember them now.

They only have to remember one name. “Hello, Mr. King.” I have a lot of names to remember after only three days. The list is only going to grow. Happiness loves company.

I am going to tell you what I discovered today in two different neighborhoods. First, though, I have to put up the paywall.