Always A Gyspsy

It wasn't long until I had found that Italian course that I've been looking for so that I can officially graduate. (Bah, the annoyance of it all.) So I've made the move, I've executed the migration, I've jumped the jump, once again, to another city, to another place, to a whole fresh chapter in my life. I've moved into Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama, the closest thing we've got to a metropolis. I live within walking distance of the heart of downtown. I attend Italian 102 at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Which is downtown also. I reside in a house that my friend Adam Newby moved into back in April. We were actually living together in Murphreesboro, Tennessee, during the winter, when changes sort of materialized out of no where; he falls in love with this girl living in Birmingham, Kara Lipsmeyer, and all of a sudden, he's got a new job, his found a new house, and he's got wedding arrangements hanging overhead. And changes affected me as well; I fall out of love after a huge falling out and run off to Mexico. Same early spring winds of change; completely different outcomes.

But now, Adam and I reunite once again...and I won't move out of the house until October 28th, his big day. With only one course to take, and school loans hounding me like a plague. I look for yet another job to pay bills, and hopefully catapult me into something interesting. I know that after the Wafflehouse, it's like singing karaoke after Pavarotti. But within less than a week, I find a very interesting job, and something far easier than the Wafflehouse. I work at the Vulcan Park Everyone from Alabama knows precisely what I'm talking about. But no one outside Alabama has a clue.

The Vulcan is this gigantic iron statue (the largest cast iron statue in the world) that stands on a tower overlooking the entire city of Birmingham. He's the Roman god of the forge for Birmingham's historical identity is wrapped up inside the iron and steel industry. He's also, to date, the largest statue ever made in the U.S...and the humorous part is that he stands in nothing but a blacksmith's apron. His bare buttcheeks can be seen towering above neighborhood after neighborhood...and I get to work there, in the gift shop, in the front desk of the museum, and in gathering tickets for people going up the Vulcan tower. Don't hate me because I'm so Vulcan lucky.