the year of steve

Now that I've graduated, I decided yesterday that it was time for me to make a conscious effort to have fun and not do anything work- or school-related. So, I declared yesterday "Steve Day" and told the little lady we'd be going out to do various things that I felt like doing.

Our first stop was a jewelry store. As I've mentioned before, I love watches, so I thought it would be fun to see some new ones and try on a few. This particular store is a few miles from my office, and despite the area of town its in (it's not that great), happens to carry the most expensive watches you can buy in Minnesota (and some of the most expensive in the world, for that matter). The saleswoman indulged us as we made our way around the room, trying on some truly incredible watches from well-known makers like Rolex, Panerai and IWC. The highlight of the visit for me, however, was trying on watches by A. Lange & Sohne and Patek Philippe. If you're not into watches, then you've probably never heard of either brand. People in the know, however, generally consider Lange and Patek two of the top three brands in the world (with Vacheron Constantin or Audemars Piguet being the other). They're so expensive and so rare that I'd never even seen one in person until yesterday. I took advantage of the situation and the saleswoman's patience and tried on a Lange 1 and a Patek Nautilus. I didn't even bother to check the price tag on the Lange, but I did check the Patek: $32,300--by far the most expensive watch I've ever tried on. I'll probably never own a Lange or a Patek, but it was fun to touch and admire them. I needed a break from reality, and this jewelry store was it.

A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1:


Patek Philippe Nautilus:


We needed to balance out our day with something a little closer to reality, so our next stop was the bowling alley near my office. I've never been very good at it and I don't do it very often, but I do enjoy bowling. We played three games, and it wasn't until the third game that I really got into a groove. I bowled 63 (and lost to Becca), then 73 (winning by a point), then 163 (destroying Becca). In the third game, I resorted to the tactics I had used when I went bowling as a teenager. In short, I stood in front of the lane and tossed the ball so that it would land several feet away from me and then roll slowly toward the pins. While this probably dented the wood, it also allowed me to be more accurate. And, to be honest, I got a big charge out of the sound of the ball crashing onto the wood. Good times.

Our next stop was the Mall of America. I was hardly in the mood for crowds, but it was cold yesterday and I wanted to walk around a bit. The mall wasn't as packed as I expected it to be, but it was still pretty crazy. Our first stop was the new Best Buy store--the only Best Buy inside a shopping mall anywhere in the world. It was different--not necessarily in a good way--and in retrospect, I should have stayed away in order to keep with the "nothing work- or school-related" theme of the day. Our next stop was the Wisconsin cheese store. They always give out free samples, and they have some great cheese. My favorite yesterday was the smoked Swiss cheese--really good flavor. On a whim, I decided that our next stop would be Famous Dave's. There are few better ways I can think of to celebrate an accomplishment than to gorge one's self on barbecued pig. We shared some chicken wild rice soup and catfish strips, and then Becca had chopped pork and chicken wings for her main course, while I had baby back ribs and chopped pork for mine. We enjoyed the food, and left the restaurant barely able to walk.



We walked around the mall for a bit, and then spent some time in Nordstrom, looking at coats and boots for Becca, and shoes for me. There wasn't anything too exciting going on in any of those departments. We visited a couple more jewelry stores after that, and tried on a few watches in one of them.

Our final stop of the evening was the grocery store. It was kind of a strange visit. The lady at the deli counter was totally grouchy because I asked her to slice some ham for me, rather than just give me the ham that had been sitting out all day. The people at this store are typically fairly friendly, so I was a bit surprised. I then threw off our usual rhythm by going down some aisles in a different order than usual. This isn't really a big deal, but when you're used to a particular routine, any deviation from that routine can be, well, strange. Finally, when we were by the checkout counter, one of the workers told people to move down to the counter I was standing by so that he could check them out. Since I was already standing there, and since the kid who was moving to get in line first looked like he was having trouble deciding whether or not to proceed or to let me go first, I just went first myself. In retrospect, that was probably the rudest thing I've done in a long time. Oops.

We finished off the day by watching this week's episode of "The Office", which was quite funny. I fell asleep on the couch right after that. There are few things in life I enjoy as much as falling asleep on the couch, so it seemed like a fitting end to a good day.

A few hours of self-indulgence were exactly what I needed yesterday. As the day wore on, I decided "Steve Day" was going to have to become "Steve Week". By the end of the day, "Steve Week" had become "The Year of Steve". I think we'll be celebrating December 12, my own Independence Day, for many weeks to come.