End of an Era

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but I've been doing other things and haven't really had much to say. My reason for posting now: Well, it's a sad day for yours truly. As some of you may or may not know, I left San Antonio in late 2005 to move back to Maryland. One of the things that I was looking forward to when I got back was going to my favorite watering hole, The Loft. Unfortunately I found out less than a week ago that it would be closing for good on the 5th of January. For those of you that may be wondering, The Loft is the typical blue-collar bar where I hung out at when I lived in Maryland from 1997-2001, especially since late 2000 when my marriage was breaking apart and I met some very cool people there that helped me get through that very rough part of my life. Now I'm sure that some of you are probably going to say: 'Oh, so he hid in the bottle instead of facing his problems'. Well, to those of you that may think that, you have no clue what I was going through and this place was much more than where I went to drown my sorrows.

It's also the place where I picked up my new hobby, shooting pool. I actually started playing seriously in March 2001, and the Loft is was the launching pad for that. I eventually played on a Monday Night travel league out of there during the Summer and Fall of that same year. When I moved to San Antonio, I played pool every now and again, but not to the degree that I played when I started playing in 2001. I eventually played on an in-house league in San Antonio not too long before I moved back to Maryland and I have been playing Monday Night league out of the Loft since. Not only am I losing the place where I met so many good folks, but I'm also losing the spot where our league team played their home games.

Perhaps this is a sign that it's time to make new friends and try different places. Change can be good, even with how difficult it seems. But one thing remains clear, I will miss The Loft and the good times that I had there. For that, I say thank you, and so long.