Great Town

I am in Chattanooga, looking for a job. No, that’s not honest. I am looking for a place to live. And, since I will need a job in order to live, by necessity, I am looking for a job. There is a ideal job here with my name all over it with a non-profit public interest development center. I arrived here Thursday and liked it immediately. Chattanooga is a busy city with an active and alive downtown. A number of big companies have discovered the place and are investing here – Volkswagen, Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Tennessee Valley Authority is already here. Around these anchors, the City added a dandy Aquarium, free electric shuttles downtown, to the existing Hunter Museum, Rock City, and Ruby Falls. The place has a lot going for it. The River is impressive and the folks here have made good use of it. Housing prices are a bit high, especially the lofts and townhouses clustered around the many restaurants, bars, and attractions.

Tonight I went to Nightfall, a weekly free concert series held at a park in the downtown area. The music was excellent, the beer was cold, the evening was pleasant, and the crowd was huge. I hate to estimate the size of a crowd but I think there were 3,000 to 5,000 people there. It was one big cocktail party.

I am staying at a hotel across the street with the Aquarium out the front door and the minor league baseball stadium out the back. To the right is a micro-brewery (I recommend the Southern Flyer Lager). To the left is Ben & Jerry’s. Roanoke, and certainly not Welch, has none of these things. Worse, they don’t have any interest in such things.

I’ve submitted all the paperwork in application for this ideal job. The deadline is Monday. If this doesn’t work out, perhaps the Wal-Mart here is hiring greeters. I can actually say hello to people in a several languages. Those kind of qualifications are the result of years of education.