Looks like I made it out of Japan on time. A week after I left, the strongest earthquake to hit the country in, ohhh sayyy, 400 years, took place; follow that up with a tsunami that basically leveled every coastal town in the northeast of the country, and Japan is in a bad spot. On the fortunate side, everyone that I work with there, along with their immediate families and coworkers ended up to be okay.

When people think of March, you probably think of St. Patrick’s Day… and you’d be right. And when you think of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m guessing you think of food, Vegas, and Switzerland… right? Right?! Yep.

Moving to a new city is a great time, but there is definitely a challenge to it… and that is “friends.” When you don’t have a designated location to go meet with all of your peers on a daily basis where to form long last connections and relationships (i.e. school), it makes it a bit more difficult to ‘expand your social network.’ And, when you move to a city that nobody you grew up with has moved to (or even considering moving to), it’s square one on the friend front. “Oh, what about the people you work with?” Don’t get me wrong, yes, I’m all for that, but this guy wants to have a drink… let lose a little… shoot some bottle rockets out of moving car windows… umm, wait a second… and those work connections are certainly part the network, but it often can become like the old days of Erie, PA. GE this, GE that, let’s talk more about work. No thanks, that’s what I do at work. So… the next best connection that just about everyone has… we all love food. Enter: Foodie Memphis... the Blog / Facebook group that brings those of us in Memphis that like to eat. Hello tasty food, hello instant network expansion. The first dinner was a South of Beale… aka “SOB”, and yeah, already got the friend front going. Gotta get out there, and we’re all over it.

Now, when most people I know think of St. Patrick’s Day, they think of the fact that they’re going to have to wear some layers for the inevitable bar crawl that it becomes. Why? Because most of those people are in New England… and it’s cold in March. Memphis… not so much. It was 75 degrees, sunny, and low-and-behold… I stumbled across something quite exciting about this little town… open containers? No problemo. That’s right… even Wicked-pedia says it (must be true, right?): “The entertainment district along Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, is specially exempt from both Tennessee's statewide open container ban and Memphis's local open container ban, thereby permitting the open consumption of alcoholic beverages on the street.” (Also, on a side note, as Tennessee tries on a daily basis to challenge the “Live Free Or Die” stance of New Hampshire… open containers for passengers in a moving vehicle in Tennessee? Also not a problem). St. Patrick’s Day on Beale Street… well, it’s a lot like my trip to Dublin in 2002… all Americans, copious revelry, and great barbeque.


If Mark Lane was going to get married, how would you celebrate? Would you go to Vegas, buy a table at Tao, cuatro loco yourself to sleep at a dinner table, rap with Asher Roth, win money on international soccer, lose it all by ‘accidentally’ sitting down at “Spanish Blackjack” and playing it like regular black jack for 10 minutes, and then get on a flight to Switzerland? Yeah… me too.


Speaking of Switzerland, how the heck is Lucerne these days, right?! Yeah, so I find myself in Lucerne Switzerland… home of that tower thing, in the lake thing, and the Alps, and that… yeah… something is here, right? No? Okay, I’ll have a beer.
In all reality, Lucerne’s old city is exactly as you’d imagine it… cobblestones, very old buildings, small bridges over the blue-green rivers of the alps, and a big lake for people to take pictures of. A great trip for work overall, and as I said, you’ve got to get out and visit, otherwise, you simply will not learn. Switzerland high notes… Cubans, Rathaus Braueruerueieri, and rain… lots of rain.

Now… side note… it’s completely public now, so how does the name “Uncle Ray” sound? Good, right? Yeah, I thought so… therefore, I requested that my sister have a baby, and she complied. That statement was a joke… you know that right? Anyway, it’s a girl! Congratulations to my wonderful sister, and the best brother I’ve ever had, Keith. I’m certainly looking forward to August!