Top Dawg Tavern, My UGA Tour "Exploring"

By: Kenneth Stepp

Today was dedicated to exploring the Virginia Highlands in Midtown Atlanta. “Ain’t happenin”. I was leaving Winder Georgia this morning. My phone directing me to parts unknown. Parts known were calling me though. Top Dawg has been a favorite of mine for several moths. Great food, great service, and an awesome place. It’s close too!

Nicole, my server. She rocks. Knows when to check on me, and when to leave me be. That takes more talent than you might think..She is somewhere between my two daughters in age, cute, from Conyers, and makes everyone that walks in these doors feel welcome and wanted. Accepted, as it were. Another talent. Maybe a gift. Too deep for me to embrace. The blue cheese salad is the best on the planet. The UN is debating this at the moment. I do not make this stuff up. The catfish is awesome, and the onion rings are fantastic. Reminds me that my life is blessed.

I love just sitting on the patio, eating great food, meeting people, having a beer, and thinking about how to conquer world hunger, cure cancer, and negotiate real world peace. Some say, I am aggressively optimistic. I say, they haven’t tried this cole slaw.

In terms that most will understand. You know how you get up every morning and go to work at a place you can’t stand, for people that are awful and don’t care about you a bit. I don’t do that. I wake up when I want, go somewhere fun, have great food, meet wonderful people, have a beer or two, and go home when I like. And get paid to do it. Go figure. A zero risk career that requires just me and my laptop. Heck. I’m not even a very good writer. Lucky I guess.

My server, Nicole walk up while I was “talk texting”, on my Iphone. She laughed. I explained that I strive to check what it wrote for me since, “The Accident”. What accident? Well, I was texting a very classy, wealthy, and well bred woman once. I said,” we should get a salad together”. But it wrote, “we should get a shower together”. I sent it without reading it. Nicole asked. How did you get out of that one? I responded, “The shower was actually a lot of fun”. I’ve told that tired one so many times. I’m no longer sure if it’s true or not. Oh well.

I’m playful today. If a gigantic man with a Hulk Hogan voice can be giddy. I think I am today. Wonder why? Maybe it’s because everything in life is perfect for just a very short moment for me. I’m at a restaurant I love. I didn’t drive hours to get here. I just finished a wonderful meal. And they have dark beer on tap. Have the stars aligned just for me? Maybe. It’s at moments like these that I feel something beyond me is controlling everything. And it loves me. It loves seeing me happy too.

Reflecting on a week when I was unfriended, blocked, ugly messaged, more than usual. My, Don’t Care button has been working overtime. Social media is taken way too seriously. I have people message me constantly. They read themselves in what I write. Of course. It’s almost never about them. But hey. It’s always fun explaining that. To my faux digital friends out there. Perspective should rule the day.

k@kstepp.com