Monday, January 16, 2006

WHAT A LONG WEEKEND!

This past weekend was an eventful, yet long one; A weekend full of ups and downs. By now, most you know about the Blood Drive held in honor of our friend MATTHEW LONG (I've only beat everyone over the head about it for the last week or so). A lot of work went into planning and publicizing the event and I have to say, aside from a few minor glitches, the Drive was a rousing success. Between the two locations, we were able to collect well over 100 pints of blood for the NY BLOOD CENTER. The turnout was overwhelming, especially in light of the fact that it was very wet and rainy all day long. People came from all over to lend a hand and donate blood. In fact, we got so many walk-up donors that we had to turn people away and steer them to other donation sites. Overall it was a great event and I want to thank everyone who participated in the drive and who showed support for the cause in various ways. I especially want to send a special thanks to TERRY BRENNAN and H.B.E. for coordinating the drive and going above and beyond the call of duty to make the Blood Drive a rousing success. It took a lot of man-hours to coordinate, make calls, flyers, emails and such and everyone who assisted did so without hesitation. The LONG family are grateful for the efforts, as well as the NY BLOOD CENTER, who were pleasantly surprised to see such a turnout. Well done.

As for me, it was indeed a L-O-N-G weekend in many respects. After holding down a long Friday night shift, I had to turn right around and be up by 8am to help coordinate things for the Blood Drive. So running on less than three hours of sleep, I ran out and got myself a stiff cup of coffee and settled in for what was going to be a long day.

At this point there's a steady rain falling and yours truly is trying to post "NO PARKING" signs up around the bar for the BLOODMOBILE. Not much fun trying to stick signs on wet poles. The BLOODMOBILE finally arrive and we get the bus situated in front of the bar. Once I got the bus driver set up with his space, I ran back to the apartment for a quick shower. When I returned, H.B.E. had arrived and begun setting up the bar for the Blood Drive. We were going to transform the bar into a "waiting area" of sorts; It would be the place where everyone would come in for their "pre-screening", as well as a place to wait to be called, instead of waiting out in the rain. When the Blood Drive Coordinator arrived, there was a bit of a mix-up on the set up process and as a result, the beginning of the Blood Drive had a few glitches and a lot of people waiting to give blood. Eventually we were able to work everything out and the process went smoothly.

We had a lot of people signed up for specific appointment times, with the hopes of having the drive run smoothly. However, we had so many last minute drop-ins show up that we ended up having to send people to TURTLE BAY GRILL and LOUNGE and other locations to give blood, just so they didn't have to wait around for long periods of time. The afternoon went quickly and everyone was for the most part, patient and accommodating, which helped tremendously.

By the end of the afternoon, most people had donated blood and I was soaking wet from standing out in the rain all afternoon. I was feeling good in spite of the wetness, however, because in the back of my mind I knew that the Blood Drive was a success. I was now looking forward to a long hot shower, then a previously planned movie date with a certain lovely lovely who would be needing my assistance "getting her cat out of the tree later", if you know what I mean.

Surprise, surprise, things didn't go quite as I had planned. I received a call from FIREGIRL saying she needed change for the cash register. So I go to the bar to help her out of her jam, then off to the movies; that was the plan. I get to the bar and find out that not only did my bartenders not have change, there was no doorman. And to make matters worse, my barback was hopping around on one foot, looking like SPIDER from the movie GOODFELLAS. Apparently he'd cut his foot a couple of days earlier, yet didn't think to do anything or say anything about it until he showed up for work. Had he called ahead or said something earlier, it would have given us enough time to get someone else to fill in for him. Instead, he shows up to work limping around like a gimp. It seemed like every ten minutes he'd hop over to me and ask if he could go home. I kept telling him no and it was like going in one ear and out the other. While I was at the point where I would have love to have sent him home for sheer peace of mind, the fact of the matter was that I couldn't afford to be any more short staff than I was already. It was bad enough that I had to cover the door, but to not have a barback as well; it would have been suicide.

And of course, while all of this is going on, We get hit with an impromptu bachelorette party bus of about 20, rather H-O-T chicks from Jersey. At this point, the bar is full of sausage, locked in on the football game. Once these chicks entered the bar, all heads did a swivel turn, like the devil-girl from THE EXORCIST. I was slightly amused I must admit, by the antics of the bachelorette party. Sure you had the usual games the bride-to-be and her friends played; however, in this case, the bar patrons were treated to a rather steamy skin show by the bride and her mates. So while I am distracted by the antics of the party and the dilemma of the lack of doorman, my date was still waiting for me at the movie theatre: I forgot to call her to let her know what was up. It didn't dawn on me until about midnight that I'd forgotten to call her. So when I finally tried to reach out to her, I got a voicemail instead. I called a few more times with the hopes of explaining what happened, but to no avail. I guess it's safe to say she's pissed.

To make matters worse, I ended up covering the door until about 1:30am. By then I was shot, physically, mentally and any ways else. To say I was cranky is an understatement. ANGRY BLACK stopped by the bar and he noticed right away that I wasn't myself. He tried to cheer me up but I wasn't having it. I felt bad afterwards for not being my normal, jovial self, but at that moment it was all I could do to have my blood pressure go through the roof. I was also worried that I would be tired and cranky for my Sunday shift. With the crew that comes in on Sundays, I have to be at my best.

I woke up Sunday morning, exhausted but determined to get to work and make it through the day. I went through my morning ritual and got to the bar at my normal time. I called NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and asked him to bring me a cup of coffee. I usually don't like to drink coffee if I am doing a double shift, but I knew that I would need it today.

By 1pm the bar was filled with PITTSBURGH STEELERS' fans, ready to rock and roll. They were very supportive of their team, but feared that they would lose to the INDIANAPOLIS COLTS. Things looked up for them, however, as their favorite team jumped out to an early lead and held on throughout the whole game, ultimately winning in the last seconds of the game. During the game, various patrons were getting loud and boisterous and at times I found myself snapping back at them when they demanded a drink. Now on any given Sunday, when a customer barked out orders at me, I'd put them in their place in a humorous way. However, today was different; my worst fears were realized when my crankiness came out from time to time and I found myself snapping back at a couple of regulars. And for that, I apologize. I think most of the regulars got the sense that I wasn't myself and for the most part and they accommodated me as best they could. I, for the most part, was pretty good, in spite of the exhaustion I was feeling; but I did slip up a couple of times and again, if I offended anyone, I apologize sincerely.

There were some rather funny moments throughout the game, led by of course, AFRIKA BAMBATTA and NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. The funniest thing I noticed was when NAPOLEON began to freak out at his fellow fans for celebrating the team's victory too soon. It was like he flipped out and almost fell out of his chair, he was so animated. T-BILL and the PEANUT GALLERY were also there to egg him along. It was pretty funny. Next week should be big as the STEELERS and their loud and fanatical fans will square off against DENVER and their equally loud and fanatical crew. In essence, NAPOLEON vs T-BILL. Should be a hoot.

After the STEELERS victory, the bar pretty much cleared out as there didn't seem to be much interest in the second game. Ironically enough, that game (CHICAGO vs CAROLINA) turned out to be a fun game as well. The rest of the evening comprised of small groups of tourists and couples. Pretty uneventful night, as far as Sunday nights go.

Overall, the weekend was not as busy as the past few, as this is a long weekend and a lot of people tend to go away for MLK weekend. I can say that I survived the weekend and look forward to a bit of a respite on Monday (god-willing).

Will update again later. Sorry for the long-winded post. Hope you had a good weekend!

NUFF SAID