Saturday, April 8, 2006

A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT

I waltzed into work at around 6pm, expecting a leisurely after-work crowd. It was Friday night, the beginning of the weekend; While I was expecting a nice hit for what turned out to be a beautiful evening (weather-wise), I certainly wasn't expecting wall-to-wall patrons, which is what I walked into. Poor MEAN GENE was caught in the weeds, with people barking out orders and not enough glasses to go around.

So I found myself in triage mode, recycling empty glasses, helping to serve thirsty customers, and pitching in wherever I could. Pretty soon we found ourselves back on top of the game and good to go until the night shift arrived. Happy hour turned out to be a pretty good one at that, with plenty of wannabe high-rollers and a lot of good-natured patrons, simply looking to unwind after a long week at the office.

In the midst of all of the chaos of the shift change I noticed that the dreaded MS. KREMLIN was hanging out with her crew. Of course she had a few drinks in her already and when she gets to that point, she goes into that "needy, clingy" mode. You know that person, they are the most important person in the room (in their mind) and no matter how busy you are, you have to drop everything to focus on them. There were a few times where i'd be in the middle of handling a task when she would all of sudden grab me and give me a huge hug around the neck (and choking me in the process), much to the delight of my staff. I'd tell her that i'm busy and it would go right over her head and she'd continue to do whatever she was doing, whether it be giving me a bear hug or going off on a tangent about her love life or something trivial. Like I said before, I am a glutton for punishment.....

The happy hour crowd eventually died out and the rest of the evening was strangely mellow for a beautiful Friday night. Luckily for us, there were no problems to speak of and we got through the night unscathed.

H.B.E. returns from his mini-vacation trip to the Masters and I'll be willing to bet he had a pretty good time. Lucky bastard..

The fun continues tonight.

NUFF SAID