This weekend turned out to me one of the busier ones in the last few weeks. It all began early Friday afternoon with an impromptu going away party for interns of one of the local companies. I guess that the festivities must have began pretty early because by the time I arrived, the place was teeming with fairly lubricated young guns celebrating as if they were on top of the world. As a matter of fact, soon after my arrival I found myself escorting out drunken little interns left and right. One guy was so lit that not only did he take a tumble down the stairs (I caught him on the way down), the poor sap fell "up" the stairs, too. Bless his heart.
After the intern party, we experienced a bit of a lull, as we normally do after happy hour. Things began to pick up again at around 10:30-11pm and next thing you know, the place is packed again. During this time I see that a few members of the Sunday Brew Crew show up. Now in this case, there happened to be a few of the members who aren't the best of friends based on some trivial teasing that took place MONTHS ago and has snowballed into something quite ridiculous, in my honest opinion. Ever since then the parties in question have more or less been distant and for the most part, cordial, with a hint of frostiness in the air.On this particular night, the parties in question were more or less far apart from one another, which eased my mind because the last thing I needed to deal with was a couple of guys taking part in a pissing match over something stupid. I guess I eased my mind too soon because next thing you know, I hear my name being called and when I look up, the parties in question were in each other's faces, jawing at each other. I fought through the crowd and jumped in between everyone, trying to keep the peace. It's bad enough whenever you have to jump in the middle of an argument or fight to break it up- you never know what to expect. It's another thing entirely when the parties involved in the tussle are friends of yours. It sucked on a number of levels because:
a) You hate to see your friends fight.
b) You hate to see your friends getting into a fight with each other.
c) You really hate seeing you friends getting into a fight each other over something ridiculously stupid.
d) You begin questioning to yourself "How can you be affiliated with GROWN MEN who are behaving so childishly?"
All of these things are flashing through my mind as I am screaming at all of them to stop the nonsense; When it became readily apparent that these guys were not going to listen to what I had to say, I did what I felt was the only thing I could do at that point: I threw them all out. Yes, I kicked my friends out of the bar. I treated them as I would with any other customer who are on the verge of getting into a fight or are fighting. If you are not going to listen to reason or at the very least, respect the position that you've put me in for getting into such nonsense in the first place, then get the fuck out.
Now some members of the warring factions apologized for their behavior and left quietly; others voiced their displeasure loudly, even noting that they would take their hefty business elsewhere, never to return. While I'm truly sorry that you felt disrespected for being tossed after disrespecting me in my place of employment, if this is what you feel that you have to do, then so be it. I guess you have to do what's in the best interest for you and I respect that.
For the individual who started the whole thing that evening (and we all know who you are), there's really only one thing left to say on this particular matter (And I say this as a friend): Your act is getting old, and it's getting tired, fast. And to all those who are involved in this, this RIDICULOUS war of words: I implore you to drop this mess once and for all. Life is simply too short to have my friends sniping at each other over nonsense. I can't force you guys to do anything, hell, you don't even have to be friends. Simply respect one another and being cordial is fine enough for me. Chew on that for awhile.
After the mini-brouhaha, things went back to normal and the rest of the night went off without a hitch. There was one other notable incident, however, that took place that night.
Right around closing time I was standing outside the bar, saying goodnight to the patrons as they were leaving. There was this young lady, standing against the side of the bar, talking on a cell phone. No big deal.
Next thing you know, this huge brute of a guy, a hulking 6' 3" musclehead came out of nowhere and snatched the cell phone from the girl and began walking away, staring into the phone in the process. The girl began screaming loudly and chasing the guy (she's probably 5' 2" in heels), trying to get her phone back. They walk back towards Joshua Tree, making one hell of a scene in the process. At one point the girl got her phone back and ran up 3rd Avenue, running past me in the process. She gets across 35th Street and begins doing something on her phone. A few minutes later, the guy shows up again and again, snatches the phone away from her. The girl again begins to scream and tries to get her phone back, only to be rebuffed by the Hulk-Man. A number of us watched this scene unfold and were shocked by his behavior.
At one point he threw the girl up against the wall near Liberty Travel and it was at that point when I began dialing 9-1-1. The guy ran away with the phone and the girl went chasing after him and vice-versa, up and down the street, and i'm sitting there on the phone, trying to flag down cops, to no avail. The couple eventually disappeared into the crowd near Joshua Tree and all this time, still no cops.
Now some of you are probably wondering why I didn't step in to assist the young lady. I've had a few bad experiences in trying to assist in girlfriend/boyfriend disputes over the years, including getting slapped in the face by the girl I was trying to assist. More often than not it simply doesn't pay to get involved in domestic disputes. Not to say that you should ignore them entirely (hence the reason why I tried to flag down the cops).
A lot to read, eh? And this was only Friday....
Stay tuned.....
NUFF said
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