Wednesday, August 15, 2007

UNDER THE GUN

After being closed for a couple of days to re-surface the bar and to take care of some "smaller" side projects, we were scheduled to re-open on Tuesday at 4pm, just in time for DOLLAR DRAFT MADNESS. So I arrived at the bar at about 7am with TACO MOROCCO, our stellar barback and when we opened the door and saw the mounds of dust and soot, we looked at each other and sighed. This was going to be one monumental task. But before we started out on this huge endeavor, we sat down to a cup of tea. If we are going to be sweating our arses off, we'd best be on top of our game and nothing gets you on top of your game better than a cup of tea. The Brits have been doing it for centuries, so it must work, no?

Soon after we arrived, FIRE MARSHALL ED joined us and we dove into our task with reckless abandon. By splitting up the bar into sections, it made what looked to be an impossible task that much easier. There was enough sand dust to fill an island but we kept plugging away, bit-by-bit so that by lunch time, we could actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. And when THE SPIN DOCTOR arrived to help out, that was all she wrote. Long story short, we were all set and ready to rock and roll with about 20 minutes to spare. I was sweaty, beat-up and exhausted, but felt a sense of pride when it was all said and done. We set out to do a project (a tedious one at that) and it got done, ON TIME.

I had just enough time to run home, shower off about two inches of dust and soot and make it back to the bar for DOLLAR DRAFT MADNESS. Upon my arrival, I was met by the BLACKBERRY Army; a team of promoters who were there to promote the latest BLACKBERRY models (the handheld PDA device that everyone in the world except myself seem to have).


FIRE MARSHALL ED enjoying a frosty mug after a long day of cleaning...


A rep for BLACKBERRY showing off some of the latest models....



The evening was a nice, comfortable one and as a result of the beautiful weather, the after-work crowd ended up arriving later than usual. We finally got our hit about 9pm and it stayed pretty busy after that. We found ourselves turning away a lot of underaged folks, one group in particular had about six people among them, yet they all presented ID's all from NY State (the old ugly pink one), ironically enough, all with the EXACT same birthdate (day and year).. hmmmm. Needless to say, the red flags were popping like zits on a teenager. Are you kidding me? It was funny to see the reactions nevertheless.

Got a visit from a couple of former students, which is always nice. One student in particular, was a nice guy but a royal pain in my ass back in the day; now he works for the FBI and has mellowed out.... a lot. Interesting to see.

P-DIDDY showing off his "new look" while counting out tips....

At the end of the night, I was pretty exhausted as I'd just completed one of the longest days of my life. But it felt good, nevertheless.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT tonight with $3.00 MIXED WELL DRINKS (for ladies) and $2.50 PBR Cans (or 5/$10.00) for EVERYONE!!



NUFF said