Sunday Night and Fake Fur on My Day Off

Sunday night was almost fun. I went to work, not really feeling like being jovial, but I knew that the music and the crowd would pick me up and I would have a good time. I was mostly right. The night was fun, we had a lot of people in the bar, at first because of the tropical storm like rainstorm. The uber-drunk happy hour crowd cleared out and then we built up and maintained a fairly decent sized group. The people sang, they drank, they had fun. Sometime around 2:30 or so I noticed several police cars outside and about 6 officers lurking around outside. They headed into the bar across the street but then eventually two of them came in the pub. I was nervous at first, but once I saw Mattie P. Sitting casually at the bar, I relaxed. Kidding! jeez. The two cops spoke to two black men (RACIAL PROFILING) sitting at a table near the door but then they left. A few minutes later they came back and escorted one of the black guys out. One of the officers was looking on the floor with his flashlight, and he found a crack pipe. I figured they would be back to search more so I grabbed the two trash cans in that area and pulled them to the back employee area (For those that remember Dustin D, I learned something at least) The police did come back and take the trash cans outside but what they found remains a mystery. If you're dumb enough to sit in a bar full of people and smoke crack....

Later in the night these two women came in who had obviously been drinking pretty heavy. They both wanted water and one ordered a beer. I was busy so didn't pay that much more attention to them, until I noticed they were both crying. I really had no interest in even guessing what brought on the waterworks, but the next thing I know they are chatting it up with crazy Chris who got fired from VooDoo after 3 days. Around this time the graveside scene from Steel Magnolias came on and you know I had to do my Sally Field "I'm FINE!" impression. Afterwards I noticed a fresh flow of tears from the two girls. A few minutes later Crazy Chris tells me that one of the women's child had died at birth. It wasn't clear when this happened but the wound seemed fresh. Drowning your sorrows on Bourbon Street hardly seems the right reaction, but hey, who am I to say anything. You can imagine my shock when the friend of the dead babies mother pulled me aside to ask "Could you play that Steel Magnolia scene again?" NOW...Why would you want to see that again if it upset you so much...Huh? Huh? I guess I can understand in a way, which of us hasn't tortured ourselves re-reading an old love letter or listening to "our song." The difference to me is the desire to grieve in private versus bonding with a room full of drunk gay men over the death of your child while swilling down what's left of your hurricane and watching Sally Field grieve over the death of Julia Roberts.

By the end of the night I was still holding up pretty well, my nerves not nearly as shot as last Sunday. Somewhere around 4, things took a bad turn. DJ Brendan was extremely drunk and having some difficulty playing the videos. We ended up watching (complete with commercials) about 15 minutes of Oprah Winfrey interviewing Shania Twain. Let me just say this one more time....COMPLETE WITH COMMERCIALS. I thought my head was going to explode. When that FINALLY went off (but we did eventually get to see Shania sing "Coat of Many Colors" with Dolly!) we were treated to almost an entire Olivia Newton-John concert. I really love Brendan, he's a fantastic DJ who can work a crowd amazingly well. He and I work together so well on Sundays and he plays lots and lots of good stuff for me so I shouldn't bitch if he messes up sometime, but I really thought my head pop off after the fourth ON-J song.

Tonight I went to bowling, thank god only one more week. One of my team mates told me he isn't going to bowl the next winter season. I think another is tired of it too, this being our fourth season (one long winter one, one short summer one.) Maybe we'll take a season off or I can put together a team of mostly substitute players and everyone can play when they want. Our league, the crescent city rainbow bowlers, hosts a tournament every Labor Day. Why they hold it when Decadence is going on is beyond me, especially since there are morning bowling shifts. To raise money, they were holding a raffle. You could win tickets to a Saints game, some candle-holder item OR, OR, a fabulous fake fur throw. Guess what I won? Yes, a fake fur throw. The dogs attacked it immediately upon my getting home, judging it to be a GIGANTIC stuffed animal. Chase is currently sacked out on the throw, wearing his suede zebra print collar. I think these dogs now are officially the gayest dogs in the land.

Oh yeah, day 21 of sobriety.