Sunday, December 28, 2008

Women. Are. Disgusting.

Seriously - every night we clean the bathrooms, and every night the women's restroom is a thousand times more disgusting than the men's room.

In the guy's room I may have to worry about broken beer bottles and handsoap being splashed all over the mirrors. In the ladies room?  Toilet paper on the floor - more often than not covered in BLOOD.  For a time the handdryer in the ladies restroom was broken so we subbed in paper towels. 

Those paper towels were always ALL OVER THE FLOOR - even when the trashcans (4 of them!) were completely empty!  When the dryer was fixed, I didn't even consider leaving the girls the option of using paper towels instead - I have never put paper towels in the bathroom again.

Ladies, you're supposed to be the CLEANER SEX!  Why is it that you turn your toilets in to a cess pool after two beers?

Frustrating.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Occupational Hazards

In my short experience as a bartender I've learned just how glorified the position really is.  It's considered an easy job with a rather high rate of pay, dependent, of course, on such things as the venue at which you work. 
 
And I must admit that while remembering drink recipes is pretty simple, and ringing in drinks and taking cash is pretty easy, there are parts to being a bartender that really kinda suck.
 
Most prominent on the list of occupational hazards is the number of cuts, scrapes, slices, slivers and bruises caused by broken glasses, shattered bottles, and occasionally very physical interaction with overly drunken guests.  I swear my hands look different after every shift I work.  Boy, that shit is annoying. 
 
But the greatest hazard of all, at least in Texas, is the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) - the great enforcers of liquor law in our state.  There are severe penalties for serving minors, a pretty easy thing to avoid with proper identification techniques - but then there are the minor issues that cost major money, such as having less than an ounce of liquor in a bottle at any given time, or having a tax stamp missing or damaged on the outside of one.
 
And then there's the major issue that's often difficult to avoid - overserving guests.
 
This one scares me the most because of the very aggressive drinking habits of many of our guests, who hop from bar to bar drinking and drinking and drinking and drinking - yet somehow maintaining their composure...  until that ONE drink hits them and they get stupid.  What's most difficult about it is that when someone comes in drunk from their trips across town and you can't tell and serve them a SINGLE drink, you are STILL completely liable for overserving the patron.
 
Seems a bit unfair if you ask me. 
 
Anyway, I don't remember what I was getting at with this post - perhaps that bartending ain't as easy as it seems?  Yes, we'll stick with that.
 
The moral of the story, folks, is that bartending isn't as easy as it seems.  And also - bring the troops home!  That's what this post is all about.

Friday, December 26, 2008

It's The Most Wonderful Time - Of The Year...I

It was worth it to have worked tonight.  I was opening bartender - alone from 2 to 7pm, and bored stiff.  We were so slow I was certain I was going to close early, but at 10pm we exploded.
 
Walked out with 336 tonight.  Merry Effin' Christmas!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Night Life

I've changed my template to one called "Nite Life" because, quite frankly, I find it fitting. I mean, I live it. Which is why I rarely blog of late - I don't often find the inspiration to write at 5:00 AM.

Girl and I are still going strong - unfortunately, she's in FL for Christmas... which sucks, because I'd really love to spend it with her - but I can't be spoiled. She sees her family once a year and I get her the rest of it.

Dad's redeployed to Iraq, which sucks. He'll be back in about six months - but that's a long time from now. Until then I'm going to keep an eye out for my madre.

Life isn't going quite as smoothly as I'd like it to be, at least not as I perceive it. There are some nagging doubts as to the ways in which I'll be paying my mortgage and other bills over the next few months because I had to kick one of my roommates out (formerly refered to in this blog as Bartender, which, ironically, I now am).

However, I still have faith that God's got my back and that somehow I'll manage to make it work, even if a few sacrifices need to be made.

Until then, I'm glad I've got what I've got - in particular my girl. She has really turned out to be quite a blessing.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all!