Well, last night turned out to be my last night as a barman… at least for now.
I’ve been interviewing for several weeks now and I’m going back to the video game industry next week.

So I was thinking, it’s my last night at this bar…it’s a Wednesday ( my favorite night of the week at the Encore) what could possibly go wrong? Some of you may be quick to point out Murphy’s Law. Last night was perhaps a variation on that theme. The evening just started out with a strange energy. Most of the regulars weren’t there and the annoying hipster kids were about. Not to mention the “Fratboy-has-beens” walking in after working overtime at their corporate jobs.

My pal Brent has an interesting way of describing drunks. “Oh yeah, he was three-flavors of drunk.”

According to Brent’s parlance, I myself was two-flavors of drunk. That’s good enough for me. If you’ve ever partied with me, you’ll know that I am a happy drunk and can keep a steady hand, remember my place in conversations and in general still operate at a maximum capacity of 80-90%. Some of our coworkers had jumped up to the five-flavors range and as such were more of a nuisance as the night wore on. As for our customers, our irregular crowd was getting drunker and creepier. I believe that there is a state of being called “Creepy Drunk.”

Anyway, as per my usual M.O. I stop drinking around 12:30 or 1, allowing me to safely and coherently drive home after my shift. Thankfully Brent was hanging out on his night off because he ended up taking care of several of our associates who were so drunk, they couldn’t function. So thanks Bro, I appreciate you being there last night. By the time we managed to get out of the bar it was 3:30 and we managed to get into the Grubstake diner, to grab a burger for their last 30 minutes of business. All around, it was almost an anti-climactic end to my tenure. I’m still mulling over the events of the night… the things I won’t say here. Maybe I’ll add a follow up to this in time.

Overall I had a very positive experience working at this bar. As you may remember I hadn’t worked a service job since college. I learned a lot about the logistics of running a bar. Sometime in the future I may open my own bar. Who knows? I learned about the wide spectrum of the people who work in bars. People from all sorts of backgrounds and talents… Some of the finest people I’ve met, and in some cases some of the most immature and selfish. Most of all I learned the most from the customers. It was one of the best educations in human behavior.

I’ll be hanging out at the Encore on wednesday nights. I’ve met a lot of cool people and I intend to stay in touch with all of them. Who knows, you may end up having a cocktail or two with me.