Hani and I have been planning to do a 5-week bartending class in tandem for a bit now. Ever since I helped a friend at Sapph count tips one night, the money lover in me has always been like "I need to do that shit." So, when he discovered a cheapish class, I jumped for it. Wednesday was supposed to be our first day. I left work at 7pm and stopped at the ATM before strolling off to the train. I put in my card, punched in my PIN, and almost had a heart attack. Stop the presses: how the fuck did I spend close to $900 in a week and a half? I mean, I knew I was going to waste the first check but Jesus Christ. Especially since we're planning the move for Julyish and I've got next to nothing banked so far. I went on money panic mode and called Hani to back out. He understood and had a good time. Maybe I'll take it tonight (cause today is payday after all) and think of it as investing in my future.
Now, if you'd think that my money panic would lead me to you know, stop spending recklessly, you'd be wrong wrong wrong. Yesterday as the work day was winding down, I started thinking that what I wanted for dinner was some Atomic Wings. That led to deciding that the perfect afterwork thing would be calling up kids all "wings and booze, yo! You know you want some of that shit!" I got P. Fizzle on lock and we met up in a Village bar in which I normally wouldn't be caught dead. We killed that double order and got some amusement in the form of this way past drunk guy just making a nuisance of himself trying to join everybody's table. P had arrived just in time because I was trying to get him to backoff and disappear since he thought sitting alone = fresh target.
We stopped off at the smoke shop down the street. I longingly looked at rolling papers and tobacco, reminded of my boys Tino and Alex and their homemade cigs (and yeah, I mean cigs). I was tempted to buy some and attempt to see if I could even do it for myself -- which I doubt -- but for a switch, I didn't let myself be ruled by the impulse shopping. At the register, the cashier glanced at P's wallet with the pic of his girlfriend and then looked at me and back to him. He said to him, "you should be ashamed of yourself. What's with that picture?" P was like, "um...that's my girlfriend." I shrugged and was like, "we're just friends hanging out." And the guy replied, "oh okay...I didn't understand why the picture didn't look like you." Good for a chuckle.
From there to my not so favorite bar from last week's bullshit and then to Sapph. Despite living in the neighborhood, he'd never been there so I got to introduce him around. The night started off slow, so the bartenders were using us as guinea pigs. Everything got superhype and P and I were having a blast. After a while, we realized that as fun as it would be to hang all night, work in the morning was calling. Still, I love Thursdays.
I ended up sleeping until the end of the line on the F. Always good times (not). On the bus ride home, I sat close to the driver, blasting the oldies station. One of the songs was "Satisfaction" and it was funny to watch him sing along and drum on the steering wheel. Riding the bus late at night is always funny. It's a strange mix of characters. The driver was just chillin, not really giving a shit. I suppose that's what you gotta do when it's you on the road in the middle of the night.
Posted by Candicissima at June 4, 2004 11:59 AMI hear bartending makes a lot of money, so i hope you get all you want out of it. Like you, a low cash flow doesn't keep me out of the mall. It's my therapy and there's no shame in that :)
Posted by: ethel at June 5, 2004 12:16 AM