For the Love of Bars...or something... | Do Try This at Home: For the Love of Bars...or something...

Friday, April 06, 2007

For the Love of Bars...or something...

I love bars. I don’t get the opportunity to go to them all that often, which may be why they remain appealing. Why would anyone willingly give up visiting a place with music, beer, dancing maybe, and big guys named Lewis who won’t stop following them around? Oh, wait, maybe I just answered by own question.

I thought for a moment or two, maybe even an hour, that I might have a split personality. ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I was born to hang out in bars now and again AND be a Sunday school teacher all at the same time. Well, not at the exact same time, but at least within 48 hours of each other.

But I suddenly realized, it isn’t a split personality, I just like people…little people in preschool and grown up people in bars and people of all sorts and in all kinds of locations. I don’t actually know a single person that I don’t like, although I have *heard* of people I might dislike if I ever did meet them.

I told my boss once that I thought he disliked more people than I actually knew. Probably I should have nabbed those words before they escaped my mouth, but he’s a great guy and…well, took it in stride as far as I know.

Anyway, Dad always told me, “Don’t meet men in bars.” But my friend Chris met her husband in a bar, and they’re still married a decade and a half later. I, on the other hand, was introduced to my ex-husband through his cousin, so you never can tell. Although I guess you can hedge your bets. Dad probably feared just this type of thing, a conversation I had a day or two after spending an evening at a bar:

Me: Lewis is a heroine addict? How could you tell?
Amy: (says something that makes me realize she was talking about a different guy)
Me: Oh, you mean Shannon!
The skinny guy who kept offering to pass around xanax?
Amy: Yeah, that guy.
Who was Lewis? I think I missed Lewis.
Aunt Lynne:
These people have NAMES?!?!?!
Me: Lewis was that big black guy that kept following me around and telling me that he was going to make me feel things without touching me.
And he kept saying he was a cook and he was going to make me breakfast.
Bernard:
He was going to make you feel things without touching you!?!? Like REVULSION?!?!
Me: Revulsion, yeah, must be.
He wouldn’t leave Gigi or me alone. But he was adorable, in a pathetic kind of way.

So yeah…people are interesting creatures for sure. But I always like them anyway.

15 comments:

CircesMagic said...

I can't help but giggle! I am so not a people person so bars are definately not for me. I don't drink and have zero tolerance for people who can't hold their liquor, I had a friend who was a lovable drunk, can't deal with that at all....

Anonymous said...

think when your Dad was talking about men in bars, he 'might' have had someone like Lewis in mind. :) And there are a lot of dirtbags (for want of a better word) in bars too...oh wait, the first time I met you was in a bar (the Ramada)...but I don't remember using a line like I "was going to make me feel things without touching you" :) :)..... I think all I said was "why are you sneaking beer into a club???" :)

Maureen said...

LOL! Yeah, my bar days are long past...not that I went very often. I'd rather be a boring homebody nowadays.

Heather said...

Drunks are a funny group of people, aren't they?? Everyone has their own drunk "personality". And it's rather funny to watch people you already know when they are drunk. Then you can make fun of them the next day. I love to watch people too. But mostly in malls and on the streets of South Minneapolis!

Colleen said...

I love the conversation! This looks like a great layout if you ask me!! And you sure do meet all kinds when you're out for a drink, but that's what makes the world such an interesting place!

toners said...

LOL!! Your post brought back a few (blurry) memories for me :)

Danisha said...

I love to watch people too! I don't go to bars often anymore, but when I do there is always the one person that you hope that you didn't look like when you were younger and got drunk!

It's always good for a laugh.

Lara Neves said...

Funny...feel something? Like revulsion???

Thanks for the laugh.

I have never been a bar goer as I don't drink. Been once or twice with friends, so I have no comment. My brother, on the other hand, met Harrison Ford in a bar just a few weeks ago....

Jill said...

jeb/John...
Twenty years flies by, doesn't it?

I'm going to say (for Pete's sake) you have your facts confused or are joking :-) :-) :-) but I will admit to Nola and me did sneaking an entire 12 pack into the movie theater once... :-) :-) :-)

Of course, it makes a lot more sense to sneak beer into a movie theater than into a bar (and we were always so practical that way...) :-) :-) :-)

Don'tcha ever wonder where we'd all be if Nola were still around? All the cuckoo stunts we pulled and she just doesn't make one day on the way to work. It's a crazy world, isn't it?

I imagine I wouldn't even be a Texan, would have had a lot harder time leaving her than abandoning the dirt bag. But c'est la vie & it's the life best we've got.

Anonymous said...

Yeah...it just goes to show you how things can change so quickly....Nola was still one of the nicest persons I've known, even when we argued I always knew it wouldn't last...
Oh, and my 'facts' about the first time I met you are not wrong since I am sure I was completely sober that night :)

Noelia said...

Bar days are long gone for us but I do enjoy entertaining in the comfort of my home because I love people, I'm a people person : )

FlipFlop Mom said...

Ok.. this was cute!! and made me giggle!!!! Thansk for sharing!!

Anonymous said...

I too, share a passion for bars (although I'm more interested in what is sold in them if I'm honest).

Needless to say that I more often than not get withdrawal symptoms if I'm away from a bar environment for anything longer than 20 seconds.

I'm therefore toying with the idea of putting half drank drinks around my classroom and some dirty ashtrays thrown in for good measure.

That said, even I have limits so I have therefore decided against having live music (although I haven't ruled it)

Anonymous said...

I'm not much of a bar person but they are fun with a group of friends. I do have to be in the "bar mood" though.

Bars with pool tables can be fun. I usually have to be jollied into playing though as I'm not all that great at it.

Yeah, the group idea sounds much better. I am not sure about having some guy named Lewis (or his cousin) following me around without my having any "backup"

Jill said...

TS - Oh NO! There's ALWAYS ALWAYS live music in my class...but it's just us singing the day away...we did teach the kids how to play a song on the hand bells...

MsQ - A bar mood? Is there more to "a bar mood", I wonder, than just "the kids are with their dad"?!? :-) :-) :-0 Pool I don't really care for but darts I love.

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