Hell of a Week
Quite a few shake-ups this week in the blogger world. There was the supposed "bad blood" between Otis and G-Rob that led G-Rob to defect to another site; the spoofed emails sent to BG; Joaquin closing down his blog in protest; and I think Ryan even got into the act.
Turns out they were all early April Fools pranks. Seriously - who pulls a prank before April Fools Day? Last year Blood did it correctly, writing up a story about slugging someone and winding up in the clink. DoubleAs wrote about losing his bankroll in a drunken stupor, and even I got into the act by writing that I was caught in a sweep of NYC underground clubs, arrested, and facing disbarment. All posted on April Fools Day.
Amateurs, this year. I thought you were pros.
--
Life has been pretty busy around New York, and that hasn't left much time for poker, especially now that many of the clubs are being repeatedly raided by the NYPD. Atlantic City is just far enough away to be a real PITA to get to when one doesn't own a car. It's a 3-hour investment each way, between the time needed to get to the bus station and the time spent on the bus with the dregs of humanity. No, really, sir, can you not touch me with that finger that you just had buried in your nose to the second knuckle? Thanks.
Since my hatred of playing online hasn't alleviated itself, I figured I needed a new hobby. At the same time, one of the servers at my home bar (10 years and running, thanks) got a new job tending bar at some small joint on the Lower East Side. She texted me on Monday and told me she'd be working until 8, and that I should stop by. Drinking is a hobby, right? Seemed like a good idea to me, so after work off I went. The new bar was even on my way home.
Katie's a great bartender. She's cute, she's young, she's laidback and she's very friendly. Best of all, she takes care of her regulars. She started pouring me double soco's as soon as I got there and didn't let up until after her shift ended shortly after 8pm. Total charge: $5. Total tip: refused. We kept drinking after her shift ended and I suppose that's where things started to get a bit hazy.
I don't remember how late we were out. It's a wonder I made it home at all. I do remember waking up at 10am on Tuesday and thinking "Fuck, I'm late." My tardiness was made even worse by the fact that the other attorney in our 2-attorney legal department was in Iowa the whole week for his father's funeral, and one of the paralegals was out with a flu. I slipped into work somewhere around 11am, not unnoticed, and tried to steel myself against the pounding in my head and to make it through the day somehow.
Late Tuesday afternoon, after a few Tylenol and a Gatorade, I got another text from Katie, telling me she had another shift at her new bar. After work, off I went again. This time, she was working until 4am, so the extremely cheap alcohol never stopped flowing. My wallet tells me she charged me $20. I seem to remember trying to tip her a couple more $20s, but there wasn't a chance that was happening. The end of the night was a repeat of Monday night in the same way that Wednesday morning was a repeat of Tuesday morning. Only on Wednesday, the clock read 10:45 by the time I regained consciousness.
More raised eyebrows at work. The owner popped into my office at one point and asked if everything was ok. I responded that everything was fine, he gave me a meaningful glance and we left it at that.
I made it through Wednesday unscathed and into work Thursday morning relatively close to "on time".
Thursday night, I met up several friends for drinks (independent of each other). The last was a good friend of mine from law school. She and I have been fairly close for a long time and also have a bit of an "understanding" with each other. After three hours of drinking (10pm-1am) we shifted to her apartment. I hope I didn't suck too badly, since I can't remember much of what went on. I guess she decided to let me sleep it off (or something), because when I woke up at 10:30 she was nowhere to be seen. Rather than go straight to work, I went home first to shower and change, as I couldn't very well go to work in the same clothes as the day before. I made it in some time after noon.
This brought a "nice of you to join us" and full-blown ranting lecture from the owner when he finally saw me on Friday, and in my irritable, hungover, sleep-deprived state, I snapped back at him, getting into a yelling match over things that had absolutely no bearing on my ability to arrive at work on time. In a storm of protest, I shouted "I QUIT!", grabbed my coat and left. By the time I realized what I was doing, it was too late. I shuffled off to my home bar, where Katie was willing to help me drown my sorrows with the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Eventually my Friday night crew showed up and we got our drink on even more. The night consisted of two other bars and then an "Asian party", where I think I managed to embarass myself pretty well by going around telling the ladies present that I was looking for Twinkies.
This morning, I woke up and realized that I no longer have a job. The job was one of the primary things tying me to New York, so after downing a 32oz Gatorade to get some fluids back in my system, I opened up my laptop and booked a one-way ticket on AA to LAX. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of my stuff (I currently live with a close friend who recently split up with her boyfriend, so I can't just "throw her out" and take my stuff to LA), but I do know that on Wednesday of next week, I will officially be Hollywood sofa surfing until I get myself set up in a new place. And the best part of it all? Commerce is a lot closer to Hollywood than AC is to Brooklyn.
LA, did ya miss me?