I have settled comfortably in to being the regular weekend bartender at Brady's. True, I miss my own Friday and Saturday-night fun, like Friday afternoon "playgroups" that sound like they are organized (or at least named) for kids' fun, when really they are a great way to get us moms together at the earliest possible weekend-welcoming time to drink wine by the magnum-full, throw some chicken nuggets at the jousting kids (I don't care WHAT you do with those light sabers - just do it AWAY FROM US MOMS!!) and celebrate the impending two days of double parenting we are about to embark upon.
Those afternoons lasted well into the evenings, made possible by the emblazoning firepit, the husbands that joined to legitimize our passive parenting ("Does anyone mind if I start another Spongebob Marathon?"), and the fact that our kids wanted the fun to last as long as the adults.
Moms would come armed with Bacardi (no-carb rum and diet coke please!), wine, appetizers and children's pajamas. We would stretch it as late as we could, dismissing meltdowns and using our famous empty-threat:"If you scream one more time, that's it, WE ARE LEAVING!!" But mostly our mantra was: "If I don't see you (or the 14 other kids we threw in the basement with you in front of ICarly) then we can stay for another twenty minutes." Twenty minutes always meant an hour; and we convinced ourselves that the empty threats worked...
But there are no more "kids'" fun Fridays for me. Sometimes Thursday becomes the new Friday. It's not as late, it doesn't draw as many husbands, and we don't excuse as many meltdowns, BUT it does the trick when in need of socializing, wine-tasting and something to occupy the kids. Right, the kids. Hey, as long as you can get through Friday with a little wine headache, then Thursdays work just fine.
I think anyone who works in the hospitality business, is pretty open to finding their weekend-grade enjoyment whenever they can get it, and not limiting themselves to the normally-sanctioned "fun nights". That way, the unexpected Tuesday night booze cruise or Sunday afternoon beach parties satisfy the desire to let loose and are sometimes even more appreciated.
Besides, if I didn't bartend on the nights when most people find it acceptable to let loose, drink wine by the magnum-full and let their inhibitions run free, then I wouldn't have experienced all of the weird, obscene and embarrassing that I have at Brady's over the last few months.
The couple that broke up two feet from me, while sitting at the bar (well, she dumped him and he begged her back for two excruciating, more-inebriating-by-the-minute and mortifying hours) would never have broken up on a Tuesday night, I decided. She needed the audience, not to mention the wine, to push her through this awful exchange. If she dumped him in the comfort - and quiet - of her own home or his - the result would not have been the same. A bar made it more of a show for her, and she could detach more easily, like she often did when turning to a new woman, saying "He's cute, right? He will find someone new! Are YOU single?" Cringe...
The sixty-year old, sophisticated, put-together socialite, never would have had three glasses of a wine on a Monday, and ended up telling me about her handsome-trucker boyfriend that made her feel so wild and crazy, that she left her husband for him, forsaking her penthouse life for a one bedroom apartment and planning her new life around his visits. Then on the next visit, he told her to get tested for "something" he found out he has, and ended up giving to both the woman and her estranged husband. Something tells me that type of conversation only happens on a Saturday night, with your best girlfriend and an understanding bartender.
So yes, playgroups and "normal" adult fun can happen on any night now for me. But embarrassing life lessons, approval-seeking ex-girlfriends, and all kinds of other weekend-worthy situations will stay confined to the standard "busiest nights" of the weeks. And I will be there to listen (or pretend not to --).
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