…then I had sex with an alligator, and we went home
It doesn’t take much for a bartender to become a favorite bartender. Usually making the drink the way I like it and not giving attitude if I ask for it to be made a little differently than their usual is all it takes. But Victor at Halo is definitely in my Top Bartenders list. He remembers my name, remembers my drinks, even if I’ve been away for a few months it’s “Where have you been, man?”
Yesterday was very much the usual at work, as of Monday I’ll be managing the group and there’s stuff going on that I know about but am being given no details on, so I can’t disseminate information to my staff. My brain is clearly in deep denial about the changeover, I know I just need to have a productive and relaxing weekend and I’ll be ready to take on the new job Monday, but for now let me just enjoy the bliss of ignorance and roll with it.
The trees.. having sex everywhere.. all up in my face.. in my nose.. make it stop!
Last night I met up with a friend I’ve been chatting with online since last year just before Pride. I was downtown and he was going to head into town to meet me and go for drinks except that he’d transposed my phone number by a digit, so his calls went off into nothingness and it’s been online chatting ever since. Last week I said we’d do dinner and drinks this week and last night was perfect. We decided on Merkado for nachos and Halo for drinks and he advised me to wear something sexy just in case my ex was there, so I headed home from work and shaved and fluffed (a la Outrageous Fortune) and had planned to walk, but the bus was right there and I doubt I could have made the walk in my new’ish shoes even though they needed breaking in, the backs of my ankles don’t need the scars.
I got near the restaurant and stopped at the Wachovia (wa-KO-Vee-ah? wa-CHO-Vee-ah?) atm to pull out some cash and the machine froze up on me. I had my headphones in, so didn’t really notice that it was taking a little while for the machine to process my transaction. The keypad didn’t respond to input and after a little longer, I headed into the bank to ask what was up. I was concerned that my card or cash might still come out while I was inside but as soon as I got to the center manager and asked about it she said “Oh man, is that still doing that?” and she sent a rep to get my card back. This city’s ATMs have munched my cards more often than I can count. It’s never for a transaction error or card revocation, always because the ATM is acting up. Gregory met me inside the bank since he was trying to get money as well and couldn’t, because my card was stuck in the machine!
Merkado has got a great nacho platter, it’s huge! We got the veggie one since he doesn’t eat any animal which walks upon land, but it was delicious, definitely something to be shared. And at ½ price, it was hard to argue, the margaritas were so-so, but it may have been our bartender. He wasn’t terribly attentive to us or our refills, so he got standard tippage.
We hit Halo shortly after eating and it was more full than I’m used to, I always end up getting there early and the place is often dead as people haven’t gotten off work yet, or they haven’t had their come-home-disco-nap before going back out. But it was nice to see wall-to-wall people in there, and no sign of the ex. Not that it mattered because I looked fabulous. Gregory saw a few of his ex’s there, but I saw none of mine, but plenty of candidates for future ex-boyfriend. Victor greeted me by name, of course, I tried a Ruby Slipper (sweet and tart with a red-sugar rim and blueberries), had a Queen Victoria, and then asked for a Cosmopolitan with Absolut Pears which turned out to be very yummy. I talked to a few people, but most it was Gregory and I being silly. This one nice guy Craig did chat me up, but he and his friend left for food and I got a “I hope I’ll see you around” as they headed out. Still, it was nice.
Just before we left, when I settled my tab Victor asked “Where’s your friend?” and I told him we broke up and he might see him there again, just not with me. He asked how long we’d been together and when I told him he said, “Aw, man, you need a shot, don’t go away.” I tried to refuse since I was well plastered at this point, but he was being nice, and I figured, what’s a shot going to hurt? I didn’t see what went in it, but the initial smell of cough syrup told me that at least there was Jägermeister on the top.
I knocked it back and it was delicious, he grins at me and says, “You just had Sex With An Alligator, my friend.” And I thought that it was a perfectly insane way to end the evening.
