Saturday, September 30, 2006

Stress...

I have a lot of stress lately. Family issues, personal issues and then pile on the idiots at the bar, both certain employees and the people that come in.

I'm a fairly simple person. I don't let things bother me because it's a waste of time. Sometimes it all piles on and there's not much I can do.

The bar has a jukebox. It's got all kinds of different music in it. If you stand there and hit the side of it hard then the cd will skip. If you do that a couple times you get tossed out of the bar.

So this guy was standing there and hitting the jukebox. I saw Chucky start heading over there so I had Ron, one of the cooks, stand by the door and I headed over to the jukebox. I got over there and Chucky was talking to the guy. He saw me come over and pointed at the guy and walked off. I grabbed the beer out of his hand and put my hand on his back. "I need you to head out the door now."

He started walking and never said a word to me. It was a quick and easy extraction. Then his friends came up to the door. Two of them walked out and didn't say a word. The third one stood there with a full rocks glass and decided to talk about how his friend shouldn't have been thrown out.

"You know what? It's total bullshit that you threw my friend out of here. He wasn't doing shit you know."

I just stood there. I didn't respond to him at all. I stared over his shoulder and didn't say a word.

"So what? Now your gonna act stupid or something? Not gonna talk to me? You fuckin moron."

I reached up and grabbed the rocks glass. "Now it's time for you to go."

"What!? I didn't do shit! I'll leave once I'm done with my drink ya asshole!"

"Your done now." I held on to the rocks glass and turned it to it's side and dumped the entire drink onto the guys shoes. Before he could even say, "What the fu--!" I grabbed his shirt by the front collar and started pushing him out the door with one hand.

Once I got him out he let off with the typical banters of how he shouldn't have been thrown out and that he'll never come to this bar again. He stood there with his friends and continued to talk and I walked back into the bar.

As I was standing inside the bar the door opened again. This same scrawny little man was standing there yelling into the doorway. He rattled off a few normal insults and I stood there looking at him waiting for him to leave. Then he rattled off some insults towards my family. Still standing there with the door open.

Then I moved. I didn't even realize that I had moved. I took two steps towards the door and pushed it open with my right arm as my left arm came up and I grabbed him by the throat. Then I turned and slammed him against the wall and stared into his face. "You need to get the fuck out of here. Now." The guy reached up and grabbed my throat and I grabbed his thumb and pulled it back towards his forearm. Next thing I knew I turned and had thrown him to the ground.

His friends stepped towards me and I pushed my sleeves up to my elbows just standing there, staring at them.

Chucky came running out and stood next to me. "Hey man, let's go back inside. These guys aren't worth shit to us, let them go."

The guy on the sidewalk started getting up. His friends started walking off and trying to get him to do the same. I walked back inside and Chucky followed me in a couple minutes.

"Man, what was that all about?" Chucky asked me after everything calmed down.

"I don't know.. One minute he was working his mouth, the next I had him against the wall by his throat."

"Well... how bout you try going to a gym or something... or get rid of the stress you got built up."

"Sounds great Chucky, you gonna pay for it?"

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Meetings....

We normally have meetings. Usually it's about once a month and a whole lot of nothing is ever resolved about any issues we have. People bitch and moan all month long and when they finally have the possibility to say something, they don't say a word. Our meetings are more like funerals.

This one was kind of fun. It was a meeting just to introduce the new manager and the owner was actually there. Some people recognized him from coming in the past couple weeks, others didn't.

So Paulie said his hellos and put his thoughts out on the table. He wants to change a few things and I think that scares some people. Which is always a good thing.

So the next few days he will be sitting in on some shifts and getting the feel for things. Should be pretty interesting to see how people act now that they know he's the incoming manager. Of course, it's the same old shit for me. I have nothing to worry about since I never worry about much.

The pool is still in effect and Stewart is still on the top of the list.

Then over at the club everything is still the same as ever. Nothings really changed there, the politics are still eating away at me though. Sometimes I just can't understand playing favorites when one person is obviously better than another. Then again, I don't have the same kind of addictions as other people.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Paulie the Lurker...

Recently there's been a new Lurker in the bar, he's a little different than the others. He actually buys drinks and sits at the bar. The bad part is how much he watches the bartenders and what they do.

People who sit back and only watch the bar seem to set off my alarm. Maybe I over think but to me it's almost like the person is looking to see where money is going and how things work back there. Then again, that's why I'm here, to over think and keep it all safe.

So after a couple nights of seeing this guy come in and sit at the bar near the door I decided to talk to him. I caught him outside as he was walking up and figured I'd just get it all out of the way and satisfy my curiosity.

"Can I see your ID?"

"Yea, sure man."

I looked at his ID and held on to it. "How's your night goin tonight?"

"It's goin good man. Yours?"

"Mines fairly the same as usual. You new to the neighborhood?"

"You could say that. I used to bartend up north but now I'm doing something new soon."

"That's good. I do have a question for you though." I stood there with his ID in my hand still, "Any reason why you've been coming here for the past few days and staring down my bartenders?"

"Oh yea, you noticed that huh? Well, I have my reasons." He started to reach for his ID back and I pulled my hand away.

"Well, you might wanna tell me your reasons if you want this back or even if you want to come into the bar."

"Listen man, this really isn't necessary..."

"I'll tell you what's necessary. What's your reasons?"

"Well... your gettin a new manager right?" I just stood there looking at him and shrugged. "Well, I'm that guy. I'm the new guy and I've just been checkin the place out. Phil should have let you know that."

"He hasn't, which is normal. What's your name?"

"I'm Paulie... glad to know someone around here is paying attention."

"It's what I get paid for. So no one else knows about this?"

"Well, they're not supposed to. I'd rather keep it that way."

"No problem. Don't know who you are."

We shook hands and Paulie walked in.

I think the game just got more interesting and the odds have all changed in the pool. I think I'm going to have an unfair advantage in the pool.

It's about time I had the advantage over something.