The Life of a Southern Girl

The only thing I can think about right now is the tragedy brought onto so many people by Hurricane Katrina. As I'm sure is true with all of you; I have watched the news footage coming out of the areas affected with a very heavy heart. Right now I'm sitting at my computer in my comfortable air-conditioned house about to start a load of laundry. Then I'll go to the kitchen and grab something to eat. Because I can. And it makes me feel relief and guilt at the same time. Relief that myself and all the people I love are safe and sound. Guilt that there are 10's of thousands of people wandering through flooded streets right now with nothing but the clothes on their backs not knowing where to go. Right this minute. In America. I would have never believed that there would come a time when we would be refering to some of our own as "refugees". I feel the same way I did after 9/11. The feeling you have when you just can't seem to wrap your brain around something.

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The best we can do is to Donate, Donate, Donate. Whether it is your time, your money, or food/clothes. Everything will help. In my experience, the Red Cross is the best route to go. I rode out Hurricane Hugo in Charleston & Hurricanes Louis & Marilyn in St. Croix. The majority of the help I received came through the Red Cross.

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If you are in the area, Ramparts is doing a fundraiser to aid the hurricane victims next Thursday. 7pm-11pm. There will be a $10 cover charge; 100% of which will go to the Red Cross. 10% of our sales will also be donated to the Red Cross. We will be working out the rest of the details over the next couple of days. There will be music & I'm sure several raffles & silent auctions. Several of the restaurants & bars associated with iwantmynatstv.com will be doing fundraisers in the coming weeks as well. Check out the site for details from participating businesses.

I'll be on the bar next Thursday until 7pm at which time I'll switch to the other side. Introduce yourself & I'll treat you to a cocktail.

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peace

Men; that is. It has always driven me crazy when I hear a woman say, "All men" do this; "All men" do that. I personally have always believed that every man is different. That there are no set patterns to their behavior. I have never believed that all men cheat. That all men are liars. Even though most of the men I know keep insisting on proving me wrong.

That is why I go into relationships with such blind faith. Now; I'm not stupid. I have burned & been burned. I know how the game is played. But, there is still a part of me that wants to believe that a man CAN be good. He can be sincere. He can be faithful.

For whatever reason; this subject has been on my mind recently. Probably because I finally feel that I could actually start a new relationship. Finally. It's been 4 months. And even though I don't feel that I need a man in my life to complete me; I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it would be nice. To have that again.

For the first time in my adult life; I feel "Gun Shy". Instead of barreling ahead like I've always done; I'm thinking of the possible end result before anything actually happens. The bottom line is: I cannot hurt that way again. It seems to get more brutal the older you get.

I told a very good friend of mine recently that I was never going to get seriously involved with anyone ever again. I was just going to "fuck my way through Alexandria". This is a girl that knows that I've never had a one-night stand. She said, "Well, it sounds fun. But, that's not you". True. Even my f-buddies were ex-boyfriends. Ya know, road already traveled and all that. No surprises. Sometimes I wish that I was one of those women that don't need to have "feelings" attatched.

I do know one man that I would bet my life would never cheat (besides my father. Whom you may refer to as God. Like I do). Unfortunately, he's pratically my brother. I may be persuaded to pimp him out. Send me your resume.

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Advise me. Please.

peace

I was wicked, stupid busy today. I was looking forward to the tan bed & manicure/pedicure after work. I tanned then went to my 7:30 mani/pedi appointment.

Now; I LOVE getting a pedicure. The foot massage part is my favorite. Halfway through the massage; 2 of the Vietnamese girls that work there came running out of the back room screaming things in Vietnamese. All people that understand what they're saying jump up and they all run out of the shop. Which left all us clients (the non-Vietnamese speaking people) sitting there wondering, "WTF???". It takes us a few seconds before we grab our stuff and follow them outside.

Turns out that there was a fire in the back room. A minute or so after we went outside; I could see some smoke & it smelled electrical.

The employees run back in and grab the money drawer & I don't even know what else. Clippers, maybe? There was a lot of running in and out & it occurs to me & one of the clients standing next to me that they have not called 911. So we called. Cindy (my mani/pedi girl) notices that I have left my $2 pedicure flip-flops inside. She bravely goes back in and "saves" them for me while I'm telling her that it's really not necessary. I have other shoes in the car.

Being that I'm not much of a rubber-necker; I stuck around long enough to check out the firemen (firemen are usually cute) and left.

Damn. I really hope the shop is OK. Cindy gives the best foot massage I've ever had. I am kind of disappointed that it took her all of a split second to drop my foot back in the water and haul ass outside without telling me that maybe I should haul ass as well. So much for all those generous tips I've been giving her all this time.

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I moved on to Staples to buy printer ink. Which I've never done before. I'm just talking about ink. For a printer. Sounds basic. Sounds easy. Right?

No, No, No.

It makes sense to me that you should be able to just look at the front of the package & it would say, "For Printers 810C, 810B, etc". I am such a misguided soul. Lucky for me, there was a 75 page guide book sitting right there that I could take a seat and read to find the type printer I have and it tells me the correlating number I need to look for to find "The One".

And why are there so many different models of printers? They all basically just put words and pictures on paper; right? Could we scale it down to, maybe, 5? The only way that I think they can improve on the technology is if you can hold your eye up to something & it puts a "picture" of the words or photo directly into your brain.

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I am staying in tonight. On a Friday night. So much for that "Way-Hip-Girl-About-Town" persona I've honed. But that's OK. I'll be at the Nationals game tomorrow which I'm sure will parlay into a 9 hour drunk-fest since we are now 7 busses strong from 6 different bars.

And then I have both of my Fantasy Football drafts on Sunday. I'm not really worried about the draft I have with the guys where I used to work. I've played with them 3-4 years. I AM worried about the draft I have with the guys I work with now. I can totally see it being "No more Mister Nice Guy" after the first pick. I drew for 3rd pick in both leagues, which I see as a good sign. I wonder what the odds of that happening is. Wish me luck.

peace

to the powers that be. It took me 20 minutes to get to this place. This place where I could post. Am I the only one this is happening to?

This is just a test, actually.

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I've posted twice in the last 3 days and my posts didn't show up. I'm damn near emotionally exhausted. I spilled my guts twice and was totally rebuffed. If I got any "gut" stuff on you; I apologize.

peace

Ok...I am not a patient person. At All. And, I'm not your average "not-patient-person". I am Goddamn impatient pretty much every waking moment. I have no time for lines. Anywhere. Anytime.

I live 7.2 minutes from where I work. If it takes me any longer than that; it's not because I am the only person around here that knows how to drive.

I don't actually BELIEVE that; but it's how I rationalize it to myself.

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With that said; it drives me Fucking INSANE when I post something to Blogger & it just .....goes.....away.....

because I don't have the patience to sit here & reiterate everything I just wrote about. I did it once, already. With all the emotions behind it. Anything after that will just sound forced. I hate that.

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And by the way; move to the right, please. You're in the Goddamned fast lane!

peace

the feeling that you have when you lose a post to Blogger is the Internet equivalent to Road Rage.

Just my opinion...

...at Cantina Marina...

And that's about the only attraction.

The service sucks there.

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Picture it: Marina bar...Sunday afternoon...nice weather...boats on the water....Miss Scarlett praying for another beer.

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Sarcastic Kudos go out to Tom and Jennifer. Hands down; the worse Bartenders ever.
Tom is not very attractive & tries to make up for it by pretending he's great friends with Jennifer. Who laughs when he picks her up and then she runs away to complain to whoever will listen that she hates it when Tom picks her up. Seriously, who wants to drink at a bar that has all this high-school shit going on?

Meanwhile, us customers are thirsty. And they are just not paying attention.

All I wanted is for one of them to recognize the fact that my friends and I needed new drinks. We were sitting AT THE BAR with roughly 10 other people and had to flag someone down everytime we needed a drink. We eventually pulled the 'Bartenders Card" to let them know we were bartenders as well & it made no difference.

Tom has no gimmick whatsoever that I could see. Jennifer has this kind of "I don't care if you're here or not" thing going. While she's chewing on a toothpick. When you would ask her for something, she would just kind of nod at you. While chewing. She's, like, 12. At what point did she become bitter? Being in the business, I have to wonder, how do these people make money?

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We eventually made friends with some poor girl behind the bar that I think was equally as put out as we were. Meaning, she thought her co-workers were assholes. The bottom line is...if you're looking for fun in the DC waterfront...go to Tony & Joes. The view is as nice and the service is so much better.

peace

Come on; I know there are at least 5 of you.

The restaurant I work in has started a Grassroots Campaign to bring the Washington Nationals games to TV. That's right. We would like to see the games played on TELEVISION. Cool concept, don't you think?

We started this whole thing and it's really snowballed. We have 50+ bars and restaurants involved now.

You should go straight away to iwantmynatstv.com to find out what all the craziness behind this is.

And if you are in the area; check out the Promotion we're doing at Rampart's this coming Thursday. We're extending our Happy Hour 'til 9pm & then our own incredibly handsome Jules will be DJing. We will be giving away lots of tickets to the August 27th game & you will also get the chance to sign up to be on the bus going to the game.

I'll be on the bar 'til 7. Introduce yourself & say, "I read about this on some silly girl's blog" and I'll buy you a drink.

peace

They're about 50/50 when it comes to Bartending. But that's not what I want to get into right now. I only want to talk about one of the top 5 Cons.

After you've spent about 45 hours in a bar all week; the last thing you really want to do is go out to a bar at the start of your weekend. I usually save it for Saturday nights. I just feel itchy to get out right now & noone I know is having a nice, quiet Dinner Party.

I came home today and took a nap. It was a long week. Now it's 10:00pm on a Friday night & I am off for the weekend. I would really like to have some social time that doesn't involve me doing things for money. That SO didn't come out the way I intended; but, you know what I mean.

I'm gonna suck it up. I'm going to take a shower, dress to the nines, and go out to a freakin' bar where I know alot of my friends are. And I will have a good time, damnit. I Will! I Will! Ok....Here I go....

I haven't talked about the stupid things people Google to find their way here lately. No reason. I just haven't.

I was just looking & found that someone Googled "screaming perrier girl" and this site was a result.

I'm trying to work up that scenario in my mind.....

Nope...I got nothin'. I have to call "No Joy".

Yesterday at work, a person at my bar was talking about how something that had happened to him that day could easily be explained by "Murphy's Law". We all know about "Murphy's Law". I said, "Who was that Murphy guy, anyway?" to which my friend Steve responded, "He was the guy that could never find the Irish bar".

I laughed my ass off.

I totally got it.

And I hardly ever do.


peace

I work in a place where the clientele is mostly "Regulars". I consider the majority of them my "work-friends" and actually only socialize with a small percentage. These are the ones I've become actual friends with. We meet outside of where I work. I've met their other friends, family. That's not to say I don't want to socialize with others there. In most cases, there hasn't been time or opportunity to get to know them better outside of seeing them 10-15 hours a week at my bar. I consider myself lucky to be working in a place where I'm around people all the time that I can see myself being actual friends with.

You know what I mean. When you meet someone, start getting to know them, and think to yourself, "I could hang out with this person".

With that said, there is one guy in particular that I knew from the first moment I met him that he was going to stay in the "work-friend-I-will-never-socialize-with" category. Let's say that he may or may not have been the one that interrupted my breakfast the other morning by blowing smoke in my face while I was trying to eat.

I ran into this guy last Friday night while I was out in the area. Made a couple of minutes of small talk & that was it. Today he says to me, "You looked really great the other night. If you ever find yourself out late and wanting to "hook-up" with someone; I hope you'll give me a call." (This guy is a Chemical Engineer heading up a project for the Defense Department at the Pentagon. Not some Frat Boy.)

Okay.

Where do I even start.

#1. What makes him think he can speak to me that way? I am not the proverbial ditzy blonde cocktail waitress. I have a great reputation around here and I pride myself on it.

#2. Who the fuck does he think HE is?? Really, Baby; you're not all that.

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The DC area (as other large cities) has a high percentage of restaurant/bar staff that are educated. Believe it or not. You can't swing a cat around here without hitting a few bartenders that have Grad degrees in something. Being a Bartender or a Server is considered a profession around here because you can make enough money in it to get you that nice car/house/boat/twice-a-year vacations that other people slave over a desk with their Phd's for years to get. Good "Wining-and-Dining" is damn near a Religion here.

The point I'm trying to make is that the 'ole "She's a bartender, so she must be a slut" idea doesn't fly around here. I really wish he had made that comment to me the other night when I was with all my "friends-I-didn't-make-at-work" friends. He would have been properly annihilated. They were all Bartenders.

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Once again, I found myself in a situation where I wish I'd had Murphy there. If for nothing else than an alibi. "Officer, Murphy & I were having cocktails at the Time Of Death. We were discussing how hard it is for people like us to tolerate the ignorance of people like him."

peace

I use to subscribe to Cosmopolitan magazine when Helen Gurley Brown was still the Editor. That was when it was a really great mix of Fashion, Beauty, Sex, Health, & Career advice. With each subject getting equal time. I haven't subscribed in a long time, but still pick it up every now and then just to see what they're teaching these days. It still has some of the Fashion/Beauty/Health/Career stuff; but it's pretty much just about sex. And it's geared toward mostly 20-somethings whereas it use to shoot for a larger demographic.

In either case; I picked it up today because I needed some pool-side reading and, come on, the cover just SCREAMS at you. "Sex Survey: The Position They Crave, Their Biggest Turn-off, The Female Flex They Love!", "Guys Uncensored", "Sizzling Sex Tips".

I read & find it's pretty much your basic common knowledge stuff. Until I get to the article titled, "Ways to Wow Him After Sex: Follow these postdeed suggestions to prevent a new flame from freaking out." It goes on to tell you these little tricks you can do to make him "come back for more". Basically, it should have been called, "How to Coddle Every Fucked Up Pre-conceived Notion He Harbors About Women."

I agreed with the first suggestion. Freshen up when you first wake up. Comb your hair, brush your teeth. But shouldn't he be doing the same? I don't care if you've been involved for one night, one week, or ten years. It's always appreciated.

The next suggestion was to feed him since apparently, according to this article, men only care about sex & food. Well, I guess I'll never see him again unless he REALLY likes toast. I'm not much on cooking.

Next was to not stick around. Don't assume you're going to spend the day together. Ya know what? I'm a busy girl. Maybe I would need HIM to not stick around 'cause I've got things to do.

Well, I'm well pass the game-playing stage & found this absolutely hysterical. It comes with sexual maturity, I suppose. That's one good thing that comes with age. You have to practice, of course.



peace