First Posted 18 December 2007

This Is Too Cool For School!

Current mood:cantankerous

I am writing this entry in the Westside Lounge on my little Lappy! I am loving this! Although I am not too sure it's completely…umm…allowed, I'll try to get away with it as long as possible. Hey, during the slow periods, when I have no customers, why the hell not?
It beats just sitting here, eating and watching telly. Although now I am thinking I should connect it to the phone line and see if I can get online. I didn't clear the MSN program out of Lappy so, I just may be able to access the Internet. Ooo, I am so bad!
I decided to pack up Lappy and bring him here although, the forty pounds of laptop was a bit much to lug around through the city. I walked here from the penthouse because I was ready early, after updating the Café and running my errands so, I was sitting at home writing more of my book when I thought, "This is a portable laptop, why not port it to work?" and I did!

Yep, it ain't heavy, it's my Lappy!

The day was turning ugly during my jaunt here. The weatherpersons said there'd be rain/snow later and by the looks of the clouds being blown in from the northeast, they just might be correct. It also got rather chilly, I do hope we don't get snow. Or, I would rather have snow (not too much snow) more than rain because no one comes out in the rain.

(Editor's Note: Tried to connect to the Internet between these paragraphs) Well, I wasted nearly an hour and probably racked up an expensive phone bill trying to get Lappy connected to the Internet. Seems there's a problem with either the modem or the ancient versions of AOL and MSN that I was accessing. I will have to find one of those AOL disks that I have lying about and reload an updated version. The one on here is Version 3.0. Yes, I said it's ancient, it is practically written on papyrus with plant-based inks. It's ecological for sure but not very conducive to connecting to the World Wide Web. Actually, I got on to AOL but the main server no longer supports that version. That's some sort of ageism, isn't it? Damn! MSN wouldn't acknowledge my account, I don't know if they had Hotmail when this was installed, I don't use my MSN account all that often.

The sad thing is, I haven't had a single customer since I got here. Yikes! That's two hours of nuttin'!

I guess I'll watch the news. There is nothing else to do.

(Editor's Note: Several days have passed before adding to this entry) Customers began coming in, few and far between. I was getting a bit worried about our party that evening. It was "Customer Appreciation Night/Larry's (the owner) Birthday" and we had food and such for the big shindig. It would be a shame if we bought all this stuff and no one showed up. Finally, Giget came and relieved me and I helped with set-up. Jose and I stood there, waiting behind the bar and discussing if we thought it would be busy, both worried that it wouldn't. Then a few people came in, then a few more. Then a group of five, then a group of seven. It got nuts! We ended up getting really busy and Jose and I were quite surprised. Larry came in looking all sharp and spiffy in a suit and we tried to get him drunk. No dice! We had shrimp cocktail, bagel sandwiches of all kinds, cheese and pepperoni platters, strawberries and whipped cream, it was rather nice! I had to bring Larry out with the cake and do the old "Happy Birthday" sing-a-long. Giget needed to leave early so, I had to go back on the front bar for the last hour and a half. Not too bad, though, it was still busy all night and we did quite well.

I wanted to go to Maloney's Uptown again, like last weekend, but I had to be back in to open the bar at four on Sunday afternoon and, with how busy it was on Saturday night, I needed to go home and rest. I seem to be the "go to" bartender whenever they need to cover shifts. I don't really mind, though. And no, it's not the money (because it's not that good), I just enjoy having something to do.

Sunday
I had more bad luck in the first forty minutes of getting up, I really considered just bagging the entire day and climbing back into bed, pulling the covers over my head and hibernating until summer! I had to get my show together so, I got up a little early to get it rolling. I have some music in my desktop that I wanted to do and now that I have a monitor, although very blurry, I could finally get to it. So, I pad out into the dining room and click on Napster and sit there. And wait. And wait. It wouldn't load, the little title screen came up but no Napster. I go to MusicMatch thinking I could just import the songs, same thing; the title screen and nothing more. I reboot the hateful thing and go to my room to get a few costumes from my upper closet. I am standing there, on my ottoman and holding a flashlight in my hand and going through my outfits when the ottoman shakes and then tips over, spilling me into a heap onto my boy shoes on the bottom of the closet! Pain! Agony! Cursing! Ensued and I got up and limped to the computer to see if that was ready. It was only this time, I can't get any programs to come up, not even the title screens. I reboot and stagger back to the bathroom to get a shower and just figure out what songs I could do instead. I finally finish up, not too happy with my song selections but, there was no time left so, I walk through the penthouse and pass the desktop and lo and behold, there it is, booted up, ready and waiting, my Napster all bright and shining and ready to go! Argh! I get to the jitney stop and, what luck, a number four jitney pulls up (number fours go directly to the train station thus negating my five block walk to work)! Ahh, a bit of luck! That was just what I needed. Now, of course, you know that this is the point where God taketh away. First there's the Cane and Disabled club getting on and off. Then…THEN…this gentleman gets on and sits right behind me. He has…wait…wait for it…it's so good…he has TOURETTES! Yes, folks, now I have someone behind me barking, repeating sentences, reading every sign out loud, shouting colours, you name it, he said it. Uncontrollably! Now we get to the turn (where the jitney goes off the main route of Pacific Avenue and makes it's way to the train station) and this is where most of the passengers freak because they didn't realize the jitney did this and now they spend five minutes arguing with the driver. Perfect! Of course, you realize, that Tourette doesn't get off here, no, he stays on and rides the jitney to the last bloody stop. My stop! That was fun!

So, I get to work and everything went well, for a bit. It was slow but that was expected with the winds and cold. The time comes for me to put on my show and what happens?

No guest star.

I have to do a one-woman show.

Oh, and I left my make-up home.

As you can see, Sunday was a day that, like God, I should have stayed home and rested. Hid. Hibernated. Held all calls. Battened down the hatches. Fled to the root cellar. Barricaded myself in, Waco style!

Of course, the show was flawless (once Miss Patti gave me a ride to the penthouse where my key almost broke in the lock) and I rocked the place. I'm pretty good in a pinch.

I should be…my life it one big pinch!