{"id":698,"date":"2008-06-29T08:14:40","date_gmt":"2008-06-29T13:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=698"},"modified":"2008-06-29T08:14:40","modified_gmt":"2008-06-29T13:14:40","slug":"last-night-at-the-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2008\/20080629-698.htm","title":{"rendered":"Last night at the bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

I debated with myself for a while before finally deciding to go to Scrumpy Jacks<\/a> last night to see a coworker perform.<\/p>\n

Ash sings all the time at work–generally parodies on the name of another coworker–and I was curious to hear him in “real time”. He had posters up at work for the last couple of weeks–and he also actually asked<\/strong> me to show up. “It won’t be death metal or anything,” he says “just me and an acoustic guitar. Just your average bar music.”<\/p>\n

What I haven’t mentioned yet is that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I don’t go to bars<\/li>\n
  2. I don’t drink alcohol “solo” (without a meal)<\/li>\n
  3. I don’t hang out with coworkers outside of the “office”<\/li>\n
  4. I don’t go to concerts (in general)<\/li>\n
  5. I don’t go out on Saturday nights<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That’s an awful lot of don’t<\/em>s. So perhaps you can understand my inner debate.<\/p>\n

    Scrumpy Jacks isn’t exactly a bar–it’s a restaurant that closes the kitchen at 10 pm and keeps its bar open ’til one while they have live music. Still, for all intents and purposes, it’s a bar–and there’s little chance that I’ll be sitting down to a meal with the music starting at 9:30.<\/p>\n

    I’ve never, in all my years (hardy har, don’t I make myself sound old?) of working, spent time with coworkers outside of the workplace. I like to keep personal time sacred. I have no desire to be one of those people whose life revolves around work and coworkers and what I’m doing with either. I especially have little desire to join the “after work at the bars” crowd.<\/p>\n

    I’m not really<\/em> a music person. I listen to music on occasion. I enjoy classical music, and seek to appreciate it. I enjoy jazz. I enjoy singing to oldies. Mostly I like worship music, something I can dance to. With the exception of an orchestral performance or something of the like, I don’t go places for the sole purposes of listening to music.<\/p>\n

    And I have church in the morning and am exhausted already from a long work week.<\/p>\n

    So what do I do? I change into a conservative tank top and sweater, slip on loafers, and drive across town to Scrumpy Jacks. I order a Sierra Mist for $1.86 and tip $5–I do know that bartenders aren’t generally that fond of non-drinkers, and that it’s a good idea to keep a bartender on your side. I hope that a big tip helps. I slide into a chair in the little corner area, say hello to a coworker, and listen to the music.<\/p>\n

    It was pretty good. Ash sings well, plays well, has a good “stage presence” in general. I enjoyed the music–with the exception of the occasional vulgarity and the couple of token anti-America, anti-Bush, anti-war songs. I was only there from ten to eleven–so nobody had gotten too drunk, the bar wasn’t that full.<\/p>\n

    It turned out to be fairly innocuous. I drank 20 ounces of Sierra Mist, listened to some music, and spoke maybe 20 words to a coworker. I was thankful that I’d slipped almost completely under the radar. Whew! A night of doing my don’t<\/em>s and I escape without notice–Well, almost.<\/p>\n

    Ash had just finished a song when I left, so he was filling time while preparing for the next song, and my leaving was apparently ample material for time-fill. He’s chattering about me over the mic while I’m walking out, and for the most part, I’m ignoring him. Then on my way out the door, he declares “You’re a better checker than me, Rebekah.” I couldn’t help but turn around and agree. “Yes. I am,” I emphatically half-yell across the restaurant before taking my leave. So much for slipping completely under the radar.<\/p>\n

    Well, that’s might exciting night at the bar. Not too exciting, actually. But I think it’s enough of that sort of excitement to last me for a very long time. So, in case you’re looking for me some Saturday night, you’re not likely to find me in a bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I debated with myself for a while before finally deciding to go to Scrumpy Jacks last night to see a coworker perform. Ash sings all the time at work–generally parodies on the name of another coworker–and I was curious to hear him in “real time”. He had posters up at work for the last couple … Read more Last night at the bar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}