Right Decision, Right Time

My last shift bartending at the Firehouse was on this past Sunday. It was uneventful, thankfully, as one certain crazy person did not show up. Several good friends did show up which totally made my rather long day and evening.

I arrived at 12 noon looking forward to a rather sleepy Sunday before Memorial Day.  After opening, an older bar regular named Brian came in. I think he is in his late 60's but due to the hardships and knocks of life, looks past 70. Brian dispenses advice with the thoughtfulness of a wise old sage. He speaks softly and deliberately. He always means what he says. It was an honor to spend my early Sundays speaking with him over his Camels, Yuengling Premium, and Crown Royal shots.

Brian had brought me in some National Geographic's to read now that he was done with them. He was very happy to pass on the magazines as he hates throwing them out.  We had one of our great in depth conversations and shoved off about 1:30 bidding me farewell. I was happy he stopped in.

I went through a stretch of an hour or two where no one was at the bar and then good friends from Lake Wynonah came in. John stopped in for a soda on his way to work. My good friends Sarah and Sue stopped in and hung out and then about 8 more from the Lake came in. Along with friends Carol and Joe, we all had a fun evening late into the night. I got home at 12:30 PM. It was a 12 ½ shift on my feet! UGH! Well let's just say, it was worth it. Good friends are always generous and I am extremely lucky for their company.

When I got home, I received more texts from my Lake peeps asking if I was open. Unfortunately, the Firehouse is in a dead zone and I didn't receive the messages until later. Otherwise, I would have gladly had everyone down! I am always about the more, the merrier.

I was disappointed that certain people did not stop in for my last shift. Such is life I guess. When you work in this business, whether full time or part time, you learn to differentiate between friends who come to your bar and just bar patrons.  Friends reached out to me, whether by text, conversation, or showing up. Others did not and honestly, it's no biggie, just an observation. It solidifies my decision to leave. It was the right decision for the right time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AP Cake, A PA Dutch Recipe

Image
"AP Cake" A couple of years back, I had a blog project named “Cooking Through Family”. You can check out the recipes I made on the labels tab of the same name on the front of my blog page. I made about 85% of my Mom’s, Dad’s family, and Mom’s family recipes learning about my family as I went through each recipe, remembering our fun time, etc. The only ones I did not make were the baking ones which included the cakes, cookies, bars and pies.  The Clutzy Baker I don't know why but I've always had an unnatural fear of baking but it  always seemed so scientific. Now I am not talking about the Betty Crocker box cakes, brownie mixes, or chocolate chip cookie dough "rolls". I am talking about baking from scratch. Almost anyone can spoon out cookie dough and shove it in the oven for 30 minutes.  In school, I’ve always been better with the arts, literary and history classes rather than sciences or mathematics. I always meant to get back to the baking recipes and I th...
Read more

A Monster Allergic Reaction: Erythritol

Image
Marc with Hives (Cabbage Patch link) By chance, I completed this blog post on Mother's Day so I guess I will put it up dedicated to my dear Mother Abby. Not a day goes by where I don't think about you, miss you, and love you. And I guess I will thank my Mother for passing on a whole mess of allergies to me, LOL. It's not so bad, I live with them. Sometimes as you will see below, a new allergy will crop up and be added to my list. As my Mom once said to me, "Your allergies? Well you can thank your Mother for that one!" A couple years ago, my doctor recommended I stop drinking so much coffee as well as those energy drinks. I drank the energy drinks fairly often like at least once every couple days. It didn't matter the brand, just whatever was on sale or available. He had stated that he thought there was nothing beneficial to them from a nutritional standpoint and he'd rather have me drink my coffee instead. I did not completely give up my coffee bu...
Read more

Favorite Kitchen Tools

Image
"Voile" Pasta Measurer by Alessi Throughout the years, I have acquired several favorite cooking tools as gifts or through my own discoveries. I am always on the lookout for cool kitchen gadgets. Mom's favorite kitchen tool was the wooden spoon. When we stepped out of line, she would grab it and threaten to paddle us with it. She was kidding/half serious most of the time but I think I remember once or twice when I got the spoon to my butt for being a bad kid. Mom swore by wooden kitchen tools and to this day, I have plenty in my kitchen as well. The first favorite kitchen tool is the "Voile" Alessi Pasta Measurer. Alessi is an incredible Italian design company. Check out more of their wares at www.alessi.com . It was a gift from my father and stepmom Martha. Each circle in the pasta measurer is for a different amount of pasta. It was truly a perfect gift from the two of them as it encompassed Martha's passion for the kitchen and cooking, and ...
Read more