Kate gave me an extra day off because I went to Austin on Monday but mostly ended up watching Raw with Sharpie at Buffalo Billiards and getting drunk
Sharpie tells me he's in a mood to sit back, have a beer and listen to a good juke box
and like on Mondays we make sure that nothing too crazy goes down so we stick with beer
now picture me and Sharpie looking up from my phone and looking around Casino El Camino while looking at a list for the best juke boxes in Austin
when I go get a second round , another waitress notices the bad drink and buys us a round since she had to change out the coke
on our third or fourth round of rum and cokes we both spy a machine behind the bar churning an icee like drink that was vomit colored
she fills up two shot glasses and hands them to us
to our surprise we actually like it
so we order two
she serves us in glasses that were no bigger than the shotglasses she handed us earlier
my joke was the samples were bigger
by the third or so round of these I could tell that these drinks would be the end of us
we were both feeling pretty damn good
so we decided to try out the another bar, Shangra La
these are the bars on the east side of town and all in walking distance
while walking to Shangra La we walk past a bar called Cheer Up Charlie's
Sharpie tells me he thinks that's a gay bar
remember that, it's my favorite part of the night
so we get to Shangra La and now we switch to Sailor Jerry's rum and coke
by this time it's Tuna and Sharpie in full effect
we're under the influence of everything right now
we shoot the shit at the bar and stay for a while
then Sharpie tells me he's hungry
he wants pizza
so we decide to call it a night
while walking back to our cars we walk past Cheer Up Charlie's again
this is how this plays out now
Sharpie: "Tuna, go ask them if this is a gay bar."
Me:"O.K"
(I step off the sidewalk and walk up to the guy sitting on a stool checking i.d.'s. There's a bouncer next to him. Sharpie stays on the sidewalk but is just a few steps behind me.)
Me (to the guy): "Is this a gay bar?"
Guy: pauses "It's gay friendly."
(I turn around to tell Sharpie)
Me( yelling):"IT'S GAY FRIENDLY."
Sharpie(yelling back):"IS THERE A COVER?"
keep in mind Sharpie is just a few paces behind me and there is no reason for either of us to be yelling and the guy can clearly hear Sharpie, correction the Bushwacker is the reason for the yelling
Me:"Is there a cover?"
guy:"no"
Me back to Sharpie:"NO!"
Sharpie:"DO THEY HAVE FOOD?"
Me:"Do you have food?"
guy:"There's food trailers in back."
Me back to Sharpie:"THERES FOOD TRAILERS IN THE BACK."
Sharpie:"WHAT KIND OF FOOD?"
at this point the bouncer steps in and asks Sharpie himself ,"What are you in the mood for?"
I do that thing where I look all around to see who the bouncer is talking to since I'm thinking they clearly cannot hear nor see Sharpie
anyway we go in and order more rum and coke instead of calling it a night
if we had just gone home it would have been close to midnight
plenty of time for a good night's sleep
so we mosey into the back part with our rum and cokes and start to mingle
there we meet a large black man by the name of Lawrence
we learn that Lawrence is from Baltimore and is traveling with three other people to California
they stopped in Austin because they hear Austin's the place to be in this day and age
and Lawrence just met team sexy
on Bushwackers
he talks about how they want to check out a club called Barbarellas
that just so happens to be one of Sharpie's favorite haunts in Austin
we can't resist and instead of going home we start the night over again with Lawrence and his crew
we get to the place and now start drinking Lone Star beers
we show them one hell of a time
we're all over the place
upstairs, downstairs, in the halls, on the dancefloor, in the patio
we're cracking Lawrence and the Baltimore boys up something fierce
Lawrence almost broke my arm with a side 5 he gave me cause I cracked one hell of a joke
now that I'm writing this I remember why my left arm hurts so damn much
it's closing time and I make the mistake of going out of the bar
but everyone is still inside
they won't let me back in cause it's past two
so I start to make friends with everyone outside talking
they finally get out and we bid them farewell
Sharpie comes with me and off we go
it's now about 2:30
on the ride home Sharpie passes out in my truck
I'm determined to get him home and make sure he gets up for work
I was thinking about taking him to his place and sleeping on my couch I just gave him
but one thing I know about Sharpie is when he first passes out you cannot move him, wake him, or get him to do anything you want him to do
unless you physically pick him up
and I was in no condition to do that
so his car is at my place so the best thing to do is drive to my place
another thing I know about Sharpie is he doesn't stay knocked out all night
there's a small window where he wakes up and will listen to you
so I park my truck and roll down the windows and get comfortable in the truck
I'm leaning back with my feet out the window
about an hour later Sharpie wakes up and mumbles something
I get up since I know this is my chance to get him inside so we can at least get some sleep inside for a few hours
I get him in and set down the blankets
I ask him what time I should wake him
I set the alarm and we pass out
in the morning, Sharpie tells me the last thing he remebers is Barbarellas and then he woke up on my floor
that was one hell of a break
after he leaves I make the mistake of going back to sleep
I wake up in just the time to get up and drive back to Victoria to go to work
there was still work to be done at my apt
so that night I talked Paulie into driving with me back to Austin to clear out my pad
just so I could have someone to talk to while I take that drive again
when Kate heard about this she asked me how come it's taking me so many trips to move
I told her whenever I step foot in that city I end up getting drunk
god I'm gonna miss that town
