Day 19 - Tuesday - The Gang's All Here

Quote of the day: "I'm doing pinche homework!"
-Rina

Due to the crapy weather, I put on enough layers to stop bullets, drove to Der Wienerschnitzel to park my truck and hastily made my way through the driving rain around front to the welcoming entrance of Jack's Bar & Lounge.

Inside something I've long anticipated but have not yet experienced until tonight occurred.

I call it a Boulevard of Broken Dreams moment. This is when I walk in to Jack's and see only regulars at the bar, there are several of them there and I know all their names.

The key difference is of course that everyone is alive and well, and I get to live the dream by hanging out with them for awhile at Jack's.

I thought to myself "this is totally cool" as I walked in to hellos, hugs and handshakes from Jason, Marcus, Lisa, Shannon, Dean, Grady (Justin) and Tod.

Rina was behind the bar and looked fantastic as ever, with minimalist glitter makeup and her hair recently done. Rina did not attend the getaway with her coworkers, instead she ran through the rain in San Francisco, Audrey Hepburn-style.

Speaking of coworkers, Matt, Travis, Jordan and their friends returned from Tahoe 9:13 p.m. Not sure if the others made it back. Travis took over for Rina and she headed out the door to finish her homework.

Notes on the night:

• THANK YOU to Jason for buying me a round from his 1-4-24 winnings on the night.
• Lisa was almost in tears describing how good Shannon is to her. There's not a night that's gone by where she hasn't sung his praises. It's nice to see real life true love.
• Epic three person games of 1-4-24 were had at the corner of the bar between Marcus, Jason and Lisa. I played a few, too.
• Travis managed to fall out of bed and hit his head on the dresser only once during the whole trip to Tahoe.
• Dean was nice enough to ask if I was missing my bus as he headed out the door. Thank you Dean for keeping an eye out for me!
• 8 pm, the lights went down, "Hey Ya!" by Outkast was played via Marcus' iPhone and Rina danced behind teh bar while Shannon did a hips-up dance on his bar stool.

I reserve the right to not put my phone behind the bar for any reason, because Travis reserves the right to play with it indefinitely and not give it back (ha ha Marcus).

FYI: Rina's church is having a crab feed fund raiser. Will advise on details as I learn them, but know this: you owe it to yourself to experience at least one crab feed in your life. They're awesome.

OK I cut some things out of this one but not everything needs to be listed here like a damn all in one laundry and grocery list. Besides, it would be another 2,000 word blog post and we both know you and I just don't have that much time to read on weeknights.

Better to spend it jawing at each other at Jack's anyway.  ;)

See you there!