Day 128 - Your Beard Is A Waterfall and All My Drinks Were Bought For Me

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Quote of the day:
Your beard is a waterfall.
-Shanea (like "Shane"+"ah" ...and you'd put that "ah" at the end of any sentence you were speaking the moment you saw her too)

I rushed to Jack's tonight. Made it in with five minutes to spare. Had another down day and slept the depression away all evening long. Missed the Sharks game (which was a pretty good one, from what I heard at the bar later in the evening).

Coach Johnny bought me a beer as soon as I walked into the bar tonight. Thanks for that, Coach. I can't begin to describe what it's like to be so well treated by very good people. Thanks again, man.

It should be said that Coach Johnny looked very handsome this evening. He was very well put together, clean shaven, hair cut neatly. He had a ready smile, his sense of humor ready to go and he seemed to make everyone around him comfortable.

Out back of the bar I chatted with Chris aka Menace out back of the bar. Menace is the best (after me, of course) and a good fellow. Like Coach Johnny, Chris was well put together and seemed to be in a good mood. He's a sensitive fellow, that Menace.

Travis had just come off his shift and was free to drink, so he did. While we were out back with Menace, Travis told me that the number 81 corresponds to "HA" which is short for Hells Angels. Red and White are Hells Angels colors too. (I totally had an apostrophe like this:"Hell's" but the internetz say that's not right.)

All this chat stemmed from Menace asking Travis if he had a bike. Travis said yes, said where he'd take it for repair work and why, thus the above.

It should be noted that Rina and Matt were working tonight, with Ras Dank on the door. DJ B Rich and DJ Vagabond were on tonight, as Traps was away for a DJ battle. Kind of a slow night too; one that would turn into a sausage fest later. Seemed like the more dudes showed up, the more the ladies left. It was a skirts and heels night at the bar too. The majority of the ladies were wearing just what I described. Legs everywhere. It was nice. ;)

According to Sierra Nevada, it was all lines at every drinking establishment downtown. Lots of people left over after the Sharks defeated the most hated Red Wings and eliminated them from the playoffs. Bwahahahaha!

:ahem:

Sierra Nevada was at Jack's earlier for the game, then went downtown to drink some more and celebrate, but the press of people kept him out of the locations he wanted to visit, so back to Jack's with him!

I was still out back for this conversation. The sky was an unusual shade of reddish pink. I could smell winter in the air and someone was running a fireplace nearby, though in my opinion it wasn't that cold out, even with a stiff breeze blowing east to west.

Tempe visited the bar tonight and was über-chipper about his basketball team (Phoenix Suns, if you hadn't guessed already). Guess there's some new kid on the team that totally had the game of his life tonight and sparked the Phoenix bench to new heights of skill when the starters for the Suns–particularly Steve Nash— sat down for breaks during the game.

Menace bought me my second beer tonight. Menace: thank you. It's much appreciated man. Did I mention Menace went out of his way to be very polite tonight and (in his words) well behaved? He did a good job from what I could see.

Out front for a moment and I see the clouds are totally gray/blue. WTF? Are the clouds really so low that the halogen(?) lights on the back patio of Jack's illuminate everything in one color, yet the clouds remain a different color out front? Seriously, I went back and forth twice between the back patio and the front entrance of the bar, yet the colors of the clouds were totally different depending on which side of the bar you were on.

Swear to God I'd had only 1.5 beers by then.

So anyway on my second cloud fact check trip to the front of the bar I ran into the dude who works only weekends at Der Wienerschnitzel. They'd just closed shop and he came over to check things out at the bar (though he never went in, and has actually never walked in to the bar when I've been there, come to think of it). He speaks good English and of course Spanish so he totally let me talk in broken Spanish and English as we chatted about work, jobs, schedules and women. Nice and friendly guy, but I'll be damned if I can remember his name.

While Der Guy and I were talking, DJ Traps showed up. Turns out he got eliminated from the DJ battle on the first round. DJ Vagabond came outside about then and told Traps that all of his 45s needed a thorough going through. He'd brought only 45's tonight and found several of them were warped and scratched. Traps nodded, then told me and Vagabond about his 1st round elimination experience, what it's like to bring a gal on a first date to a DJ battle and how there were other contests besides DJ battles (ex., rapping contests where you totally rip into the other dude).

Jim Marshall Fan showed up late in the evening and we went out back to chat. He's a visualist by his reckoning and advised me that I ought to try and add a sense of mood and atmosphere to my writing. I remarked this would be a lot easier if I could just take pictures, then pointed to the single glass on the bar, itself devoid of alcohol, instead containing a spent lemon wedge and half-melted ice cubes.

To me it symbolized the relative emptiness of the bar (the bar was full, but certainly not packed and with not much traffic out on the back patio).

Jim Marshall Fan pointed to the prism-like facets of color and light generated by the bright light above our heads (the same one I suspect is illuminating the clouds) as it shines through the glass and onto the hard white plastic surface of the table as something he'd pay attention too.

Then I remarked that he'd make a good picture for the night, his face handsome and prominent in the imaginary frame of my lense cigarette in one hand, drink in the other, with only his chest visible like the bust of a statue, with Tempe standing in the background on the right as he spoke to someone out of the frame--in this case Heather F. and her friend with the close cropped (at her neck) 80s style hair and long, multi-part earrings that for some reason so captured my attention for the next few minutes.

Jim Marshall Fan told me he admired what I was doing at the bar, specifically the discipline and focus to come to the bar every single day. That sure felt good coming from him.

His main words of advice to me was "If it stays in the box, it's as if it does not exist."

By this he meant my blog. He feels I ought to advertise it and buy cards with the web address to hand out.

About then Ras Dank arrived to inform us that the back patio needed to be closed up. So Jim Marshall Fan and I went inside, where he bought me my third and final round of the evening. Thank you.

It was here that I saw a man who looked like either a young version of Jonathan Rhys (the actor, most recently in The Tudors on Showtime) or perhaps his brother. Remarkable though the resemblance was, it was the woman in his company who caught and owned my attention from that point forward.

She had red hair in short curls, wore a creamy white top that was like a wife beater only in the vaguest of ways, which is to say it left her shoulders bare and complimented the tone of her soft white skin. Under the dim lights of the bar a hint of freckles could be glimpsed, sprinkled about her shoulders and arms.

Her name Shanea and her friend's name was Bryon (like "Brian") B. I can't remember if Jim Marshall Fan or I spoke to her first; needless to say the conversation was under way and what the two of them had to tell us was interesting.

But I'll save that, Dear Reader, for myself and JMF. Not everything that happens in the bar should be written about, should it? ;)

It was a pleasure to meet you, Shaina. You to, Bryon. If things work out that we don't meet again before you have to depart, take care. Our encounter was brief, but I already know I'll never forget you.

Last call was announced, beers were finished and numbers exchanged. I said my thanks to the bartenders (though I only remember Matt at that point) and went outside. Before going home myself, I gave JMF a ride home and thanked him for his company and his good advice.

See you Sunday at Jack's!