Friday started out wonderfully. I left the studio a little after five (an especially early day for me), and headed downtown to Papaya. I called a few friends en route to see if they wanted to meet for a drink and/or snack. I had been jonesing for Papaya's calamari all day.........it's perfectly not fucked with. Lightly battered, tender, and served with a spicy/sweet dipping sauce. I got to the bar and ordered my first beer......poured perfectly into a frosted footed pilsner. All the friends that I called began calling me back to say that they wouldn't be out until later. It was just as well. I was enjoying the the easy conversation with my friends behind the bar. It was just sooooo relaxing, sipping an icy cold beer, eating the most perfect calamari around, and not having to say a goddamned thing. As I was finishing my first beer another was being poured into another frosty glass (Now that's fucking service!). I finished my snack and beer and paid my bill. Total (without tip of course) for two Sapporo's and the calamari.............$7.48. Oh yeah, sometimes living in Buffalo fucking rocks!
I sorta jumped from bar to bar for a while settling at Fat Bob's eventually....typical Friday. It was getting on to be around to be 1:30 or so and my friend said that she was hungry. We went next door to Mother's which is usually a good time, in that they serve their full menu until 3:00 AM. It wasn't fun at all. Our waiter sucked in every sense of the word. He was rude, our food was late, some of it wasn't even brought to the table, he never checked on us, and he never properly corrected the bill. Complete dick. I was paying with my credit card and was getting cash from my friends. My opinion was to leave this tool a tip of, say..........$0.17. My two friends who both work in the bar/restaurant business insisted that I leave the minimum 15%. I acquiesced, but on the back of the bill I wrote
"YOU SUCK" My friend took the bill away from me put a single line through my message and began to write the douchebag a little note saying that he could have easily made a $20-$25 tip from our table if he would had just done the bare minimum. Sucky the Waiter shows up and sees the "you suck" on the bill and begins to yell, that's right
yell, at my friend for writing something so childish. I interject, pointing out that I was the childish one, and that his tone pretty much established my comment as dead-on true. As we were leaving he loudly asked me the question "Is that what you do? You go around trying to make people feel bad about themselves?" I answered by saying "When they suck as much as you do, yes."
Apparently Sucky McDouchebag put in his two week notice the next day. Fuck him.
On Saturday I went to go see Conan O'Brien speak at the U of B. I had always liked him and found him very funny, and this experience solidified that opinion of him. He insisted on making it an interactive Q&A type o' deal, instead of the standard speaker monologue. This made it much more fun to see, especially since he used the poor moderator as a comic foil for most of the evening. He fielded questions about all facets of his career, a lot about his Simpons years and what to expect when he takes over the Tonight Show. Funny shit all the way around.
Sunday was my usual trip to see my friends in Hamburg, NY. I don't have HBO and watching the Sopranos with them is always more fun. I'm hoping that by the middle of this Summer instead of driving there, I'll be riding my bike. It will be about a 45 to 50 mile round trip but I think with a little conditioning I'll be able to do it. I'll save on gas and, barring a heart attack, I'll start to be less pudgy.
Today I decided to not got to the studio early and instead go hear Al Franken do his radio show live, from a renovated church (now a performance space) that is attached to Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. The three hours went by very fast. It was a fun time. The crowd was in to it, and the space is amazing.
