Life.

Yesterday was one of those days that really should be a movie (or a book). After trying to write all day, but being unable to focus beyond website/business choices, I went to work. For those of you just joining me here, I work part time in a sports bar/lounge. It’s popular place, with 8 big screen TV’s, a few video games (Golf and Buck Hunter) and almost a dozen VLT’s for the gamblers. (Video Lottery Terminals)

I can normally get a bit of writing done even while working part time, but I’ve come to accept that my brian sometimes just needs to focuss on the story exclusively. It works for me. Like binge eating, I binge write. So next week my schedule is I have three days off, then work one night, then another day off. I figured if I could get rid of my shift on Tuesday, I’d have 5 days off to do nothing but write, and I can get a lot done in 5 days. So I went to work and set about getting rid of my Tuesday shift next week. I work with a lot of college students and they’re done exams now, so they’re all in good moods, and they all want extra hours. A little finagling and I got it done. I was all happy and tell Shawndra, the other bartender in the bar with me, “I have 5 days off starting Saturday, I’m going to hermit away and write a book.”

She laughs and says. “You know, it’s funny. People often say they’re going to write a book, but you’re actually someone who will do it. ”

So everyone is in a good mood, the sun is shining, and the place is Not busy. We’re joking around as we work, nothing unussual, nothing special. Then about an hour later Shawndra tells me 2 guys are fighting over whose ticket is whose (from the VLT’s, one guy is accusing the other of cashing out his machine IE: steaing the guys money) I get the manager, because it’s her job to deal with these things. The manager speaks to them then goes upstairs. I figure she’d gone upstairs to check our security cameras and see what happened at the machines.

The one guy gets louder, and more obnoxious, cursing, causing a scene. So I ask him to keep it down. He said “My voice isn’t what you need to worry about.”

Uh Huh. So I talk to him for a second more, determine this guy is going to be a problem. No matter what happens it’s clear to me that this guy is looking to cause trouble. Not only have I been a waitress/bartender for 20 years (on and off) but I also spent a few years doing security work and dealing with specific situations much like this. My instincts are pretty good, I can usually read people pretty well. So I go call the police, and calmly explain the situation and ask them to send a car. Police think I’m clueless waitress who doesn’t know what she’s talking about and just need a big strong man to come save me. They say if it’s not a problem right now, call back when it is. He has a 911 call to answer. So I’m like. “Okay, but it’s gonna happen, I thought if you came now maybe we could avoid it.”

I go back to bar, and see new guy, one of my customers, in front of troublemaker guy and think. “Shit. Now we got customers trying to step in.” and head over to intercept and break up. Shawndra says new guy is a cop. As she says this, troublemaker guy say “I don’t give a shit about your badge,” and pushes cops hands off him. They take it to the ground and tussle. I step in to get 2 more customers to back off. Sure, they just want to help cop, who is admittidly about a foot shorter and 80 pounds lighter than troublemaker guy, but my thought, uh uh, no way do we want this turning into a brawl, back off. I get other guys to back off, give the cop some room. Cop is trained, let him handle it. Cop did. He soon had troublemaker subdued,(Pinned from behind and held in a half-nelson) but could not let him go, cuz guy did not want to give in.

Shawndra was on phone with 911(About a total of 2 minutes after I hung up with them, and maybe slightly less calm,) saying we had fight in progress, we need help. The response? They have no available cars right then.

She says, “Uhmm, just so you know, one of the guys in the fight is one of yours.” They send 4 cars right away. LMAO.

Not only was that funny, but Shawndra and I spent the night laughing over our good karma to have had an off-duty cop in the place at the exact time we needed him. He’d been sitting not 10 feet from it all the whole time, and he didn’t get involved until the troublemaker guy started really pushing the first guy to get physical. (This is while I was in the service area on the phone with the cops & couldn’t see what was happening).

Shawndra says she’s glad I was there to deal with it because she wouldn’t have stepped in to stop the others from joining in the fight, and it was obvious there wouldn’t been a bigger problem. I say I was glad the cop was there, because if he hadn’t been it would’ve been me who had to deal with trouble maker, and while chances of it getting pysical with me are smaller,but not non-existent, it would’ve taken longer and been more of a drawn out scene. Yes, our manager, who is a new manager, and a young female, and not comfortable with any sort of confrontation, was upstairs in the office while everything happened. When she came back down, the fight was over and the cops were there.

After dealing with that stuff, the handle on our slush machine came off, and it sticky slush mix spewed on the floor. So we began watching and waiting for the faucet to come off our tap and shoot a fountain of water into the air and over the customers sitting at the bar, as it’s done half a dozen times already this week, but karma was still in our corner, and it never happened. 😆

The lesson meant for the police? When a woman calls and tells you calmly that there is going to be trouble, don’t think just because she’s calm and not screaming, that it’s not true. Not all of us get hysterical when we sense trouble coming.

The lesson for us, Shawndra and I are a good team. I’m good under pressure, and she’s good at smoothing ruffled customers afterwards.

Now I’m off to work for tonight,*fingers crossed for a good night* and then I still get Tuesday off and have five days to write uninterupted.