Birthday Bashing

Well it has been quite some time since I have posted last and for good reason. Birthdays seem to bring the fun out in some people, I just so happen to be one of those people. I enjoy my friend’s birthdays more than I enjoy my own. I find great pleasure in doing things for others, like volunteering literally hundreds of hours to community service growing up and while in college for the football team. Birthdays, however, are a different form of voluntary community service. When one of my friend’s birthdays rolls around I live by the motto “go big or go home.” I was able to once again live this motto a few weeks ago for a dear friend’s birthday.

Thursday Night:

In Laramie, Wyoming, most students consider Thursday to be a part of the weekend. Now, normally I work at one of the bars on Thursday nights, but given the holiday (my friend’s birthday) I had the night off. I have also recently discovered that Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka and root beer makes perhaps the most potent yet delicious drink ever, tasting exactly like a root beer float (kids, do not try this at home). Knowing how deadly just a few of these drinks may be, three friends and I only had a few, partly thanks to a friend I like to call Bully (you know who you are) who kicked over the bottle and lost a quarter of it into the carpet. After watching a little NBA postseason basketball and arguing about how worthless hermit crabs are as pets, we collectively decide to venture out on our pub crawl around Laramie. Although Thursday was quite an interesting night in itself, Friday and the birthday celebration is when things really took a turn for the weird.

Friday Night:

What started as another typical night quickly exploded into one of those nights that I will never forget. Birthday Boy, two other friends, and I followed protocol and began pregaming at Birthday Boy’s house. As a side note, for special occasions, such as this, I like to do something special for the birthday person called the tower of power. The tower of power is a t-shirt that has a checklist of tasks written onto the front of it (usually 12 to 15 tasks), usually starting with a shot count that is equal to the persons age (i.e. 21^st birthday means 21 shots). These tasks are all considerably risky to complete and can only be crossed off the list once completed and someone from the birthday party witnesses it. The tower of power has a way of making the person wearing the shirt forget the night and make the night memorable for all of those who are not wearing it. I began this ritual for my roommates 21^st and it has been amazing every time since its creation.

After a while of drinking and listening to Birthday Boy complain about having to wear the tower of power shirt, that I so generously created for him, we decide to begin the usual bar rounds. At the first bar we start with a round of shots followed by a few more and before long Birthday Boy is more than comfortable in his new shirt and, in fact, is beginning to take pride in it, showing people everything that he has in store for the night. Low and behold there is one brave individual that wishes to be a part of this memorable evening and drops his pants in the middle of the bar to let Birthday Boy sign his buttocks and cross his first task off the list, and it is official, the night has begun.

We continue to stagger from bar to bar and make a mockery of this night with birthday shenanigans, not asking but yelling at anyone and everyone to help us complete this laundry list of tasks written on this now alcohol stained t-shirt. Surprisingly Birthday Boy is doing quite well with the list. Motorboat a bartender, gone, make money working the pole, did it, give a stranger a lap dance, easy, he even managed to cross off the body shot off of a dude (the most entertaining thing I have ever witnessed at the bar in years). However, despite all of the begging and pleading of over half a dozen times, one of the few that Birthday Boy was unable to accomplish (have yet to be seen done), rock-paper-scissor a police officer.

Despite not completing the entire list of twelve tasks I woke up very proud of Birthday Boy for he had set a new tower of power record which was crossing off 8 tasks, which is almost double the number of those who have tried in the past. And because of this I cannot wait for the next birthday so we can once again attempt to set records.

Observe and Report

When you work at a bar, much like I do, you get to see some pretty entertaining and interesting things. People are very intriguing as is, but when you add alcohol, music, and in some instances other substances into the mix people become far more entertaining. I work at two of the more popular bars in Laramie, the Buckhorn and the 2^nd Street Cowboy Bar and Dancehall. Despite how small Laramie may be these two venues attract a far different crowd from one another. For those of you not familiar with either of these places the Cowboy is, go figure, a cowboy bar with a country atmosphere and live music. The Buckhorn on the other hand is more of a hip hop atmosphere with an upstairs that houses what is called the Parlor and offers Laramie a sort of dance club.

Since I have started working at the bar I have picked up a new hobby, people watching. People watching may sound a little weird but it is actually quite fun and you learn a lot about human interaction. People watching is simply just inconspicuously observing people from afar. As a communications major I enjoy studying people and how they act and interact with one another, so that may explain why I enjoy this unusual activity so much. In a sense it is a form of real life reality television for me and I get paid to watch it, which is a nice bonus.

As a bouncer I have to be assertive to the world around me and can not help but watch and laugh at times. You never know what you are going to see when on the job, especially since alcohol tends to make people a little unpredictable. Some nights the bars are really quiet and there is no drama or problems just crowds of people having fun, dancing, sharing stories, and laughing. However, some nights are the polar opposite, and this when people watching is at its prime, think Jersey Shore minus the tans and the steroid use. Even in little old Laramie we manage to attract drama, and a lot of it, welcome to college! Fighting is not something that is tolerated at the bars but it is always fun when it occurs. The back stories that the individuals have to tell about the occurrences are what make them the best too…you can imagine how ridiculous they get. Even after a long night at the bar I can always look back at the quality people watching achieved throughout the evening and realize that it was a good night and I am walking away with some good stories. Blog you later