and Jebus it’s cold! By now the temp is finally above freezing, and the pipes in our office have finally thawed, after being frozen solid all weekend. It’s funny that I spent my weekend 300 miles north of here, and it was warmer in NC than down here in Georgia. Weather’s funny that way, I guess.
This weekend saw the latest episode of 30-something Sales Goofs try to Drink Like College Kids, which is never an attractive show, and leads to random people in the wrong gender restroom and a very baffled hotel front desk the next day. It was a work event, and after we all worked all day we went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. Without reservations. In Winston-Salem, NC. In January. To say the restaurant staff was a little overwhelmed would be an exercise in understatement. To say that the smoke emanating from the kitchen was more reminiscent of a July 4th barbeque than anything resembling fine dining would be fairly accurate. To deliver six complimentary bottles of wine as an apology for six completely screwed up steaks is a pretty good trade, especially when none of the screwed-up steaks was mine. To close down the bar at 10PM, however, was completely unfortunate.
So since we knew the bar was going to close early, we ordered a bunch of rounds of shots right before last call. So that was painful enough, but we weren’t tired enough to do the reasonable thing and go to bed for our 10AM exhibition the next day. So I, in my incredibly poor judgement, went to the hotel lobby and bought some beer. Or more to the point, bought a dozen beers. And sent more people in after me to clean out the fridge. Not a big deal, since there were still a bunch of us, and only about two beers apiece at that point. On top of all the shots. Which came on top of the wine we drank at dinner. Which of course was preceded by a few cocktails before dinner. But I think if we’d only emptied the fridge the one time, we woulda been okay.
How’s that for foreshadowing? If we’d only emptied the fridge the one time…? Right there I tell you that we did indeed return to the fridge for more beer, and did indeed empty the fridge again, and this time since our number had dwindled, the one of our number that went for the beer was smart enough to leave it outside the door to the lobby so it would stay cold. Frankly it was probably chilling faster outside than it was in the fridge, given the relative temperatures of both last weekend. So none of us had our keychain bottle openers with us, and there was only one cigarette lighter to use as an opener, so the practice of opening beers on the brick steps was put into play. That of course led to a text message the next morning saying “I cut my tongue on a beer bottle last night?” To which I responded with a “yes,” and no further explanation.
So we drank all that beer, and then the restock beer, and then it was 4:30 AM, and we were truly not looking forward to being at the show by 10AM the next morning. But the rule is, you have to answer the bell. You can do whatever stupid shit you want at night, as long as you can answer the bell the next morning. And when I reached checkout the next morning right about on time, I looked over at one of my obviously worse-for-wear compatriots from the night before, and said “Welcome to the team.”
When I worked conventions, etc. we had a saying similar to what you said:
“If you’re going to party with the BIG BOYS…. you have to show up for work the next morning with the BIG BOYS.”
oh i remember business travel so well 🙂
this was like reminiscing!