About Last Night

It wasn't my fault.  Honest!

Life was going along as usual; moderately busy day at the restaurant, my replacement was a tad late (no problem), went to the bar for the after-shift cocktail and noticed that the festive football chicken wings menu kicked off (no pun intended) during the games that afternoon. At a very low price, I might add.

OK, I was going home to leftovers and decided not to. Instead, I ordered the garlic wings and had them with the cocktail while talking with other co-workers heading home for the evening.

As I was leaving I stopped by the Host station to say goodnight only to find this head poking over the counter asking,"is he still here, is he still here?" It was friend, Ron seemingly in a bit of a panic hoping that he hadn't missed me, or something.

I said, "Ron, yes I am still here, but WTF are you doing downtown while the meters are still in operation?" He smiled and said, "Come on, we're going to have a bite to eat and then take a picture, my treat."  I told him about the wings but he was not deterred saying, "well you can have a drink and watch me eat - I haven't had a good burger in ages."  He explained that he was driving around town he remembered that I worked on Sunday and decided to be spontaneous and drag me out of my usual routine of work-cocktail-home-supper-shower-bed and repeat. I was surprised, but up for some fun.

We were seated at the Parrot. Ron asked if I was OK (having read my "911" rant, he was concerned) and I assured him I was, then as I had perhaps the worst margarita of my life (yes, I am spoiled with the best!) Ron munched on his Wimpy while we brought one another up to date on daily-life things.

As we left the Feathered One I asked where he wanted me to take his picture.  He gave one of his infamous side glances and said, "WE'RE having pictures taken - at YESTERDAYS, the olde time photo studio near the beach.!" Now, I've had pictures taken there before in larger groups, but this sounded like real fun and I was already side-tracked from my usual routine, so off we went.

I am sure the 2 young gals running the place were taken aback by these 2 older guys cavorting like young'uns, but that made it all the more fun.

Riverboat gamblers...guns, cards, and booze. Not a good mix.

We perused the image catalog of situations and settled on what to my mind was River Boat Gamblers - High Rollers in the late 1800s.  Think Howard Keel (whom I adored) in Showboat. We were costumed and the session began. It was great fun and we had both gals giggling, wondering WTF they had gotten themselves into. We. Loved. It.!!!

However, things turned ugly at one point and we almost killed each other on film - now wouldn't FOX News love that! - but my 2 bosses (the dos locos) made a surprise appearance and calmed the situation.

Ron and I left the studio as friends once again, photos in plastic bags and laughing about the experience. I have no idea what my bosses thought, or how they knew where we were, for that matter. 

It was an evening of silliness, play-acting fun, and one to remember.

And so it goes.
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