There is, or was I suppose in my perspective, a bar I liked to frequent. I suppose it helped that I worked at the restaurant attached to the bar - but ironically enough, I never really went there when I worked at the restaurant.
The bar was call The Northern Lights, and happened to be situated at the top of a hotel in Houghton, MI. Luckily for the bar, it sports one of the best views of any in the town, being situated at the top of the hotel (all 7 stories) and that being on top of a hill, which allows a panoramic view of the Portage Canal and the hills across the river. Old mining halls, ski hills, boat marinas, and a garbage pit - you get the best and worst of Houghton looking out those windows. Even better is that the bar occupies a corner, and is all glass, so that no matter where you sit you get quite a view. When I worked in the restaurant I would show up at 6:30 in the morning, set up, and then drink my first cup of coffee as the sun crested over the hills. When I quit and started to frequent the bar more often, with Erin for the most part, I saw a lot of sunsets and snowfalls in that bar. I saw a lot of great things.
The best nights, however, were when Gary would play. A local musician, this old, crumedgeonly guy stood about 5'5'', drank shots of tequila and beers all night, and slammed out the best songs from his acoustic. Everything from Blues Traveller to Pink Floyd to Petty to Hootie to Beatles and more in between - it was a freakin revival of blues, classic rock, and some original stuff thrown in - usually with a lot of swearing ("Who the fuck is Alice?" being a favorite).
We'd head up there around 8, plenty dark outside already with the snow swirling down, and hang our coats up at the top of the elevator. The restaurant would be slow, and Lily or Xiobin would say hi to us, because after all I was a great employee and Erin still was. We'd walk in Brian and Stacey would already be there, usually with both half-drunk and snuggling on a couch or in a corner. Gav would inevitably be drinking some nasty hard ass drink, usually a rusy nail, and in his goofy, lame, conservative way would say hi warmly to us. Jake would be in his usual wingman spot, drowning his recent break-up woes in some girly drink - as long as he got drunk, he didn't care. And we'd all find a table, Derek would serve us the strongest drinks imaginable - usually for free - and we'd all get drunk and listen to some fantastic music in the front, belting out the words to classic songs while Gary got drunker and drunker. And as Gary got drunker, we'd encourage him more, and he'd encourage us, and by midnight Stacy would be dancing with some old guys, Erin would have her head on my shoulder, I'd be completely blasted, and we'd all be having the best time.
Usually so good a time that the hotel would tell Gary to stop playing, since the suites were right below us and no one could sleep.
I miss those times. I miss camaderie - its a hard thing to find, and for a few fleeting moments I really had it within my grasp.
As a completely random aside, I wanted to title this "How do they move in those mini-skirts", but it just didn't work. Another time.
Miss Any?
Alright, we're gonna give this a shot
January 02, 2005
Let's see how badly I failed these last year
December 31, 2004
Okay, so its trendy
December 28, 2004
Its just like that asshole, Joe fucking Lieberman. Annoying and rather pointless.
December 27, 2004
Is this a typical Christmas?
December 26, 2004