"Yeah, and you're really working that dimple!"

I had talked about potentially bartending at the Palladium a few weeks ago. It actually didn't work out, which is fine because it gives me more weekend nights at UMass. But the other night, my friend called and left me a message about potentially waitressing at there for Friday night. It paid $100 plus tips, and since I'm leaving for Florida in a week, I was game on. I have never waitressed before in my life, and I didn't really understand how it'd work in a venue like this, considering I'd only ever been to concerts there. But I didn't really ask any questions.

It ended up being a boxing thing, which was interesting in itself. Joe Siciliano, a local police detective from central Mass, was to fight Eric "Butterbean" Esch-- a professional boxer that every guy seemed to know... I guess he was in Jackass or whatever. Yeah, whatever. I won't even pretend to know what I'm talking about here, but this guy knows a lot about this stuff, and I actually stumbled upon his blog while trying to figure out what the hell I was getting myself into. This pretty much sums it all up.

So I cocktail waitressed from 7-10. It was an interesting experience... and I made more money than I really should have. I kind of knew what to expect, but I was just so out of my element that I couldn't even pretend to be flirty: I was more on the defense (haha). But I did what I had to do, and maybe people could tell I was new at this because, as the night went on, people just kind of threw money at me.

I hung out for a while after the fights were over. I actually knew a few people working, and I also met a bunch of new people-- all of them were really great, so working was a good time. Since I had lost my phone a few weeks ago (and purposely didn't try to re-fill it with all the numbers I had), I thought about going to the bar by myself... but decided I still wasn't ready for that. A (somewhat random) kid had called while I was working, seeing what I was up to. I'm terrible at making plans, but doing things on the fly is where I excell. So I called him up, and he was surprised that I was in Worcester. He was meeting his friends at Mahoney's Pub on Park Ave, so I figured I'd meet up with them.

But first, since I hadn't eaten all night, I stopped at Taco Bell (check out this Nutrition Calculator for the place). And waited in the Drive-Thru line for way too long, but that $1.35 burrito (which wasn't even that good) was still worth it. So I eat said burrito in the parking lot across from Mahoney's and call my friend to come meet me outside because, for whatever reason, I didn't want to walk into a bar by myself.

His friends were nice, and we made jokes about syphilis because apparently syphilis is hilarious (and I just had to look up how to spell "syphillus"). His friends were heading down to Irish Times, which is right across from The Palladium (where I thought about going until I realized that I am very over this bar and covercharges and overpriced drinks). We had a pitcher to finish, so we stayed behind, and this is where it felt like I accidently went on a date (he even said at one point that he felt he was "on an episode of Blind Date").

I'm not an awkward person, so I have no problem shooting the shit with "strangers." He (his name is PJ) is the "cousin" of one of my really good friends from home ("cousin" in the sense that they aren't blood related, but their dads are best friends, so they grew up together like cousins). We laughed because my friend told me that if PJ wanted to hang out, I shouldn't (I also don't bullshit about things-- people either love it or hate it, but I just like to throw everything out there).

So I don't even know what we talked about. But he thinks I'm funny, and I let him know that I'm really not a funny person (I know funny people, and I am not one of them). But I'm biting and sarcastic, so sometimes people find it charming (ha ha ha). Anyway, I think it got to the point in the night where I felt the need to put him on the spot, so I threw out the statement: "So tell me something interesting." It's actually quite an arrogant move, like I'm someone so important that I need to be impressed by "something interesting" instead of regular conversation that comes up.

So I'll get to the point of this story. I think I mentioned before how I think of "blog life" and "real life" separately for the most part, but sometimes things I blog about come up in real life conversation (I think I summed it up in the first paragraph of this guy). So when the "tell me something interesting" was reversed on me, my mind went to The Sun Also Rises (and my boy Hemingway), so I told PJ about the 6-word challenge and how I took it on as a mantra. So, we needed the figurative drumroll before I could actually tell him what Hemingway came up with, so he went and got a piece of paper and a pen, and I wrote down Hemingway's story.

He looked at it, and I think he saw what excited me (I mean I told him that I could see it at work on so many different levels). He asked if I wanted to know what he thought. Of course I did; I'd never thought to ask anyone else what they felt when they read it. So he took the pen and wrote one word underneath it: Opportunity. I almost freaked out because that is the farthest thing on my spectrum, and his explanation would take it even further away. It was incredible. After we talked about it for a little while, I asked him if he wanted to see what I saw in those words. I took the pen and wrote above the story: Miscarriage.

Needless to say, we had more to discuss, and I fell in love with the story even more. I can't decide if it's his business or masculine side (okay I can, definitly the business background said "Opportunity"). I can't decide where MY interpretation came from. Maybe it's a woman thing: you know, that whole having children thing. Maybe it's something else. I don't know, but I'm glad the blogosphere made an appearance on my accidental date.