Todd Rundgren plays on The Bar's jukebox, a sappy, needy ballad that seems out of place on a semi-rowdy Saturday night. Cleveland and Boston are playing baseball on our televisions, and they've been battling it out for what seems like ten or twelve hours already, with the game now in extra innings. For reasons I've never quite understood (other ( Read more... )

I'm coming out of a supermarket near my apartment building with two bags full of groceries when a car pulls over and a guy sticks his head out. "Excuse me, miss?"

It's already early afternoon, and I still need to whip up a couple of dishes-to-pass to bring to my cousin Rebecca's place downtown for her annual Fourth of July party, so I'm feeling a ( Read more... )

Wednesday Morning, 3am

It's awfully quiet. I'm honestly not sure if Gary has taken a breath in the last couple of minutes, and for a moment I wonder if he's even still awake. I start tracing circles on his stomach with my finger and wait for him to say something ( Read more... )

It's a soggy Wednesday night in New York, and I'm tending bar with Maya. People at the Bar are in a bad mood - not just because of the rain, but because the rain has forced the Yankees to postpone their game against Tampa Bay, in which Andy Pettitte was to return to the pitcher's mound for the Yanks for the first time in four years ( Read more... )

I've been sleeping an awful lot the last few weeks.

I think I'm entitled. I spent nearly a week in the hospital because I let a bad cold become pneumonia, which led to whiplash and a bloody eye. I never knew lying in bed could be so exhausting - not to mention that lack of sleep probably helped put me there in the first place, so who can blame ( Read more... )

(Someone suggested that if I want to see Mastercard Man again, I should just make it my business to work every Friday night. Well, that's a fine and dandy plan, as I work almost every Friday night anyway - I have some seniority, and that's one of the best nights for tips, so it's by choice. But unlike most Fridays, today I'm only on until 6pm, ( Read more... )

It's Saturday night in Westhampton, and because the summer is "over" after Labor Day, things are an awful lot quieter out here than they were the last time I was here for a Saturday night, back on July 4th weekend. Partly I'm sure as a result of getting last Friday night off my chest, I've finally had a decent night's sleep, and so I'm happy to be ( Read more... )