One Last Toast
Sometimes, i feel like an X-Man. My mutant power? I can incite a room of people notably older than I into one big, raucous round of the electric slide. You know you want me bartending your wedding. A woman from the bridal party got me out from behind the bar and on to the floor and asked me to teach her, and before I knew it, the whole bridal party was up there, and then it was, like, everyone. And it was what I imagine being at the center of a human heart must feel like because everything around you is moving and jumping in time, and it's gotta be some kind of cosmic phenomenon, but no, it's just a room full of elated folks and a lackluster DJ and a bartender who is the only student--or alum--at the wedding even if she has to work it.
And then I went back to tending bar.
I was in the middle of pouring someone a Pinot Grigio when a professor--a gent with whom I sat on a search committee for the Writing Department my last semester of school--approached the bar. He gave me this sincere look and said, "Do you know how special you are?" I knew he wasn't drunk. I mean, I was pouring the drinks. "Faculty talk about you all the time." He added something about it always being in the positive and walked away.
And, God, how I miss it. I miss it and I miss them. And I felt so privileged to be the only student/alum "invited" to the reception. And I was tending bar. Does that make me pathetic or what?
Still, it was a privilege to watch her get married.
And then I went back to tending bar.
I was in the middle of pouring someone a Pinot Grigio when a professor--a gent with whom I sat on a search committee for the Writing Department my last semester of school--approached the bar. He gave me this sincere look and said, "Do you know how special you are?" I knew he wasn't drunk. I mean, I was pouring the drinks. "Faculty talk about you all the time." He added something about it always being in the positive and walked away.
And, God, how I miss it. I miss it and I miss them. And I felt so privileged to be the only student/alum "invited" to the reception. And I was tending bar. Does that make me pathetic or what?
Still, it was a privilege to watch her get married.