What would it take, I wondered, to bring me out of hibernation? Ten weeks of working, dating, writing my novel, and living my life without worrying about the instantaneous judgment of strangers ( Read more... )

I awaken slowly, from half-remembered dreams of performing onstage in a Broadway musical about barmaids in the big city, the last few oddly dissonant notes ringing in my brain. Before it disappears forever, I get the sense that the song was about bad tippers, and I grin. Then I remember what happened last night, and I pull myself out of bed and ( 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... )

It's Saturday night, and all is right with the world, because I'm tending bar.

It's good to be back, at least so far. After the events of the last couple of weeks, I can't help feeling a little bit like I'm waiting for another shoe to drop, but there's comfort in the familiar. The clink of bottle against glass, the splash of tap overflow onto ( Read more... )

Tuesday evening I walk into the Bar for my 8-to-close shift, and standing next to Bill, who's working the door, is Will. He's dressed in a Michigan football jersey and a skirt, and holding blue and yellow pompoms. I stop in my tracks, and he glances over at the bar, where Samantha is sipping a cocktail and watching him. She coolly nods, and Will ( Read more... )

The answer to your several comments and your many, many e-mails is, "I have absolutely no idea what Samantha is going to make Will do now that she's won their bet!" Samantha was theoretically in Columbus at the game with her family, and I can only imagine how excited she must have been. I haven't been at the Bar since my shift Saturday night, so ( Read more... )

(It's not exactly Indian Summer, but it's been in the low 60s the last several days here in New York City, and today, finally, it's also sunny. I was determined to get in one last outdoor blogging session for 2006, so here I am in Bryant Park, typing away in sunglasses and a sweatshirt ( Read more... )