Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Love Story at the Bar

I was told, as many women are, that "You'll never meet a nice man at the bar." "You'll never find anyone worthwhile at the bar." This might be true if you were going out to the bars once or twice a month. I, on the other hand, went out like 5 nights a week. I know what you're thinking, "Holy shit, this girl was a serious alcoholic in her single days!" Well I did enjoy getting a bit tipsy, but I LOVED going out on the town. I LOVED meeting new people. Every time you get all dressed up really cute and walk into the bar/club with your girlfriends, the possibilities are endless. You could run into anyone. You could meet Mr. Right, or many, many adorable Mr. Wrongs. It's a good time either way, but always an adventure.
Mondays we went to the Sports Page for drinks and darts. Tuesdays was the night to go to Beatniks if you were up for it. Wednesday was always awesome because it was spent at Kamakazi's. Me and my gal pals were such regulars that when we took our drinking abroad for a week in Jamaica, we sent the door guy, Norvell, a post card. That was expected. It wasn't the least bit strange. We missed him that week. We might have stayed in on Thursdays. I think that might have been a good t.v. show night. Friday nights, we were back at it again. We'd go to Brewski's, or the Beach Club. Saturday nights were spent at the Weber Club in O-t0wn or Club Axis in Salt Lake. We really did it right. We always dressed nice (boobs on display) and socialized. These were some great years. Thankfully, I got a nice hand-me-down fake ID that got me started early. The ID was terrible, but I was lucky enough to meet some really great, chatty, adorable door guys, who had no trouble looking the other way and letting me in.
One Thursday night back in 2000 I met my mom and sister for dinner at Roosters, and ran into my pal Ashley who was hostessing that night. She told me that we should head over to Brewski's when she got off work. Some friend of hers was moving out of state and there was a little going away get together at the bar. I'd never met the guy, so how could I refuse? So we went and I'm so glad we did. Ashley and I sat down at the table and ordered a picture of beer. Next thing I know a tall, gorgeous, viking like presence walked through the door. I had seen this vision of a man once before. I distinctly remembered walking past him on the Weber State campus during my short stint in college. This was at least two years earlier, but I still remembered his face. I looked at Ashley and said something like, "the big one is mine." He was there for the same going away party. It was his best friend that was moving away. He sat across from me and that's when I noticed he had come in with a girl. I was always up for a challenge, so it didn't matter to me. As far as I was concerned, he came in with her, but he was already leaving with me. Lucky for everyone involved, she was just a friend. She left shortly after and that is when I met Dave. He and I hit it off right away. He was wearing a T-shirt with the word "Maine" written across it. So I said, "Are you from Maine?" and he said, "duh". Then a second later he said, "Well, no. I'm actually from New York." I was hooked! He was a fox and we talked until the bar closed. My friend Heidi and her future husband Steve (whom she also met at the bar) were working at the bar that night and she basically had to kick us out. By the time he and I walked out the door, his friends had already gotten into their car. They rolled down the window and yelled, "Hey Stefanie, thanks for giving Dave a ride home!". So I had been right. He would leave with me. I will admit I was embarrassed standing next to him. We had been sitting down all night and I hadn't realized how tall he was. He was 6'5" and even with heels on, my 5'1" frame looked insanely short compared to him. I was very aware of the difference standing out on the sidewalk with him. He didn't seem to care about me looking like a lost toddler. He got in my car and started giving me direction to his house. As we drove I started to wonder where he was guiding me to. We were driving to what appeared to be the Weber State campus. That's when it dawned on me that this 21 year old man lived in the dorms. This was so funny to me! He had moved out of the dorms with a bunch of guys and he much preferred living by himself on campus. So he moved back into the dorms. Good enough explanation for me. We sat in my car and talked and kissed for a long time. It was getting late and I had to work in the morning, so he got out and went inside the building. As I drove home, I was pretty certain that I had just met the guy I would probably marry. I was right. (And we met at the bar!)

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