picture yourself in a boat on a river

I love waking up in the morning hours and hearing the birds chirp as the world comes to life. This is quite a paradox, considering I am the very antithesis of a morning person. I. Need. Sleep. If I could sleep in with no alarm clock interrupting my beautiful slumber every day I totally would. Alarms are evil little devices, possibly invented by a masochistic cult. NAY, DEFINITELY invented by a masochistic cult. You never know.

I have to get ready for work soon, but all you working people will appreciate a slight feeling of apprehension I have due to a missed social engagement with some co-workers. Social interaction with one's co-workers can be a rather sticky conundrum, for sure. In this particular instance, a guy I rather enjoy working with - extremely good at his job, always willing to help me learn more about bartending, horrid gossip, not always exactly in line with authority, flamboyantly homosexual - was having his first cross-dressing dance performance at his favorite club downtown last night. I suppose that's a drag show. Hello, I'm naive! Nice to meet you.

Anyway, he made up these fancy invitations with a somewhat frightening photograph and all the details, and then sent out text messages reminding everyone yesterday, and wrote about it in the bar book at work, and basically was extremely excited. Understandable, there's a certain rush that comes from performing in front of a group of people. It helps to have a lot of friendly faces in the audience. Although for some that makes it more nerve-wracking. I replied to his text message last night with the cop out, "I hope to make it! Have fun!" And he came back with, "You will make it, everyone will be there!"

Enter the conundrum. In order to really, truly be part of the clique or the "in" crowd or whatever the hell you want to call it that exists at the 'bee's, you have to A. Drink like a bloody fish pretty much every night of the week, and/or B. Attend every single social event you are invited to that is remotely work-related. Meaning, another fellow bartendress had a 5th of July party at her humble domicile last Saturday. It started at 6. I didn't get off work until 8. Had I gone, I would have seen a few people from work, but since I lacked anyone to attend said shindig with me, there would have been extreme awkwardness.

Don't get me wrong. I've gone out with work people a few times before. Just a few weeks ago, after closing on a Monday night, I went out with J, S, and J's friend, later to be joined by three/four more 'bee's workers and a whole slew of bar regulars. I had a margarita. A rather strong beverage, I might point out. And then J bought a round of shots for "his Applebee's bitches." Rather sweet of him, actually. That got pretty pricey. I took one. Then drove to Daniel's house and proceeded to get REALLY LOOPY. Kind of fun, not gonna lie.

The point of all of this is not my poorly worded sentences or strange social agenda. I am not opposed to drinking alcohol. I like it. I have had multiple glasses of wine this week. I have an enormous container of margarita mix made with Jose Cuervo in the fridge right now. It's GLORIOUS. The point is that in order to really feel included by my co-workers, I would have to basically become an alcoholic, or sacrifice any semblance of a sleep schedule in order to come in to work hung over and exhausted every day, and I can't do that. I have a life that consists of much healthier social options than such bar-hopping and excessive boozing. I go out to Bdubs and have a margarita while my roommate and brother both have beers and we have a few laughs and go home and drink a bit more before cashing out NOT in the wee hours of the morning. It's possible to have responsible fun without turning into a complete lush.

I sound like a complete and total fogey now, don't I? Maybe I should've just gone to the drag show. Even though I was hanging out with my roommate and her sister last night. And was tired. And I have no idea where the club downtown is located. It's really not important to be "included" that much at work, right? I get along very well with 99% of my co-workers, and if someone isn't overly friendly to me, it's not because of any drama I stirred up.

My sister had an interview at the 'bee's yesterday. Do I really want to submit my sibling to this madness?