The crew at Carpentier'sSo last night I went out for the second straight night (I am all out of wack chronologically, my blog is turning into a Quentin Tarantino movie), but this time for a more laid back chill sessions with the crew. The crew this evening included myself, Matt, Brian, Colver, Joe, Lorna, and Kim, and a rotating cast of characters including semi-hot plaid dress wearing bartender, the street fighting man, Phoenix (best name ever), ridiculously drunk Matt, Unknown Named Quarters Playing Gal, and the rest of the characters from the locale of the evening, which was the Carpentier's Lounge. This is a place that is WAY off the beaten path, a dive bar on the east side of town and one not yet polluted by those filthy college students who turn these bars from lovable dives into trendy kitsch bars.
No less, Matt and Joe had been trying to get us to go there for a bit because it is atypical and close to where Joe lives, plus it is famous (infamous?) for having food left out for patrons to eat, with anything being fair game...from clam chowder to chili to pizza. This sounded to hysterical not to check out, so of course I was in. Plus after the gigantically boisterous evening as the one I had the previous night (which you all have yet to hear about...patience is a virtue my readership) it sounded right up my alley. Turned out it wasn't as low key as I thought it would be, with there almost being a bar fight (the words "do you want to take this outside?" were actually said), a second pitcher being ordered near instantaneously of the arrival of our first one, semi-hot plaid dress wearing bartender dropping the C-word (the one that rhymes with bunt that no girl likes) extremely loudly much to everyones amusement, and us meeting a couple who were playing what was apparently the darts version of Kramer and Newman's game of Risk from Seinfeld. This was all within 15 minutes of our arrival. Gotta love the dives.
No less, once our full team was assembled, much drinking (right Kim?) took place, with shots and beers being in near constant turnaround. This led to tomfoolery with all kinds of bar games, starting with darts, moving onto a head to head game of horseshoes between Matt and I, and finally the greatest bar game of all time - quarters. This of course leads to a story. When we walked out to play horseshoes we were propositioned into a game that looked ridiculous by Phoenix and the Risk Darts couple, but we quickly brushed them off as we thought they were just drunk and tossing quarters at a wall. Somehow within 20 minutes, Matt and I had joined them and we began our experience with quarters. Many may know this game, but it is a simple game based off this premise: take a quarter, throw the quarter, who ever ends the closest to the wall is the winner and takes all of the quarters. I won my first round and was hooked immediately.
Now I generally do not have an addictive personality, unless we are referring to comics or TV shows (and sometimes people), but gambling is one thing I really could find myself getting hooked on. Papa needed a new pair of shoes, and quarters was going to carry me there. Within minutes of my first win I had been cleaned out and was borrowing from anyone who would listen. Brian relented and loaned me a dollar, and the rest was history. Let's say this sport was basketball...I was the Michael Jordan of it. I was a giant amongst men. I was making it rain out there, besides one time when the female part of the Risk Darts people managed to lodge her quarter into a crack directly next to the wall. I turned Brian's dollar into 8 dollars which bought us a fine pitcher of Coors (only the best!), and it turned into an hour to an hour and a half of sheer ridiculousness that was alternately the best drinking game ever and the best spectator sport ever, as every throw elicited cheers from our growing audience of participants (maxing out at probably 15 and drawing people from inside to watch us). Everyone was playing, and everyone was having a grand time. Too bad we cleaned out the people we were playing against, because we could have been playing still if they hadn't left.
After all the quarters shenanigans, we moved inside, took over a table and the jukebox and wound down the evening in our traditionally ridiculous fashion. This was another evening proving once again that any situation can be a good one, even when the what, the when, the where, and the how are uncertain, so long as the who is solid. Last night, our crew was rock solid and it was an amazing night. Gotta love the dive bars though.
The quarters playing posse...ignore the smoking of course....
3 comments:
Your blog entertains me to no ends. I require three entries daily. Sounds like you guys had a good time last night, Kim called me at like 2 my time so I heard all the shens going down.
hehe, we miss you guys. I'm looking forward to AK floating off into the ocean one day, with enough warning for you guys to jump ship and come down to the states of contiguity.
That was a fun night. What the hell is that old dude doing in the top picture? Next time we get drunk we need to play landmines. It just sounds badass.
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