One of my favorite things to do when I go into a bar is to find the perfect booth to sit in and observe people as they enter through the back or the front doors. I love when a couple or a small group enters together and then the process as the night moves along.
When they order their first drink, they�re still mostly sticking close to one another, looking around nervously to get a feel of who�s in the place, listening to the music as it plays and they watch all who come and go. Eyes are darting, they�re listening and looking at who�s going into or coming out of the restrooms and if the group is mostly women, they pretty much all head to the restroom in small groups.
After the second drink is ordered their eyes are beginning to get that little sparkle to them and they may look around more, or even wave to someone they know, but they�re still not venturing too far from the companions they entered the establishment with. If they do step away to say hello to someone they know, it�s never very far and they maintain eye contact with whomever they walked in with. They may even dance a little, but only if it�s with someone they know, or if somebody grabs and forces them and it�s always a stiff dance step.
By the third drink people are venturing far from the safety of their groups. They suddenly have courage they didn�t know they had and they�re hitting the dance floor with a vengeance, some may even dance alone. They�re inside, outside and all over the damned place and they can finally go to the bathroom by themselves.
After the fourth drink, most people aren�t counting their intake any longer and the words are flowing freely. The whooping and shouting begins while most have lost track of anybody they walked into the place with. Strangers are suddenly becoming friends as they drink and dance. At times they even grab some poor person on their way to or from the bathroom to join them on the dance floor. Not such a hazard for those coming out of the restroom, but it could tend to be a major problem for those on their way. It�s also at this point that people pass by the friends they walked in with and hug them as though they haven�t seen one another in years.
People become the happy, the sad or the troublemaking drunk at about this point and it can be interesting when you see which way they�re headed. Three different people can be in the bar with a similar problem and one will whine about their broken heart or whatever, while another will be determined to have the best night possible and those are the ones you don�t mind hanging around. One should completely avoid the third group because you either wind up defending yourself or one of your friends who stupidly wandered too close to the obnoxious individual. The whole scene can cause an uneasy shiver to travel up your spine and if you see that person, sometimes it�s better to move on to a new bar.
The seasoned drinker is a whole different breed because their asses are basically glued to that barstool you see them sitting on when you first walk into the joint. They are in the bar as soon as possible and if the establishment were to stay open 24 hours, some of those people would never leave. These are the people who remain calm and cool throughout the night. It doesn�t matter who walks in, they barely even glance into the mirror behind the bar and they definitely never turn away from their drinks. Any fights or disturbances will be the seasoned drinker�s entertainment for the evening. They won�t get involved, but you will see a twinkle in their eyes as they attempt to show concern while their mind sorts out the huddle of people. This will be something they�ll be able to talk about if it�s interesting enough and if not then it will come back in a memory during a particularly dull moment at the bar. Their body will jerk almost unnoticeably with a silent chuckle as they relive the episode quietly.
At the end of the night I smile to myself as people proceed to look for the others they had originally entered the bar with at the beginning of the night and it�s entertaining as hell. When they don�t find who they were looking for, they roam around asking total strangers if they had seen so-and-so. At times the search is over quickly or it may lead to the one doing the hunting going into a complete tirade about how their friend always does that to them and that�s when I need to go home.
My night has left me calm and content in the knowledge that those days are pretty much behind me, at least until I experience first hand, how many drinks it takes.
*hiccup*
Copyright 2009 by Kya Korday