Another Bar Update

Took the speed test today, but it was only a practice. The real speed test is Monday. I had to make 12 drinks in 8 minutes.

I managed 13: Cosmopolitan, margarita, shot of Stolichnaya, Tanqueray on the rocks, Grand Marnier neat, kamikaze shooter, Long Island, Long Beach, Electric Lemonade, screwdriver, Cape Cod, Black Russian, White Russian.

FYI

The bartending school midterm was today. I got a 97%. I'm feeling pretty good about this booze-serving thing.
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Now playing on iTunes: Streetlight Manifesto - Day In, Day Out
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Week One

The first week of bartending school is officially over. My midterm is on Monday. Since Tuesday, I've learned a lot of interesting stuff I never knew about bartending. I learned popular cream drinks and the common highballs. I can pour an ounce and a half of brandy and serve it neat in a warm snifter. I know your favorite shooter and understand why B-52s are so damn expensive. I know the legal consequences of fucking up. I'm having a lot of fun.

This weekend will mostly be studying, but I've had no social life this week; I need to get out sometime. Also, Sarah and Steve have finally convinced me that cargo jeans and hoodies are a bit under my age, so I'll probably look a little better in the future.
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Now playing on iTunes: Ben Folds - Such Great Heights
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Two-Part Post

First, I'd like to mention that February 14th was the awkwardly-timed six-month with Sarah. It's been a great half a year and she's probably the motivation for me actually improving my life. I have somebody to impress and keep happy now. It's working out for me pretty well. It's still hard living close enough to visit but far enough to not visit as often as we'd like, but things are going exceptionally well and we show no signs of trouble. Sarah's getting an old Acura Integra soon, so she should be making more of her own visits in the future.

Second, I start bar school tomorrow. For the next two weeks, I'll be running sixteen-hour days. IMs will go mostly unanswered. Texts sent before two will be answered between then and three. The upside is that I will finally be out of SKF and doing a job I actually enjoy.
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Now playing on iTunes: MGMT - Time to Pretend
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I Start Tuesday

So I finally got around to calling the local bar school yesterday, and as of about 12:45 today I'm officially enrolled in their 40-hour mixology class starting next Tuesday. It'll run 10:00-2:00 Tuesday-Friday next week, Monday-Friday the week after, and I'll (hopefully) graduate the next Monday. The school has a graduation rate of about 90% and they land jobs for 91% of the graduates, so as of now I have an 81% chance of leaving SKF for greener pastures within the next month. I'm after a job in the University Heights area, which is about 15 minutes from home now and about 5 minutes from home in June, where I'll serve mostly Bud Light and shots of tequila to the college crowd and make between $400 and $800 weekly. This is vastly better than my current average pay of $305.13. Plus, I'll get the two things I liked about Remke that I haven't had in a job since: flexible hours and actual customer interaction.

I will finally get paid to do something I already do for some of you guys for free, and I will enjoy doing it. Things are getting better, kids.
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Now playing on iTunes: The Format - She Doesn't Get It
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The Results!

I ended up at Scott's last night, playing cards and drinking beers. In a week and a half, Scott is taking James to Vegas for her 21st and they've been practicing a lot recently. We finally got around to trying Leinie Pebbles.

It worked. Kinda. Maybe.

While not as all-out nasty as beerios, the Pebbles somehow made the Sunset Wheat sour. It was nasty at first, but by the end of the bowl I was used to it. James, on the other hand, was less amused and downed it as fast as possible. She won the retroactively made wager of one chip.
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Now playing on iTunes: The Lashes - A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody
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More plans!

If you remember, I made this earlier post about plans for 2009. After scouting out the Civil War museum, Kaitlin and I decided an adventure back during Battery Hooper Days was in order. The event is August 26-27 and costs nothing.
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Now playing on iTunes: Tegan & Sara - Back in Your Head
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Abraham Lincoln!

Kraut and I planned to eventually go to the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum in Ft. Wright. Tomorrow is their celebration of the old man's 200th birthday. It looks like kind of a kids event, but it'll be warm this weekend and I figure it's worth checking out. If you're interested in joining me, leave a comment and we can figure something out.
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Now playing on iTunes: The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight
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The Infamous Mr Reynolds

The party Saturday was canceled due to the ice storms, which left half of Louisville without power. Fortunately, another host stepped up at the last minute so we could all go out and drink ourselves silly. Stevo was peer pressured into drinking half a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 in less than an hour. He followed that with two beers and a bit of rum. In the following drunken madness, he managed to babble incoherently, shout expletives, make out with a man, repeatedly thank the party guests for coming, and mumble things about weddings, including inviting me to be his "first man." Around 2:00, his innards suddenly inverted and he proceeded to un-drink whatever it was he hadn't absorbed while Sara and I managed the collateral damage. I'll spare you the embarrassing details, but he was still drunk at 7 AM. By noon the following day he was sober as a bird and feeling better than Sara, Sarah, and myself, who had to drag his drunk ass around and get him cleaned up Saturday night. Steve is a fucking mutant.

Also, the word on the street is that Republican Twittererererers outnumber Democrat Twitterererers almost two-to-one. So all you poor, Twittering fools are right up there with Dick Cheney as far as I can tell. Independents like myself don't seem to Twitter at all. I hereby rename you "Twits."