Note: Before you read this post, make sure you’ve read the background
As we were walking from the restaurant, we noticed a bar with a tiny doorway and a Bud Light neon sign. It looked like a fun, dive bar that we could get into some trouble in. And, boy, were we right!!
We walked into the bar and were met with hoots and hollers. Yes, we were a group of 5 good looking girls, but I’ve never walked into a bar with that kind of reaction. AB said she thought a game was on t.v. and they were cheering a good play. There were a few people in the bar; most of them looked like a motley crew of local men. I had a feeling that the cast of characters in this place was going to make for excellent fodder for this blog.
Looking around the bar, there were tons of Bud Light neon signs, a jukebox, a stripper pole, and an erotic photo hunt game. All the ingredients for quite a night, as you can imagine.
We walked up to the bar, and I’m sure the bartender was thinking, “I don’t want to make a bunch of fru-fru cosmo drinks for these bitches.” Instead, we ordered 5 shots of Jameson and 5 beers. Definitely unexpected, I’m sure. We took our first shots and found a table in the middle of the bar.
Soon enough, the boys in the bar started showing off and hitting each other in the chest. Kinda weird, but whatever. Soon enough, one of the guys (Roman) sat down at our table. He didn’t say anything at first, just sat there and kinda stared at us and told us to continue our conversation. Then another one of the guys (Ricardo) came up and started chatting us up. It turns out that all of these guys were from Calistoga, and most of them were somehow involved with all of the local wineries.
I have to say, I have not gotten this much male attention in a L-O-N-G time. Usually when I go out to a bar with friends, I’m the girl the guys talk to in a friendly way, but I’m not the one they flirt with. (At my weight, I expect this, right or wrong. The people you’re meeting at bars aren’t usually looking for deep, intriguing conversation. They’re looking for a good time, and more often than not, they’re idea of a good looking girl isn’t someone with more than 100 pounds to lose. Yes, it’s sad, but we live in a superficial society, and I’m as guilty of going for looks over substance when I am initially attracted to a guy at a bar). But not this time!
This time, my friends were the girls these guys were talking to in a friendly way, but I was the one getting all the flirty looks and conversation. Roman seemed to like me so much that he bought the whole group of us a couple of rounds of drinks. What an ego lift! Even though these guys weren’t going to be future boyfriends, to be sure, it was so much fun to have these guys flirting and vying for my attention. Every time I went outside to smoke, some new guy was coming up to me and talking. I definitely felt like the belle of the ball. And I was definitely coming back to Calistoga!
Outside, smoking a cigarette with Gatsby, all of a sudden I look up and see two girls coming into the bar wearing bad miniskirts on roller skates. Can you say Boogie Nights? Not only that, but they had a HUGE dog with them. Think mastif or some big breed like that. One girl even had “Adios” written on the back of her skirt. We got a great picture of it that I’ll post as soon as I can.
Next up was a girl from Virginia who came outside saying, “O.M.G., I can’t believe I can’t bring my beer outside to smoke!” She literally said the letters OMG. Priceless. Back in the bar and suddenly Virginia girl was up on the stripper pole showing her stuff to the locals. We sat there watching her like you watch a train wreck, not wanting to look, but unable to look away. We even got to know that she was wearing pink panties. Pretty soon she was climbing the pole, but it turned out that she was a bit too tipsy and she ended up falling down the pole and landing hard on her ass. Talking about this later, all of the girls and I decided this was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to her, because the way she was going, something bad was going to happen to her. Falling so hard on her ass woke her up and she suddenly became aware of how embarrassed she should be. She quieted down soon after that.
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention this old guy who was acting as busboy. I’m not even sure if he worked at the bar or if he cleaned up in order to get free drinks. As he was clearing away a round of our beer bottles and shot glasses, AB poured the dregs of each shot glass into one, and offered it to him. He downed it quicker than you can blink.
Next up in this night of ridiculous hilarity was The Cane. This guy was old, too, and had a look of no good about him. Several people in the bar warned us to watch out for him, which can’t be good. If a group of rowdy locals is telling you to stay away from some guy, you know he has to be trouble. He started chatting up CTLB and the other girls, and at that point, I went outside for another smoke. No sooner had I returned to the bar when The Cane was falling on his ass. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but it was a combination of him drinking too much, making an ass of himself, and unsuccessfully trying to touch one of my friends. It seems mean to laugh at a guy with a cane who falls on his face, but this guy was a pig who deserved the laughter.
The night ended with Roman putting the moves on me. He said, “I don’t really have any place for us to go. Can’t we go back to your hotel?” I reminded him I was there with 4 other girls, and he had no response. This guy expects me to bring him back to my hotel to have sex? Get real! I was actually surprised at how little game this guy had. Strange, really, considering all the effort he put into the evening buying me drinks, playing songs on the jukebox, and flirting. Too bad for him he couldn’t get to the payoff.
After the hookup that never was, I headed back to the hotel for more “girl time.”
All in all, Susie’s Bar was one of the best times I’ve had in a long time. It was the perfect mix of dive bar, rowdy boys, creeps, and roller skating, pole dancing girls. You just can’t make this stuff up!
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So, you might be wondering why I was wine tasting, eating dinner, and drinking when I’m supposed to be on this medically supervised fast. I had made the decision months ago that because this weekend was so special, and because CTLB is only going to get married once, I would break the fast and eat real food and drink real wine this weekend. Plus, I figured it was early enough in the fast that it wouldn’t affect my weight loss too severely. I made good choices in what I ate, overall, and I worked out hard on Saturday night when I got home to try to work off some of the calories that I took in. We’ll see what the scale says on Tuesday, but no matter what happens, it was definitely worth it to enjoy this weekend.
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