A Wonderful Update

This is how it is: I work at one of the best downtown spots I could ask for. It's popular, it's busy on a regular basis, and I'm never ashamed to tell anyone who asks where I work (so long as I have no connection to this blog). I work with some of the best guys out there. I'd put them up against any other staff downtown. I work for a couple of great guys that I trust completely. It's rare for a bar employee, especially one with any sort of experience, to say something like that. But I can, and I do so without any doubt.

I have all of these things and in addition, I have this stupid ass blog where I can vent whatever frustrations that I can think of. And if you've gone over any of the shit that I've written about in the past, then you'll know that there's a whole lotta shit that I complain about.

What's strange to me, is that people actually read this shit. People who matter. People who make decisions about things that have to do with my job. And I guarantee you that somebody's chomping at the bit to figure out who the hell I am. Where I work. Why I say the things I say.

I've said it before. I'll never filter what I say on here. I promise to tell it how it is. I write about downtown and drinking and fighting, and it's really all fucking stupid when it comes down to it. But the downtown "scene" and the huge amounts of alcohol that the college kids consume is apparently a nice big, blistering eyesore for the government officials who would have the permanent residents of Athens believe that everything is all roses and ponies in Clarke County. But it isn't. We have thousands of binge drinking college students - and high school students, too - who come downtown and take 15 shots of jager and do blow in the bathrooms and smoke weed and then drive themselves home.

So at the expense of those who would rather do nothing about the actual problem itself and continue to rake in the cash generated because of that problem, I'll confirm to everyone reading that Athens, Georgia has a massive drug and alcohol problem, with the college students directly in the epicenter. And I'll tell you this much: it isn't my fucking fault or anyone else who works at or owns a bar.

Yet the legislation that's continually passed by the county commissioners comes down on the bar employees who are only trying to make some money and go home, as if it's our fault that college kids want to experiment with drugs and alcohol. They have their nice little dog and pony show in the form of ridiculous and useless laws that they'll parade around in front of the tax paying voters to make them believe that they're trying to do something about the "underaged drinking problem", when in reality they haven't done anything but waste our time. And in the end, the only thing they really give a fuck about is continuing to get your money and your votes so they can stay in power, and they certainly don't want to give up the tax money generated from the enormous amount of alcohol that Athens plows through on a nightly basis.

I'm not bitching like this so I can get your sympathy. I don't need anything from you besides your silence and good behavior when you're drinking at the place I work at. Oh, and your money. I happen to be a big fan of that myself. But in all fairness, I'm not extorting you at the expense of anyone else besides you, unlike our great elected leaders. You chose to come downtown and get fucked up, not me. So I'm taking your decisions and twisting them in my favor. That's what we do at the bar. We get you to give us your money. And it's okay to us because you made the choice to come downtown.

So what am I really trying to get at here? I'm not really sure. Maybe this post is an impromptu pulse check and a quick look to see what I still think about it all. I still like my job. I don't like the government. But regardless, I'll be down there - tonight, actually - freezing my ass off and attempting to devise a clever plan to get you shitbags out of my face and will the clocks to move forward faster so I can go inside, lock the door and get away from it all only to repeat it all next week, for some strange reason.