Some Day We'll Learn...

My bud Mark Mulligan was playing at the Waterfront last night. One of the first things he said to me was, "We're not staying here until 2 AM. I have to leave for California at 5 AM tomorrow morning." I said, "No 2 AM for sure because I have to go in early for an all day training class tomorrow." Then we both gave each other a 'who are we kidding?' look.

See, Mark is a bad influence and I am easily influenced. We used to close down Kona Jack's when he did his gigs there (always on a school night) and one time the Waterfront staff actually asked us to leave because they wanted to go home. That was a 2 AM night...and I think it was during the week, too.

Sometimes it's not even our fault at all. Despite our best intentions, there's someone else with us who makes us stay out. A lot of times, it's his brother John and it used to be Tom Hankins a lot before he abandoned us to go live on a boat.

So, we agreed to leave no later than midnight.

Then, Tom Hankins walked in to the bar.

I knew our midnight plans were screwed and that I was going to be one tired puppy in my training class.

Sure enough, Tom made (I'm telling you, I have no free will, I just do what I'm told) me do some tequila and he bought Mark a stack of rum and diets and next thing I knew, it was 12:45.

Thank goodness I was at a place that's actually somewhat close to my house. I got home at 1 and cursed Mark and Tom at 6 this morning when my alarm went off. Four Diet Pepsis have kept me going so far but I don't think they'll carry me through the rest of the day. I can't imagine how tired Mark was driving to Santa Barbara.

Man, ya think we'll ever stop doing this to ourselves?

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