Thank This!

Wednesday night mean $1 spirits (+ mixer) at Sharky. It often ends with me stumbling out of Walkabout at 6am. This Wednesday was no exception. Since I was to miss the Thanksgiving booze cruise, I decided to celebrate a day early.

Sharky Bar:
Wednesday night was packed at Shark. Good crop of expats and tourists, - dudes from the pool league shootin' stick...Festive. Mix in the dark and sexy ladies who love us all, or at least tolerate us in the name of dead (US) presidents, and you got a good Wednesday night vibe. We rode it.

DiverTX, the Mad Musician, Big Shark, Dredge....everyone was on hand and we were all sucking down $1 drinks. Conversation ranged from deep-sea diving to business to sex and then back to business and then back to sex. Hey, you want an Algonquin roundtable? Come Fridays when we discuss the finer points of Wittgenstein over snifters of brandy.*

In the end, we all agreed that we were too drunk to talk business, or even walk a straight line to the bathroom. Thinking outside the box, we headed off to Gold Star Bar.

Gold Star Bar:
Something must have gone down before we came because security was extra vigilant. Either that, or the guy was into feeling up drunk White boys. Actually, security was on the prowl - about 10 of them roaming the dance floor looking for trouble. A good sign since it usually only takes about 2 beers + 1 Khmer to equal a major problem. Maybe Gold Star is letting the Heart make its mistakes for them.

My favorite local player (Coco) wasn't there, but there were a few recognizable faces from the riverfront restaurants and cafes getting down - along with a hundred or so Khmer dudes.

The DJ is a Khmerican, so he lays down a good mix of Khmer funk and R&B/Rap to keep the party moving. Dig the chicks from the SugarShack getting loaded in a corner booth. I also noticed some of the girls who used to haunt the Heart shakin' it with friends. Note: this is a BYO place. The chicks who come here aren't usually looking to get laid. They just want to hang with their friends.

Heart:
Big Shark and I made a pit stop to check the action. Africans with White chicks dumb enough to buy them drinks. Downed one and managed to hook up with a dark and sexy mama. We made for Howies.

Howies Bar:
FatLensman had spent the night chasing Howie around the bar kicking his ankle cast insisting that the injury was a fake. It's not. Revenge came when FatLensman went to plant his drunken 300lb ass on a bar stool only to have Howie yank it out from under him. Crash!! Splat!! Funny as hell, and NO, nobody rushed to help him up. Actually, we just walked around him all night.

I cut into FatLensman a lot because...he deserves it, but he really is a very talented photographer. (Just a major pain in the ass when he's drunk....which is every fucking day.)

Fat TrY was also on hand. Less of a pain in the ass than usual. He was making nice with Big Shark and despite a few loud episodes, no blood was spilled and more rounds were passed. I even took a dip in the K-hole. By 4:30 I decided to make a break for the door. That damn AM class!!

BigShark came by the hacienda to check in on DiverTX and maybe do a few bongs.
No maybe about it. TX was cool. His date had already passed out and my girl, oblivious to our antics, did the same. They talked work, and I thought about how in the hell I was going to make my 9:40am. I sent out a slew of SMS' hoping to get someone to cover. I received...the sound of one hand clapping.

And thus began Thanksgiving 2006.


(*This never happens)