Excerpts from the weekend.

Since nothing terribly exciting happened last weekend, I’ve decided to offer excerpts that I thought were worth mentioning…and perhaps reading. I guess that’s for you to decide.

Driving 101:
Anyway, I was in dire need of an oil change last Thursday (went 2,000 over like a bad girl) and went back to Randolph (where I used to live with my family) to the garage that I’ve had quite a history with. Now the owner of my third car, the guys at Eli and Chris Shell have done so much for me over the years and couldn’t be nicer about it. Friends of the family, they have always been understandably very honest and fair and are nice enough to let me have an account there (translation, they allow me to make payments on big $ jobs, which with my 1987 Chevy Celebrity and 1997 Ford Taurus were a common occurrence). Now, I drive a brand new 2005 Toyota Corolla, which has only required oil changes since I bought it last June. Such a relief to have a reliable car!!

So I get the oil change and decide to get a car wash because my beautiful baby is dirty as sh*t. (That’s the only drawback of parking on a main street in South Boston, your car gets very ambushed by sludge, slush, and dirt with everyone driving by and splashing stuff all over it. Not to mention the bird poop my car gets torpedoed with when I park under this big tree on my street. Seriously, sometimes I think they have the runs because the spatter can get pretty violent. Gross, I know, but it’s the truth. They need to create some kind of seagull milk of magnesia or something).

Anyway, the car wash is just a few yards up the road from the Shell station. I drive in and notice all these cones set up, which I don’t realize until I’m almost through them that they are for when cars exit the car wash. When I finally noticed where I was supposed to enter, I back up to get around the cones…or so I thought…and proceed to drive forward. It was then that I realized I had snagged a cone and was dragging it across the lot!!!! Two young station attendants were prompted by the loud dragging sound and came over to assist me. I turned bright red with embarrassment while apologizing. One of them replies, "That’s okay. Girls like you deserve a second chance." Cheese-tastic!! But I would expect nothing more from a 16-year-old kid who works at a car wash.

The rest of the car wash goes swimmingly, except for when I try to reattach my radio antenna on top of my car in the drying station (outlined by the cones, of course). I’m of average stature, I like to say, and it was quite difficult. Took me about a minute and a half, but I got it on. Brilliant!!
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Doing my part in the war on Iraq:
Got to take my friend Kevin out for a night on the town Friday. This is a kid I grew up with and worked with in Randolph. He was nearing the end of his two-week break from his tour of duty in Iraq and Jacks and I thought we’d do our part as good American citizens and get him loaded before he had to go back Sunday!!

Anyway, the two of us had decided to go on our own pub crawl after I got out of my day shift early Friday evening and when I mentioned it to Kevin, he was ready to go. We started at my bar (Bell in Hand) and proceeded to The Tap, Blackstone Grill, Ames Plow (where I got my start bartending), and the Kinsale. Later, we cabbed it back to Southie and finished up at The Playwright. Lots of drinking, some unfortunate drama, but for the most part, it was a grand old time.

My favorite part of the night? Kevin getting bought a drink practically every place we went. And rightfully so. He wasn’t the one petitioning bartenders for free booze, I was. All I had to do was mention he was in the army and heading back to Iraq and people would throw drinks at him. Again, rightfully so. God bless you, Kev. See you at home for good in August!!
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Why I love and hate March Madness.
Loves:
1) The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The upsets and spoilers.
2) Hearing the stories behind the athletes and seeing them accomplish their dreams.
3) Competing in my office bracket pool with $150 on the line.
Hates:
Just one: Overachieving teams like Bradley and George Mason who mess with your brackets and allow people with no knowledge of college basketball to take the pot. That’s exactly what’s going down in my office, with a pair of 50-year-old moms in the running the show (one of which picked Air Force to play in the final game!!). As much as I like seeing the upsets, George Mason in particular, it’s just wrong to let people like this win our pool. It’s almost better to be less informed. If that’s the case, I’m destined to never win!!