Black Wednesday

Today is apparently the biggest DUI night of the year.  I suppose that the thought of spending the entire next day with one's extended family sparks calls for desperate measures.  That, and people probably don't plan ahead for today like they do for New Year's Eve, etc., it's more a 'stop for one (or 12) on the way home from work', kind of day.

I am reminded of a time when I was working the lunch shift at Chili's on this day - I believe it was either sophomore or junior year of college and I was working the lunch shift in my hometown, right across the street from my former high school, on a break from college.  

Around 12, a large group of teachers from my high school (some of them my very own former teachers) meandered in (I remembered there was usually a half day of school on this day).  They started as a table of 12 (but kept expanding as the afternoon went on).   

Their server was slightly less than thrilled with them.  They sat for something around four hours (as of when I left, they may have stayed even longer), and they had ordered something over $120 of alcohol (mind you, this was at Chili's - home of the $5 as-big-as-your-head margarita), yet the only food they had was one order of boneless buffalo wings (amongst the however many at that point).  

A group of 12 first graders would have been quieter and better behaved.  The manager went over and asked them to keep it down a couple times.  I remember two of the female teachers standing up and kissing each other on the lips and all the men applauding rowdily.  As I was leaving, the management was contemplating asking them to leave because they were disrupting virtually everyone on their side of the restaurant.  

For some unknown reason, thinking of my former teachers in this disjointed, disruptive, inappropriate state always makes me smile to this day.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!