A Real Update

So, I’m still bouncing. I’m not really working anywhere glamorous at the moment – just a lounge in parts unknown and a popular local bar near where I live – but I still haven’t managed to escape what one Amazon.com reviewer/commenter claims I’ve repeatedly called my “personal hell.”

Personal hell.

Two relatives of mine – along with numerous friends – have served multiple tours in Iraq, but I somehow seem to keep insisting that working in nightclubs is my “personal hell.” Thank you, Amazon.com reviewer/commenter, for granting me the perspective I’ve been lacking all this time. I think I’ve got everything lined up now, so I appreciate you setting me straight.

Asshole.

I’ve enjoyed going back to bouncing in a more “traditional” bar setting. It’s been good for me. Bar work is a lot less stressful, and the hours are exponentially more convenient. Working in clubs for so long, I’d forgotten the simple pleasure of getting home from work before the sun comes up. As a bouncer, there’s much to be said for deluding yourself into thinking it’s still nighttime when your shift knocks off. It’s a hell of a lot less depressing that way, especially when you’ve got a regular day job to report to in the “morning” – which, in the case of a club bouncer, is always right up your everloving ass. After your forty-five minute night’s sleep, that is.

People in bars, while still a gaggle of drunken, drug-addled louts, are much easier to deal with than the dickheads you’ll find hanging out in New York’s megaclubs. They’ll fight, but they’ll eventually stop fighting. With no cover charge and multiple bars in the area, there’s less at stake if they’re thrown out, so they don’t try and draw things out for hours on end like the retards I’d been dealing with at the club. Fights can be fun, but you eventually want them to end, especially when it’s cold or raining outside. In club fights, the weather doesn’t matter. The almighty Guido need-for-attention takes precedence over the elements at all times.

I started working in this particular bar after leaving my main door spot in the city. I didn’t really want to bail on that job, but I had to because there was too much bullshit flying around over my head between management and ownership, and it wasn’t a pleasant place to work anymore. Several of us left at the same time, and the bar job, through an invite from an actual character in the book, was the first thing to come along. I brought in a few guys I worked with at the club, and we’re essentially running security there now. We’re probably the most overqualified bar security staff in New York, but that’s not something I’d ever mind.

As usual, I’d rather not be bouncing at this point in my life, but the extra money isn’t something I’m prepared to turn down right now.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what I’m going to do with my life now that all the book shit is over with. Not a lot has changed for me. I’m still working my regular job, still coaching football and training people, and bouncing a few nights a week. Same shit as always. The goal now, however, is to make some fairly drastic changes before the end of the year. This means that I’d prefer to live a little better than I currently am. I’d like to pursue some opportunities with writing – I’ve already started on a fairly significant new project – and get shit moving again instead of stagnating on my couch and letting everything simply fade away.

We’ll see how that goes. For now, however, the blog is BACK.