On Wednesday night I went out with Wil; it was back to the scene of the crime... Martuni's. I knew it was time to face my fears and enter said drinking establishment on a school night. The plan was to get something to eat first and then split a drink at the piano bar. We went to Chow and there was a bit of a wait so we ended up next door at the Pilsner while we waited. It was about a half hour before our table was ready so before we even had so much as a nibble we had each had a pint of beer. Feeling counter-productive by the time we got to our table I decided I would order something with mashed potatoes, because surely that would absorb any alcohol. The whole time we were eating I was trying to decide how to break it to Wil that since I already had a pint of beer there was no way we could go to Martuni's. I guess it was something about the mashed potatoes combined with that toasty warm blast from the heat lamps that made me rethink my plan, and after a delicious (and thrifty) dinner we walked down to the sign with the big green neon olive.
There I was again. It actually made me nervous to be in the bar. Wil found a good table pretty close to the piano and I decided I would use the one and only restroom. Surprisingly the layout seemed different than I remembered it from over 4 months ago and I started to laugh while I was in there wondering how stupid I looked that night that I drank 2 of those gargantuan drinks. I got back to the table and Wil ordered 2 glasses of water and a Knob Creek Manhattan. The bartender, Billy, asked if that was just one drink that we wanted. Wil and I both said yes with absolute certainty. Then I started this uncomfortable diatribe about how last time we came here it got ugly and blah, blah, blah... Billy said "I know, they warned me when you came in." Laughs all around. As he walked away to get our drink I noticed the two women sitting in front of us. They were swaying with no certain rhythm and shouting with excitement at each other, were they drunk or what? Please tell me I didn't look that bad the last time I came in here. As they started swing dancing and knocking chairs down behind me I knew that no matter how bad I thought I was on that ill-fated September night these women made me look like a freakin' super star. So Wil and I shared our drink with three extra cherries, listened to some mediocre singers and I am proud to announce that I am now free of the Martuni curse.