I'm A Hustler Baby...I Just Want You To Know

I don't know what it is about Freebirds that makes me give that place 110%. Yes I do. They pay me cash money to have fucking fun. I love it. Last night was the most awesome night at work ever. Ever. We had an actual event in the parking lot. On the first Thursday of every month, street vendors and musicians and artists, etc. line the sidewalks of South Congress Avenue while patrons walk around, eating, buying stuff and generally checking shit out. F+M Records had a showcase with several artists playing songs off of a sampler cd in conjunction with Freebirds so they had a big stage and spotlights and all set up in our parking lot, ready for a big party.
I got to work about 10 minutes early. I finished my cigarette and went and leaned over the counter and talked to Lily at the register. There was one person in line. A guy. Preston was making his quesadilla. All of a sudden, he slides down the line to me and is all "Heyyyy..." I look over and there is this rock star-lookin guy. Big sunglasses, perfectly worn jeans. Red Shirt. Barely-there chestnut shag. I don't know if you know the type, but these assholes are a dime a dozen in Austin. I tell him Hello, and he introduces himself as Johnny. Okay. Then he asks Jen, the manager, about the cd we are selling, he wants to see it. She brings it out to him and he starts pointing out the "geniuses" on the album, but I'm not really paying attention. He makes a big effort to point out the first artist on the sampler, but I'm not really paying attention. And he's talking to me and poor Preston is like, hey. Hey. Hey! Sir, what else do you want on your quesadilla!?! And old boy is like, oh, right, my bad, and gives me the wink and goes back to his meal. I'm trying to control my inner laughter at this point. So then he pays for his food and talks to me some more, but I'm not really paying attention. I'm about to clock in so I go over to pour out my drink and he stops me and asks when I get off work. I tell him. He asks me if he were to come and get me, would I watch him play? Whoa. This guy is one of the artists on the album! I tell him yes, because duh, arrogant or not, this guy is hot. He leaves and I run to Jen and ask her if he comes can I go, can I go?? She laughs and says sure. It's not every day a rock star hits on you. Or someone who thinks he's a rock star. Haha. So I grab the cd and look for a Johnny on there. Imagine, Johnny is the "genius" on the record. Hahaha. So Leah, the messy one, went to scope out the sitch. She found him on his cell phone yelling at his girlfriend. Then telling her what time to be there. I swear, I attract the biggest turds.
We had tons of staff and just that in itself was fun because I love those peeps. And we were really slow at first so we were all just goofing off, horseplaying and dancing to Of Montreal, and generally bullshitting around. We had a pretty fun crowd there as well. As pretentious as the Austin music scene is, I must admit it's still pretty cool. At least I'm intrigued. Needless to say, old boy's girlfriend showed up, and he didn't come and get me for his set, which was actually a really nice thing to do, seeing as how he totally sucked.
We knew there was a chance of severe weather last night, but it had been fine out all day. And just last week the weathermen were wrong about that shit. It didn't matter either way, because the show must go on, right? So when the first couple of raindrops hit and the wind gusted up, our general manager told Ricky and I to close up/lock down the patio, and then he hauled ass like a weakling. Within minutes it is raining in sheets and storming like crazy. Ricky and I are outside in this, hustling, trying to take down the umbrellas and lock up the chairs. Lightning. Thunder. More wind. Then I hear Ricky yell, "Blush! Watch out!" as a tree limb goes flying by my head and into the creek below. "Holy shit! We better hurry!" But now I am paying attention to the tree above the patio. The wind is thrashing it around the sky. "Ricky, come ON!" CRACK! And the biggest limb falls onto the tables as Ricky and I escape into the store. Fuck that shit. So we are inside the store for about 5 minutes before the electricity goes out. So it's Jen, Em, Travis, Ricky, and Me, and poor Rob was even there because he had stopped in to get a free burrito before we closed and got stuck there in the storm. I couldn't have picked better people to be there with, in fact, that's my crew of friends. Luckily we were stuck there with beer as well. Plus we had about 30-45 people from outside, and various musical equipment. The spotlights are still running outside on a generator and you could see the silver sparkly rain falling. It was beautiful. And kinda surreal. So nobody knows what to do, and a sort of organized chaos becomes the standard behavior. First, we don't do anything. Everyone just wants to smoke a cigarette. So we did, in the store with the backdoor open, which is totally illegal as smoking is banned in the city. But nobody cared. Emilie is serving people burritos because we're just going to throw the food away anyway. (To be fair, her major is social work, so I wasn't terribly surprised.) But we couldn't charge people if we wanted to because the register had no power. So she's just working for tips. Awesome. That only helps all of us. Some people are strumming guitars in the lobby. When the rain died down a bit, we all go outside under the awning to smoke another cigarette with some peeps from the lobby. Guess who joins us: The "genius" sans girlfriend. And imagine, he's hitting on me again! Finally, the weather seemed to stablize and everyone stranded at Freebirds made their way home. Except us.
It was hard to close down the store because we had no light. There were backup lights in the lobby but that's it. So in the kitchen it was pitch black. We were somehow able to get everything done pretty much by memory. Even though I technically wasn't supposed to be there (I had gotten off right before the storm) I had no problem helping everyone close because face it, I wasn't going anywhere, and I effin love that place. We laughed our asses off the whole time. There were an abundance of jokes made throughout. Ricky and I were even thinking about organizing a wet tee-shirt contest during the night, Freebirds style...

Unbelievably, that idea never reached fruition.