drunken dogs

It's funny how people go through life (probably myself included) believing that nobody knows they are stinking drunk. Last night, the lovely S. (his initial shall be used for now to protect the innocent, though his name shall likely be used often in future) and I went to a little bar in my neighborhood for happy hour called Genesis for some pre-Pio Pio drinks. S. had his back turned to the initial mayhem of a couple of new happy hourers that entered (loudly) the street seating area with their lovely black lab mix Sophie, but from the start, they were causing quite a ruckus. They were likely in their 40s, and the type of native New Yorker drinkers whose faces had been changed by the amount of drinking they had done both earlier that day and also their whole lives. Normally I don't note the behavior of drunks (or try not to pay attention to it), because they are not worth mentioning, but when someone has a dog I typically worry for the dog's well being. After a comical re-seating (because you can't just bring a dog into the seating area of a restaurant and have to sit on the outskirts street-side, so your dog can stay connected via leash to the area but outside the boundaries), they each ordered a double Kettle One. The whole time, the woman half of the couple was requesting loudly and forcefully, "I don't want you to get too drunk" (too late). Her male cohort and she told me they liked my necklace (thank you, Payless Shoe Source), which also prompted him to show me some hideous bracelet that looked like it came from Taos, New Mexico circa 1982. Sophie was desperately coming up to us (and they were apologizing profusely), and it led me to pay close attention to the care they were taking of her. When I saw them order her a cheeseburger (even though they weren't eating) and give her a dish of water, my fears were allayed and my only sadness was for their lives that clearly revolved around pro drinking.

Later, we were to get pretty food-and-sangria drunk at Pio Pio (and I want to drink the creamy green sauce they bring with the chicken, etc.) thanks to chicken, avocado salad, French fries (twice, because of the salchipapas), and I sort of felt for them as we struggled post dinner to sober up enough to buy Jiffy Pop and some IPA at my local grocery store in preparation for some way-to-hot apartment movie watching.

Drinking really does prevent you from doing fun things though, and I think it should be reserved for singles or couples that know 100% they have a lifetime together to be sober. I guess it should also only be attempted by those that really, truly love dogs and won't snap by accident under the influence.