Hollywood Humph

The Tiki bar is open....

15 March 2006 started like any other day. Work was a bit hectic because I knew I had plenty to do but not much time. The market is closed. Its 4:00.... "A pirate turns 40" so they say, but not the days ahead. This is where the story begins....

Kaino, Schenks, Tom, Kevin, Rick arrive. Let the party begin. It is great to see friendly faces. We hung out at my place for a while and it is time to go to a nice restaurant. We went to the Capital Grill. I have been there a few times. They have great steaks and sea food. It was a good evening. The weather was perfect. We ate outside. What a big change for everyone coming down here from Cincinnati. Dinner was delicious and it was a nice time to catch up with everyone. Next stop the Blue Martini....

The Blue Martini on Wed night is usually hopping and it certainly lived up to its expectations. The band was jamming and there was a whole range of people there. I ended up asking the lady at the table next to us to dance. Found out she was from Pittsburgh. Don't these people stay in their own state? They are everywhere. She was tall, 24 and hot.... I got her out on the dance floor and she could really put some moves on. Went back to her table where all of here friends were. Kevin was working like crazy to get one of the girls to engage. Apparently she was stuck in neutral. The girl I was dancing with was doing sign language with one of the girls. They were moving there hands around just as if they were talking. I whispered down to her and said "how do you know I don't know sign language" She stopped and did a few more signs and had a good laugh. She introduced me to all of her friends. All down from Pittsburgh. Her mother was the one she was doing sign language. I took her mother out on the floor. She was cutting loose. God bless her heart. After we had a dance I told her daughter to thank her for me and I kissed her mothers hand. Back to the table with my buddies. Looking back I'm sure they enjoyed themselves at the Blue Martini.

Thursday was a very busy day because the rest of the guys were coming in. I was picking people up at the airport all day. Jeff made the comment he could not believe we were on the beach in less that 1 hour since getting off the plane. Welcome to my world....
Some of the guys made the trip up to Jupiter to watch a spring training game. The rest of us stayed around Hollywood. We were waiting for Ronnie O and Mac. We hung out at the beach pretty much the whole day shooting the breeze and having some of our favorite cocktails. The guys left the game early so they would not hit some major traffic on I-95. They met us on the beach and had a few cocktails. Then we are off to O'Malleys.... This is where the story gets interesting. God I hope they let me back in. I want to explain this bar to you so you will have a visual and by the way.... Go get yourself a beer or sip on a martini. This is good material.

O'Malleys is a pretty good size tiki bar. It has a large "U" shape bar. The tiki bar ceiling all comes to one center point. Usually they have baseball and football flags and yes a surf board in the middle of it. It sits right on the "broadwalk".....Not a boardwalk. Looking out you can see the ocean to your left. There are some large sand doons in front of it so you really don't have a good view of the ocean. If you don't have a picture in your mind by now....I can not help you.

The bartender is sweet "Melissa". What a knock out... She proberly saw us coming a million miles away. She put up with us all night. She served us cocktails and kept us wondering what kind of tattoo she had on her ankle. It was a beautiful thing. The beauty of it, I think she had fun as well....

Anything on the menu is good after having some cocktails.... Especially when you have pretty girls walking in and out of the bar all night. Did I mention to you that spring break was kicking pretty hard all week and into the weekend. So Kevin, Mac and I met these girls at the bar. We tried working our magic with these girls . The rest of the guys were watching us work these girls as if they were watching soft porn. CAN YOU EVEN TAKE A GUESS WHERE THESE GIRLS WERE FROM....PITTSBURGH. I could not believe it. What is going on?

Let me get back to sweet "Melissa". Kevin decide that he wanted her shirt. It was a black tank top. My she looked fantastic. Kevin wants her shirt. Next thing we know he is wearing it and sweet "Melissa" is now wearing aqua. Someone told me it cost him 40.00 bucks. Nicely done sweet "Melissa". Kevin starts parading around the bar and the girls are loving him to death. They are grabbing his new wardrobe and checking him out. The tank top barely fits him and you can see his belly. Needless to say he had a good time.. Jeff and Robbie had a great time because they were two sheets to the wind. I met this girl from Canada. She seemed like a cool lady. She gave me her number. I told her I would call her on Friday to go out. It is time to go home.... Kevin what are you doing in my sink?????

Friday.... The guys played golf. Ronnie O and myself went to the Elbo room. It was 11:00 am. The Elbo room is located at the corner of Las Olas and A1A. The bar is right on the beach. The girls come right off the beach for some cocktails and some good music. Its pretty much a hole in the wall. But it is a blast. Spring break was kicking and the sights were quite impressive. Our bartender was "Christy". Wow.... She was a chatty young lady. Christy was wearing an outfit that made you want to look. She was busting out and knew how to work it. She took good care of us all day.

Everyone came back to the condo and I called the Canadian. She said she was ok with going out with all of us. I picked her up at O'Malleys and met back at the condo. We called 3 cabs and were heading to the Riverwalk in downtown Fort Lauderdale for the St. Patty's day celebration. They blocked off a few streets and had live bands. We all walked past a vendor who was selling t-shirts. The Canadian wanted a t-shirt. The girl behind the table handed her one. I paid for it. It was only 15.00. The Canadian took her shirt off and put the new one one. All the guys looked at me and I just said" What....She's from Canada". Oh mama....

Somehow we ended up in Coyote Ugly. Just like the movie. The bartenders dance on top of the bar. Yes I said on top of the bar with shot glasses. You can take a shot from their belly or from their cleavage. Decisions Decisions Decisions. What is a young pup to do? I did the right thing. Got the Canadian right up to the bar and order a whiskey cleavage shot for her. It's quite impressive to watch. She took that shot right down. I will let your imagination take from here. Can't seem to get that out of my mind. Reminds me of a sweet lady back home who made me say "Sweet mother of God". I miss you and hope you come see me soon.

Saturday.... We had tickets to go see a spring training game. I have to admit, I had a great time. We all sat out in the right field bleachers and caught some rays and had some cocktails.
We left and decided to go the beach for some afternoon activities. A few of the guys wanted to go get a few things for their wives and kids. So they walked up and down the Hollywood Broadwalk. The rest of us enjoyed a few of our favorite drinks while taking in the scenes on the beach. Then some of the guys came up with the idea of going back to O'Malleys to watch some basketball of course. Here we go again.... O'Malleys was kicking again. Sweet Melissa was working again. Glad to see they let me back in. Not sure where the time goes. The Canadian is at the bar. It was good to see her and we hung out for awhile. A few hours go by and some of the guys wanted to go to the dog track. So we did. The rest of the guys stayed at the bar. Told the Canadian I would be back in a few hours. Had a blast at the track. But we lost. We bet 20.00 a race on exacta's. 5-6 box of course (fatman).

Get back to the bar and the Canadian is having her way around the bar. Quite shocking.... I think she was surprised to see me back. Like she knew she was doing something wrong. I did not care. I barely know the girl. Ronnie O said she was all over the bar. Told the Canadian I was not interested and for her to keep continuing what she was doing. She kept apologizing to me. Not sure why????? Later on Sunday she called my cell phone at least 4-5 times. She turned out to be the "Phsyco Canadian". Glad to see we have some de-generate friends up north as well.

Kevin decide he was going to stay at the bar and hang out with sweet Melissa. He said he could not explain it, but there is something about her and is attracted to her. He got home around 4 am.

Sunday.... Everyone is leaving except for Ronnie O. We hung out at the pool. Went out to dinner and crashed. Dropped him off at the airport Monday morning and it is back to my routine.

Parting notes.... It was great to see everyone. I was quite impressed we all kept together. I know sometimes when you have a large group it can be tuff. We told stories and re-lived lots of memories and created many this past weekend. I spoke to many people who could not believe we knew each other from high school. They watched us and were impressed. They could not believe how good of friends we all are. One lady said to me she could not even count on one hand her good friends. It's a testimate of time. Good times and bad times. We weathered the storm and are still standing.

Thank you to all the wives and the kids. You gave up a lot of family time for allowing these guys to come down here. This would of never happened if it was not for all of you.

"To have good friends...You have to be a good friend"

That is all....
Steven