Saying Goodbye
Sunday night was the last night at work for a little lady named Susan Worley who had worked at Romeo's for nearly ten years. She was working the night I went in to inquire about a job back in '97. She is a super sweet, smart and sassy person that pretty much e'rbody likes.Then it was no surprise that the whole cast showed up to see her off. Damn near all the people who are still in town and who still hang with the Romeo's crowd showed up on Sunday night to wish Susan well in her new job. They also came to throw whip cream and silly string on her in what could be considered the most important Romeo's tradition. Whenever someone leaves the restaurant the tradition states that they shall be pied and pie they shall wear. Sometimes the mess that is heaped upon a person at their departure has elements that exceed the normal ingredients of you average everyday pie. You know, gross food ingredients, like leftovers form the day, chicken juices, chocolate syrup, all manner of stuff that you don't want to get in your hair or on your clothes. We stuck purely to whipped cream and silly string and water for Sue. I personally have left Romeo's twice but I have only been pied once. I guess that's the limit.
Anyways, when I got there at ten fifteen there was already quite a crowd assembled. And more people showed up after me so including the staff that was had been working there may have been twenty five or thirty people gathered up at the bar. The pie attack went smoothly and was a lot of fun. Susan had the foresight to bring a shower cap which I think was a first. We hit her with a whole mess of whip cream and four cans of silly string. There were also some super soakers water cannons involved. That happened pretty early and after that we proceeded to get drunk in earnest. I fell off my barstool twice. My ass still hurts.
I mention these events cause it was a hella good time and even though its Wednesday after the Sunday debacle, I am still feeling the love. Susan was of course touched. In an unrelated story there was a lot of touching going around that night. There were speeches and toasts and picture taking and rollicking laughter and there was love, lots and lots of love. Everybody that has worked together at Romeo's is so close and I feel so lucky to be friends with so many of those folks. Some of it has to do with the fact that the owners are so cool. Romeo's is owned by a young couple named Jas and Christine. They cultivated such a family atmosphere over the years that sometimes when you're hanging out with the Romeo's crew it just seems like family. Well family except not so annoying. We were all having so much fucking fun on Sunday that things got a little out of hand.
At one point Christine was behind the bar with the bottle of Grey Goose in her hand and she was toasting and taking little swigs and getting more on her shirt than she was getting in her mouth. That was some funny shit. And sometime around twelve thirty, Yvette took Christine home and that's when things really got out of hand. The super soaker came back out and there was some kind of waterfight and I got caught in the crossfire. And there was wrestling and folks were grabbin ass and the chairs were flying. I was all "You guys are gonna have to clean this mess up." Cause I obviously ain't cause I don't work here no more. And even though I had to work the next day I stayed till two thirty in the morn.
I was hella hung over on Monday, but it was totally worth it. All day I was high on the love that saturated that gathering like the super soakers that had saturated my clothes.
And I am terribly thankful for my wonderful friends.
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