Day 98

Well, this has been quite a ridiculous weekend for me. This weekend was Oktoberfest in Soulard. I know you all thought that Mardi Gras was the only party that happens in Soulard, but oh contrare mi amigo, Oktoberfest is one of the many other celebrations that unite the neighborhood that is Soulard.

I have experienced working one Mardi Gras at Llywelyns in Soulard, but this is my first Oktoberfest. Friday night was odd. There were a ton of people right down the block for most of the night at the big celebration. Well, that closed at midnight, we close at one. That means that we got a whole lot of really drunk ignorant people walking in to Llywelyns at midnight.

We were overstaffed to begin with, which is always the rule when Soulard hosts a big party such as Oktoberfest. Therefore, most of the night we had business, but we weren't busy. At midnight, busy doesn't quite describe what happened. We rang more from 12-1 than we did the rest of the night almost. It was crazy.

Then Saturday happened. Saturday was just a giant mess start to finish. There were no breathers or breaks, it was just nuts all night. Plus we had a great band (Audio Diary) playing, so it was just absurd. Kinda fun, kinda sucked. There were definitely moments when things were better or worse. Kicking people out sucks, hearing awesome music is very cool. It was all right, but I'm not looking forward to it next year.

I now work Sunday nights (come see me, I'm serving Sunday's now!), so today was the third and final day of Oktoberfest 2008. It was probably a little busier and people were definitely drunker than normal, but it wasn't too bad. I haven't counted my money yet, but I think I did pretty well. The picture below is what I took when I was walking in to work this afternoon.

So, to be clear, the awesomosity for today is cultural celebrations. Saint Louis has some great and proud cultural districts, all of which have their seperate festivals, and it seems like Soulard gets all the ones without a home. Dogtown has St. Patty's, the Hill has all the Italians, Soulard has drinkers.

Task o' The Day: Go to a cultural (or at least a giant neighborhood) festival soon. If you come to Soulard, it can be really fun to just watch all the drunk people (that's one of the mayn perks of being sober in a bar in Soulard). You can find a list of a bunch of upcoming festivals in the Saint Louis area at http://www.stlouis.com. I think I may check out the Pirate festival next year myself, that sounds like fun.

Today's picture was also taken walking into work, and while the email kinda screwed up the picture, I like it and I'm leaving it that way.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you all tomorrow!