i only got one glass, so you gotta sit over here

by mg at 12:12 AM on June 28, 2002

*editors note: this is a rare mg drunken posting. now, back to our regularly scheduled blog*

I’ve this awful tendency of reading or hearing about really cool things, making a point to make a mental note to remember said really cool things, and subsequently instantly and unavoidably forgetting said really cool things.

This is a habit in my life that I’d sorely like to break.

But, I haven’t been able to yet.

Invariably, I’ll have forgotten said really cool thing, in this particular case, a bar, occasionally remember it long enough only to kick myself for having forgotten it, and then, finally, when I do go, kick myself even harder for having forgotten it for so long.

So, finally on to specifics. Last year, I’d read an article about this really cool bar in nearby Astoria, Queens that is a genuine, bona fide Bohemian Beer Garden. Czechoslovakian immigrants opened the place shortly before prohibition, the dreaded 18th amendment, and somehow managed to keep it open through those lean years. The place is still in existence now, serving pilsner, and schnitzel in one of the coolest locations in New York City.

Now, I’d read about the place more than a year ago, had planned on going then, but never did. It’d occasionally drift back into my consciousness whenever I ordered a Pilsner Urquel, but would just as soon drift back into my unconscious, usually coinciding with drinking of several more Pilsner Urquels.

Well, last week several people from work started the working of a group trip out to the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, and I was positively ecstatic. Not only would I be going to the Garden, but I’d also have constant reminders about it until the day of the trip, making it impossible for me to forget long enough to forget.

Now, the big draw of the Beer Garden, besides the draw of cheap draws, is the actual Beer Garden, a big open space behind the bar where you could chill under the sun and drink to your hearts content without worries of getting arrested for public intox.

So, being outdoors is the draw, but it was 90 something degrees today, and humid as all get out. Normally, it doesn’t get this humid in New York City until August. It’s been hot as hell this week. Walking out the building’s comforting air conditioning, it is like getting in the dryer with your cat, hot and spiny.

But then it rained. A torrential, Little House on the Prairie rain. Do you remember the rain on Little House? It’d be sunny and beautiful, and then all of a sudden, buckets.

Still, we went to the beer garden, sat outside in the rain, drank beer, ate schnitzel, and it was good. I’m just getting home now, more than a bit drunk. I’m not sure I’ll make it into work on time tomorrow, but neither will the rest of my department.

Basically, the moral of the story is that you should remember the things you think you should remember. Or, maybe the moral is that even if you forget those things, if you lead an honorable life, eventually those things will come around and find you. Or maybe the moral is just that beer and good friends overpower even torrential rain.