Getting What You Want

As I don't "know a guy who knows a guy" I rarely find myslef getting hooked up with a lot of free shit. Some people are blessed with connections but I typically pay retail price for everything. Last night however I was in the fortunate position of knowing a guy "who knows a guy who knows a guy" and found myself at a bar eating and drinking on management's dime.

The bar we were at is a large "sports bar" in Ballston which I do not particularly care for. In fact it might be fair to say that I hate this bar for a number of reasons including its high prices, shitty clientele, and an interior scheme that makes it feel more like a department store than a drinking establishment. (And being located in a shopping mall doesn't help its cause either.) But as much as I hate this bar, the gentleman who set up this free Eat 'n Drink event really loathes the place. He hates it so much that he makes it a point to tell the managers, the bartenders, the waitstaff, and the busboys how much he hates their place of business everytime he goes in there. Like you I don't know why he continually returns to this place, probably because he has friends who enjoy it, but for whatever reason the staff knows him well.

And not only do they know him well but as he explained to me, they crave his business. They want what they cannot have. The more he bitches to them about how much their bar sucks, the more they want him. Mind you this is a huge bar that does a ton of business yet for some reason they feel compelled to win this one guy over. So each time he complains they offer to throw him a free happy hour. It's unbelieveable but even though I hate this place, I hop right on board and show up...a part of me enjoys cashing in on their sad desperation.

What's amusing is that this situation reminds me of this asshole that lived in my dorm my freshman year. He was a real dick but you could not help but take note of the quantity and quality of the women he always had around. One night at a party I asked him what his secret was (I was so pathetic in college that I needed all the help I could get when it came to women -- including advice from assholes) and he told me, "I treat them like shit." Excuse me? "I treat them like shit and then they spend the whole night trying to prove to me why I should be fawning over them like every other guy." And this works? "Everytime." Huh.

Now I have zero interest in any woman whose self-esteem is low enough to make her susceptible to such a misogynistic ploy but a bar on the other hand, that one I will take to the bank.