Most people wouldn’t take me as someone who would want to be a bartender, or have a bartender’s skills.  I think that is because of a misconception in thinking.  People hear someone is a bartender and thinks “well, they must really like booze”, but that’s flawed, a bartender doesn’t get themselves booze, they serve it to others.  I’m not a big drinker, but I’ve always been enticed by what a bartender can do.  They can be given some seemingly random sentence (for example “Give me a wet gimlet with rocks on the side”) and give someone the exact drink they are looking for (A martini with extra lime juice, in a martini glass with the ice in a side glass) it is the perfect pairing of art and science.  In fact I believe Bartending is one of the only literal meanings of a ‘social science’. Think about it, bartenders are mearly social chemists.  They take common elements (almost every drink is composed of one or more of the 5 following alcohols: vodka, Gin, Rum, Tequilla & Triple Sec).  By combining these elements in different ways they produce thousands of products.  It’s truly amazing.

For years I’ve seen flyers for Drinkmasters Bartending School and I have heard great things about the school.  But with the $500 price tag for the course, it was out of my reach finacially.  But a few weeks ago I was on groupon.com (which I visit everyday) and saw that you could enroll in the Drinkmasters course for only $150.  So for $150 I could enroll in a $500 course, get my bartending license and have alot of fun? that’s a no brainer, so I purchased it. (As did my good friend Mike Matterra).

The course was only a week long, four hour classes every night from 6pm-10pm.  You would think that a four hour long class would be brutal, but the way the instructors teach the classes it goes by quick and is wicked fun.  There is no pressure, your there because you want to learn, the instructors are there because they want to teach and everyone has a great time. And the max in each class is only 16 people, so you get to know your fellow classmates and joke with them (just how you would as a real bartender)

Every class started with drink drills (where we would stand behind the bar and the instructor would yell out drink orders and we had to make them).  Monday and tuesday night, nearly everyone struggled to make even the basic drink correctly (including handling the glasses, ices, serving the drink to the customer) but by thursday we were all nearly pros.

I surprised myself, most of the time I can be a bit of a klutz…. I tend to drop things.  But everything clicked for me behind the bar, I was scooping ice, grabing the right bottles, shaking, serving the whole nine yards.  I know I keep saying this, but it was alot of fun.

The course went over the whole spectrum of bartending, from how to properly take a drink order all the way to how to identify and pour wine.  We learned how with just a little bit of knowledge we could make any daqauri, shot, mixed drink & margartias.

Friday night was the big night for the course, it was exam night. Where we would see who would go home a bartender and who would go home a customer.  The exam consisted of a written test and a practical.  The written I found was easy, it was only 25 questions and I knew the answer to all except 1.  I was more nervous for the practical, where you had to actually make drinks.  In fact Myself, Mike and our friend Justin were so nervous that we had arrived at 3pm (3 hours before class started) on Friday to just practice our drink drills.

After the written there was a quick break, and then we had the practical.  Myself, Mike & Justin and two others (our new friends Nellie &  ‘P’) were in the first group of bartenders-to-be to take the practical (it was split up into groups of 4/5 at a time).  I was feeling confident, the instructor explained the guidelines and then gave us each our first drink orders.

I cant exactly explain what happened next, it’s all a blur I was in the bar tending zone. I heard the drink orders and it seamed that before I was even done repaeting the order back to the ‘coustomer’ the drink was made and served and I was getting the next order.  It was… I have to say amazing, I was truly impressed with my self and my classmates.

We all finished our drinks (I was first to finish) and then we’re sent on a break (so that the last waiting group could not grill us on what it was like).  Taking advantage of the 45min break we had and the adrenaline we all had pumping we decided to go around the corner to a local bar.  The one thing about the bartending course, is al week we have been making these colorful, exotic drinks but with colored water.  So they looked good, but were completly undrinkable.

One drink, in particular I had been wanting to try all week, it’s known as a planters punch.  When we first learned it the instructor told us that not many bartenders know how to make this drink and it would be hard to find.  So at the bar I asked the bartender for a planters punch, and what do you know but she didnt know what it was.  I explained how to make it and she proceeded to try. The ting about learning something is that you notice when others are doing it wrong.  For example when the bartender was making me my planters punch I could see all the flaws in her technique, and was taken back (of course it’s no big deal since she did manage to make the drink).  But it was just a wonderment to myself to know that when ever I go out in the future I’ll see these flaws.

After our break we went back to class, when the instructor tallied up everyone’s grades and presented all of us with our certificates of achievement (that’s right 100% of the class passed!). We were all excited.  the instructor then explained how the school should be the resource to us for finding bartending jobs, and that we can comeback at any time for free refresher courses or to practice.

Certified Bartender

Does this mean I’m going to quit my job and become a bartender? Of course not, I love my job and using my college degree.  But if in the future I know that I have a second set of skills in case I need to make extra cash.  For now it’s just a great party trick.

Excited with our new sets of skills Mike and I proceeded to get all the necessary tools to make our home bar an actual bar (as opposed to a cabinet with liquor bottles).  Mike purchased a bartenders kit online with all the tools, and saturday went up to New Hampshire to  get all the tax free booze we would need (about $200 worth).  And sunday we went to the christmas tree shop and bought all the proper glassware.

Home Bar

We now have a bar that any bartender would be proud of, and proceeded to christen it with a couple of home made margaritas. (with no pre-made mix, and they were perfect for the heat wave we had over the weekend).

Margaritas

The whole experience was great.  I learned a lot, made some new friends and had a lot of fun. So before I head to my home bar to make you a margarita I need to know, do you want rocks & salt?

America!

Tacky enough?

Today spring was in the air and Jill, my roommate Mike and I got the itch to do some spring cleaning. Well actually, Mike and Jill did, I don’t ever feel like cleaning, but I tagged along and helped. We ended up spending the whole day cleaning up just 2 sections of the apartment, our office and living room. It’s amazing, after only being in the apartment for a year how much crap we’ve accumulated. We were able to produce a full bag of trash, a full bag for goodwill, and 2 bins of recycling. Even thou I don’t like cleaning I did enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of getting rid of stuff I didn’t need, and making the apartment more livable and tidy.

I was also able to work on a project I’ve been meaning to build for a while. Over the years I’ve created a nice collection of autographed merchandised and photos of Jill and I with celebrities. So I’ve been meaning to setup a space to showcase them, a.k.a my wall of awesome. First I had to collect all the stuff I wanted to display and do a bit of planning.

awesome stuff

After a few measurements, and a trip to walgreens for some frames and guitar center for a wall mount, I ended up with this:

wall of awesome

I wasent able to get everything on there,  such as the autographed cd/dvd cases (anyone know a good way to mount these on a wall?), and walgreens didn’t have enough 4×6 frames, but I feel its a good start.

Jill and I with (from top left) Dane Cook, Joel McHale, Comedian Bob Marley, Jim Gaffigan, Sapz from the hillman morning show.	Top, autographed Disturbed stuff and a photo of my dad with the band. Bottom, photo of myself with the band and my backstage pass
Autographed photo of anubis from my all time favorite show Stargate	My prized possession, my guitar autographed by Disturbed!

Colligat-visitus (a.k.a College Parents)

colligat-visitus

These tourists can be found around Boston colleges.  They are mainly seen loading and unloading cars with boxes full of crap. Careful observation will show they also spend alot of time making their offspring feel socially awkward around their peers.

Redsox-fanus (a.k.a Redsox Fans)

Redsox-fanus

Found around the back bay area these tourists can be spotted by their plumage of nothing but Redsox gear.  They mostly travel in small drunken herds and can get very aggressive towards locals and the worst tourist type Yankeee-fanus (yankee fans).

Lostin-cityis (a.k.a Lost in the city)

Lostin-cityis

Found through out the city with a bewildered expression on their face, these tourists are mostly found with a map in front of their face, which causes them to walk in large circles and get in locals way.  Also can be seen riding in the wrong direction and paying close attention to every stop while riding on the T.

Oldis-noshirtus (a.k.a old men with no shirts)

oldis-noshirtus

For those of you that are squeamish, be warned. This version of tourist comes out on the hottest weekend.  They display their old man boobs in attempt to cool down (like a dog panting) and in some cases in an attempt to attract mates.  Most noticeable feature is a leather like hairy red chest.

Swanboatus-ridus

Swanboatus-ridus

These tourists will wait an hour in a line full of screaming offspring to ride 10 minutes around a pond.  Can be spotted carrying diaper bags and having sticky hands (from offspring who have eaten too many pbj sandwiches).  Closely related to Duckboatus-ridus (duck boat riders), who can be seen roaming around the streets of boston, communicating by quaking.

This is just a sampling of the different types of tourists that visit the city, but the season is young, and more will flock.  Jill and I will be there to observe and educate, so that you might be able to spot tourists on your own.

I’ve been riding my bike to work for the last 2 weeks, and I plan on doing so for the summer, its faster then the T, and hey the weather is nice. As some of you may know I live on a hill, so every morning my bike ride starts out with a ride down St.Alphonsus st.

st_alphonsus

Usually this is a good start to my ride.  I apply my brakes so I dont go too fast, and head down the hill.  This morning however, I was running a bit late so I said ‘screw the brakes’ and flew down the hill at full speed.

At the end of the hill there is a major intesection, and all the cars were stopped at a red light.  Coming down I thought I would be able to squeeze past the last stopped car and the cars parked on the street, but at the last minute I realized I couldnt and slammed on my brakes.

**** Things get a bit fuzzy here ****

I slammed my rear brakes and my back tire causes my bike to swerve sideways, I start to recover but my momentum causes my body to be gin to flip over my bike.  I try to swerve my bike to the side again.  The appropt stop causes my to fly sideways (forwards down the hill) and SLAM I hit face first into the rear bumper of the stopped SUV.(According to Jill) I bolted straight up and then fell down.

Jill starts yelling ‘Oh my god Michael are you ok?????’ and as I get up I say ‘yeah I’m fine’, but then Jill see’s the huge bloody gash across my left cheek.

bike_accident

*** This part is really fuzzy ***

The guy get’s out of his SUV, a bystander calls 911, and I am in a daze. Jill says we need to go to the emergency room, I agree and the guy I hit offers to take us.  So we lockup our bikes to a nearby fence.  The guy has his kid get out of the car (he must of been driving him to school at the bottom of the hill, bet that kid had a cool story to tell his friends), Jill and I get in.  He hands me some napkins to apply to my face. The photo above is in the ER after I wiped most of the blood away with the napkins)

On the way to the ER I have Jill call my work to inform them that I’ll be late, they seem very understanding from their response ( from what Jill tells their response was ‘No shit!! I hope he’s ok, if he needs a ride let us know’).

In the ER I tell the nurse behind the desk (and everyone who asked me what happened) that I face planted into the back of a truck.  They take me into a room, ask me some medical questions, insurance provider, if I can remember dates, ect…  Then the take me back into the ER and place me in a room.  Jill told me they told her she couldn’t come with me becuase they had to ask me if I had been abused at my home (aka if she had done this to me).

As I’m waiting things become less fuzzy, and as my body comes out of shock the pain starts creeping up on me.  Obviously my face starts killing, but so does my hand, that’s when I notice the huge gash on my pinky finger.  Both arms are scrped up and so are my knees.

The doctor comes in takes a look, asks me what happened and says it looks like i’ll need some stitches.  First he wants me to go get a CAT scan to make sure I didnt break my cheek bone.  He says it’ll be a few minutes, gives me some gauze pads and lets me wait.

15 minutes later a nurse comes in and gives me some pain killers, and leave me to wait some more. After another 20 minutes another nurse finally comes and takes me to get my CAT scan.  I get the scan, the operater asks me if I’m missing any classes (becuase I’m wearing my WIT sweatshirt) and I’m brought back to my room.

**** things get cool here ****

A camera guy comes into my room.  Apperently ABC is doing a documentary on the hospital and/or the doctor who is treating me, and he wants to know if I wouldnt mind being on camera.  A chance to be on TV? hell yeah, I dont care how hurt I am.  So I sign the waiver, and get interviewed quickly by the camera guy about what happened.

The doctor comes back, with good news, No bones are broken in my face.  Bad news, I’ll have to get a few stitches and a tetanus shot.

Jill is allowed to come back to see me, She had gone and gotten our bikes and brought them home.  So she comes back to watch me get stitched up.

The doctor comes with back with the the sature cart and camera guy.  He begins by telling me this is going to be the worst part.  They need to inject a nerve blocker (aka anateshia) into the area, but… they have to go in through my mouth.  That’s right, he took a needle and from my upper gums injected the nerve blocker into my cheek. That part sucked.

He then did a test with a needle to see how numb the area was, but I could still feel it.  So he injected some more, once again through my mouth.  I laid down, he put some covering over my face and prepped the area.  He was talking alot and explaining everything(I think this was more for the camera than it was for me).  He asked me if I could feel him poking, and I said a little bit.  He told me that the nerve blocker must of been working, or else I would  of  been in extreme pain.

He asked jill if she could move a light over to him and turn it on, and after he did that he says to her ‘Ok now I’ll just need you to make four stitches across here for me, jokingly.  Of course Jill answers ‘Sur eno thing, give me the tools’.  I had to intervene and tell him not to let her, if given the chance she would of attempted it.

He stitched me up, bandaged me up and then took a look at my finger.  It was a nice big cut but it wasent deep so he just cleaned it and bandaged it up.  As the doctor was cleaning up Jill said ‘Thank god he was wearing his helmet’.  And the doctor agreed.  He said from the way it sound how I hit the car.  If I hadent been wearing my helmet it would of been a completly different situation.  We’re talking about more then likely severe brain damage, broken skull, ect..

Just about when I thought I was done a nurse came in to give me a tetanus shot. Damn, I forgot about that.  So she gives me the shot, and as she pulls out the needle blood comes squirting out my arm. Whoops, I guess I had too much.

I come out of the ER only to be greeted by my mother and grandmother.  Jill, in her slightly freaked out state had called just about everyone to tell them what happened.

Now I’m relaxing at home, with a slight headache and a continually swelling face.  But good thing I was wearing my helmet, or it would of been alot worse.

Ok, time to rest.

cleaned_up

**** UPDATE: DAY 2 ***

Bonus pics from day 2.

My swollen face:

swelling

My pinky gash

pinky

“[D2E] is a marketplace for eco-friendly products, a public stage for community initiatives, and an educational forum that addresses sustainability issues on the minds of us all. D2E emphasizes local and innovative solutions and connects consumers with progressive companies that are investing in a more sustainable future.”

There were a lot of eco/green friendly vendors and products there, more so than I would of thought. As I was walking around I found myself thinking that wow, it is really becoming easier to live a greener lifestyle. I took out my iPhone and began snapping pics of all the great products and services I saw.  I thought I’d share with you the ones I feel were the best.

Clean Journey

Clean Journey

http://www.cleanjourney.com/

Clean Journey is a collaborative force looking to involve people with clean energy in which ever form they feel comfortable, anywhere from contacting local politicians to volunteering.

They were running a video campaign where you answer a question about being green.  Jill and I both opted to do it,  and at some point our responses will be online.

Get Clean

Get Clean

Get Clean

According to Jill, and one of the exhibitors this is one of Oprahs favorite products.  It’s a collection of high concentrate green cleaners that really work, and work well.  The free sample we got is a small, small vial (maybe 3oz at most) will last (according to the exhibitor) 2-3 months.  2 drops goes into a 16oz spray bottle filled with water as a window washer.  The rest goes into another 16oz spray bottle filled with water as an all purpose cleaner.

Very cool if it works as well as well as they say.  If the sample does I’m definitely buying some from the website.

Green Scene

Green Scene

http://www.greensceneware.com

This was a cool booth, for a few reasons.  First, it’s biodegradable paper plates, plastic cups and plastic cutelry. That’s great, no need to feel guilty using these throw away products.  Second, it’s affordable.  I bought a 24 pack of cutlery for $3.  Third, it’s actually a project by some babson college students.  It’s great to see that kids my age are being so productive in the green scene.

Head to their website soon, because when the semester ends so does this project. So go buy some.

Flavrz Drink Mix

Flavrz

http://www.flavrzdrinkmix.com/

Flavrz is an eco-friendly, low sugar concentrated flavored drink mix. Basically a greener, healthier version of kool-aid.  One bottle ($8) can make about 8quarts o flavored drink.  It’s tasty, and healthy what more could you want?  I bought myself a bottle of the cherry flavor.  Hopefully I’ll drink it over soda, so I’ll be drinking more water but not have to loose any flavor.

Brighter Planet

Brighter Planet

http://brighterplanet.com/

Brighter Planet is a group that helps people reduce and manage their carbon footprint by providing affordable solutions, green tips, ect.  It’s a great huge community, Jill actually has their green credit card, which with each purchase helps build renewable energy.

Their online community is huge, and provides plenty of tips.  They even have twitter @earthweet

Preserve

Preserve

http://www.preserveproducts.com/

Preserve is a developer of BPA free plastic products that can be found at whole foods, trader joes and other retailers.  What’s great is every product you buy from them, when you’re finished with it you can send it back to them.  They’ll grind up the plastic and use it to make a new plastic product.  They even pay the shipping cost!

It’s a great example of high end recyclable products.

Boston Organics

Boston Organics

http://bostonorganics.com/

Boston Organics is a delivery service that promotes healthy, organic and local eating.  You can sign up to have a box of fruits and veggies delivered to your door every week, every other week, ect.  All their products are organic and locally grown (when available). It’s also very affordable, the box in the photo costs only $29 for delivery.

It’s great becuase it promotes healthy eating.  You specify what fruits and vegetables you want (and other products like eggs, honey, coffee, ect) and each week they’ll mix it up for you, so you wont get bored with your delivery.

Swaptree

Swaptree

http://www.swaptree.com/

Swaptree.com is an innovative website that allows members to trade books, CDs, DVDs and video games with other users for free.  I’ve already signed up.

It gives you something useful to do with those books, cds and DVDs you’re done with.  You provide the UPC code of the item, and their extensive Database pulls up the needed info and tells you what you can trade for it. And there is a lot to trade for.  I’ve added only about 8 items to my ‘have it’ list and I can trade them for over 50,000 different books,cds or dvds.

It promotes reusing products, not buying new products and community.

That’s it for my list.  There were a lot more vendors and products featured, but it’s more then I can write about.  The whole list of vendors and products featured is available here.  And if you’re in the Boston area D2E is still going on tomorrow (Sunday April 5th), it’s only $10, and you’ll learn a lot.

Role Models

If you haven’t seen Role Models it’s a hilarious movie, highly recommended.

I also got my copy of ‘object-oriented PHP’. Not that I don’t already know OOPHP, but it’s always great to get a new reference (pick up more tricks).

OOP PHP

And finally if the weather stays nice I can get out my bike and take it for a ride around the city.

Damn, I am lame.

Take this guy for example. Every day when I’m heading to catch the train home, he is there playing his guitar. And I do mean everyday, even during snow storms I’ve seen him there. So every evening for a few minutes I get to listen to some classical Spanish guitar, and it really brightens my day.

This guy puts it out in the open, hes not playing to earn a living (thou I’m sure he makes a few bucks) He is playing for the enjoyment, and that’s a humble quality not many people show.

So next time you travel to Boston, go to one of the T stations (most notably government center, park street, south station) and listen to the real performers of the city.

I dont usually carry cash, but I think tomorrow I’ll have to bring some for that performer ( he plays a great guitar, and he let me take his photo)