"Hip to be square".
This is not a new idea. Huey Lewis and the News gave it musical credence in a great song that came out in the mid-1980's. In yesterday's posting, I posed the question, "When did it stop being OK to be square?" I thought a lot about the answer to my own query and decided that, for me, I was just fine being square.
I'll segue to last night. A friend and I traveled north to a Big-Ten college town to watch a rock/soul band perform. The venue was a trendy lounge that still has the financial where withal to sponsor live music, to which I give the owners huge credit. I don't 'get out' much, certainly not with anyone other than my SO, but since he was out of town, I hornswaggled a good friend into making the trip with me. The lounge was full of mostly thirty through fifty-somethings, casually dressed for a night out, and looking for fun. They all looked 'hip' and I shout 'square'. I sidled up to the bar, which had a few empty chairs, took a twenty-dollar bill in my fingers - the 'hip' way I saw others holding currency - and tried to look like I did this all the time. The 'mixologist' asked me what I would like and here is where my new-found 'hipness' vaporized.
I am not a drinker, per se, and I rarely stand at a bar, ordering drinks. My SO always takes on this task. Or, when in a restaurant, if I order an alcoholic beverage, it is a glass of riesling wine. I am safe with wine. I only like one type. But, last night, when I inquired to my friend, "What can I get you?", she asked for vodka on the rocks and a chaser glass of water. I was confident I could get the job done. So I found myself, at the bar, face-to-face with this young thing waiting to take my drink order. I told her what I wanted and she asked what kind of vodka I wanted. Well, now, I don't drink vodka, never have.....that I know of......and, off the top of my head I could only think of one brand of vodka...."Blue Goose", I said. (Little did I realize my mistake.) She was very polite, gave me a funny look and said, "Would you like to see the list of vodkas we have available?" By now I knew that "Blue Goose" was probably not the name of a vodka brand and I saw my hipness fading quickly into the sunset. I looked at the list and instantly knew my mistake. "Grey Goose", I said. "Two shots". I thought I would get a glass with two shots of vodka in it and a glass of water, as well, in addition to my wine. What she brought me was two glasses, two shots each, of Grey Goose, along with the water and wine. I paid (a lot) and took the beverages back to our table, which was full of thirty-somethings. My astonished friend looked at the glasses and I told her the story. We laughed so hard our Depends got a good workout. She tasted the vodka and confirmed that each glass had two shots worth in them and declared I'd have to carry her out on a stretcher. It was then that I realized that being 'hip' was not in the cards for moi.
As I drove home, I had time to reflect that one truly cannot turn a square peg into a hip-looking round peg. As Popeye would say, "I yam what I yam". Just don't send me up to the bar.
By the way, the Grey Goose bottle has blue on it. I knew I'd seen blue somewhere.
Ancora imparo
