Absolem's O's

I’ve decided to loosen up my office with a construction worker’s uniform tomorrow.  Not the sexy Halloween kinds you wear, but the site ones with big orange reflectors and hard helmets.  This is because here’s my favorite phrase, which is starting to require a hard helmet to hear: “Here’s some ‘constructive criticism’ for you…”

This has been making my workday harder to bear, which means down time becomes necessary to enjoy…

I wound up at a sketchy, hookah bar where they don’t talk and play board games like backgammon and rummi…  We were scooted into the basement where it was dimly lit and people were smoking and sitting around tables. 

My friend pointed out that we were the only girls, an observation I hadn’t made myself, but now it made sense.  Perhaps this was more of a “gentleman’s club.”  I didn’t really know.

We sat down and ordered tea and coffee and chai and hookahs and began to play. 

The boys in came around in basement and gave you hot coals with metal tongs when your coals went out. 

I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or some American Gangster movie where men in blue jackets with big white lettering where going to come pounding in the door on any moment and make arrests. 

 And yet… I had a blast playing the games but I did feel like everyone was starring at me—because they were…

Note to self: when hitting the hookah around new co-workers in the future, don’t blow perfect smoke “O’s” like Absolem in Alice in Wonderland… you might start to give yourself away.  I just got really excited, seeing as I was finally better at something than anyone else, I temporarily forgot its implications.

I quickly remembered when everyone in the room was starring at me like I had just thrown a baby in traffic.

Smoking hookah in sexist, dark, sketchy pub while playing backgammon? Check.