Boston Work Trip - Day 3 - Cheers!

It was day 3 of training and again after staying up past my bedtime because of the time change I was only a little tired in the morning.  I slept in a little later after the realization the day before that it didn't take me as long to get ready in the morning and I didn't have far to go.  A cup of coffee and a little Boston news and I was ready to go to day 3 of training.  The training was so good that it made me excited each morning to continue on the journey of data warehousing!  I started the morning too with texting Derik since he said he was having issues with the time change as well and was taking a sleeping pill the night before to get some sleep.  I didn't get an answer, but sent a text Mark and told him to stop by Derik's room and knock on the door or call him to be sure he was up and getting ready and I headed to class.  We had basically the same breakfast as the other mornings.  A little blah for breakfast, but oh well, lunch definitely made up for every day.  Jared, Derik and I were chatting that morning when we were all there and it kept getting closer and closer to class starting and Mark was nowhere to be seen.  I text him a few more times, but wasn't getting any response.  At that point there wasn't much else I could do and class was starting.  We got into groups that morning to do some test runs on stuff we had learned and while we were in our groups I did finally get a text that Mark had overslept and was on his way.  He slid in pretty much unnoticed.  At our first break we took he decided to make up excuses of why he had overslept and these continued throughout the day.  First it was that he just didn't hear his alarm, next it was that he worked for 3 hours after we had gotten back from the bar the night before and then, the real kicker, he tried to blame me for keeping him out too late.  The last excuse obviously did not fly well with me.  People really need to take responsibility and own up to their issues -seriously!  I was more than a little perturbed by the last excuse and if you know me I'm not that great at hiding it.  The day went on and I did feel a little bad that Mark felt like an ass in front of us, his co-workers, that he had been late that morning. We all pushed it aside and let it go because tonight was the night we were all excited for.  We were heading to the Cheers bar!  We (or maybe I) had been planning this for awhile.  Who wouldn't want to go see where the TV show Cheers was filmed!  We had another great day of training and my mind was working a mile a minute with thoughts and processes and ideas of how to start our data warehouse project and get buy-in when we got back.  We also were out for the first night with all four of us.
After class was over I told everyone that I needed at 30 minutes to go to my room and just have a little down time to myself.  30 minutes, that was all I needed.  I needed some time to myself to recoup.  So we all agreed to head back to our rooms and then meet up for supper.  We started out by walking around and thank goodness the weather was more bearable than our first night.  The winds had calmed and the temperatures were not frigid to walk around.  I still walked around and was in complete amazement by the buildings.  I couldn't believe the apartment structures.  They are nothing like Minnesota or Colorado.  They are just beautiful.

Apartments as we were walking around.

I was in a pretty fun mood that day and decided as we were walking to the Cheers Bar for supper that it would be fun to pretend that I was walking into one of these prestige apartments and pretend I lived there.  The guys thought it was funny for the most part and were game for helping me take pictures.

I fit in well here - don't you think?!

We kept on walking and finally made it to Cheers.  We figured that it would be packed and we would have to wait awhile to get in, but we lucked out and got a table for 4 right away. There are 2 Cheers Bars in Boston, but this is the one that they actually filmed at with the steps walking down into the bar.  We of course (or I guess I should say I) had to take a few snap shots.(and of course a bunch inside!)

Almost to Cheers Bar - Yes, yes, I know I get a little overly excited for things!

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. 
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. 
Wouldn't you like to get away? 
Sometimes you want to go 

Where everybody knows your name, 
and they're always glad you came. 
You wanna be where you can see, 
our troubles are all the same 
You wanna be where everybody knows 
Your name. 

Me outside the steps to the Cheers Bar.

Mark and Derik outside the Cheers Bar.

The great part of the place was that the outside area and the steps going to down to the bar were absolutely from the show and it was so much fun to see it that way.  I know it made me a little giddy to be there.  Once we got inside however it was just another burger and beer joint with a menu of funny names for their hamburgers.  We had a fabulous time though enjoying a few beers in our Cheers mugs and discussing all the ideas and thoughts and training that we had been through the last three days.  The conversation definitely did not have a dull moment.  A nice couple sat next to us and noticed that I was trying to take pictures with both my camera and my phone and offered to take some photos for us.  We chatted with them for a little while and they were so nice and a pleasure to talk to.

Derik and I at Cheers

Mark and Jared 

CHEERS 

Mark, Jared, Derik and I 

Here's to a fun trip!

And as in every other post nothing goes without incident. I went to the rest room and somehow ended up ripping the toilet paper holder off the wall.  How in the hell that happened I have no idea and no I wasn't drunk.  I went back to the table and told the guys and by day 3 of being with me you pretty much just shake your head because something is bound to happen and it was probably no longer a shock to them.  After we finished supper and enjoyed a few beers in our Cheers mugs it was time to head out.  We could buy our Cheers mugs for $5.00 or some amount and I definitely wasn't leaving without mine.  They brought me a clean mug and I had left in on the table and decided that I wanted some souvenirs and headed over to the gift shop.  I was taking awhile checking out the different t-shirts and shot glasses and buying things for me and my family.  It also took me awhile because the worker manning the register was on her cell phone chatting away and could have cared less if I was ready and waiting to check out or not.   Jared came over to the gift shop to check things out and then went back to the table and Derik and Mark had already left and our table was cleared out.  Jared came back to see if I had my bag with my mug and I didn't. We figured that the someone had either taken it or the waiter had it.  Jared went over and talked to our waiter while I was checking out and even though they hadn't grabbed my mug from the table when they cleaned it Jared talked the guy into giving me a new one to be sure I had one to take home.  He probably told the guy - Look, I am stuck with the crazy chick for a few more days and she going to freak on all of us if she doesn't have her mug - help a guy out here will ya!  Well, either way he got me my mug and I spent another $70 bucks in their gift shop when all was said and done.  We walked outside to meet back up with Derik and Mark and low and behold they had my bag with the mug I actually paid for.  They all then looked at me and asked if I was going to return one of the mugs and I said, "no", now I have two - thanks!  

We started walking again and Derik decided that he was gonna head back to the hotel and skype with his family.  Jared, Mark and I headed down the street and found a nice bar to have a beer in.  We sat and had our beer and had some interesting conversation about growing up and family.  There was definitely a difference in how we grew up - some had money and some did not.  It seems that people that grow up with money may never really appreciate it and cannot grasp the feelings or understandings of those that didn't.  Interesting to say the least.  We called Derik when we had a few beers and told him we were going to go out and find another Irish Bar and that he should come back and meet up with us again.  He said he would and would head our way.  It was perfect timing as we were walking out of the bar to head towards the hotel there he was and we all walked together and found a new Irish bar to hang out in for the night.

At our new hang out for the night it was time to experiment a little bit and come outside of the comfort zone! I had been getting a little shit from everyone for drinking only bud light.  So I decided that since everyone else was having weird named beers and beers from Boston that I would go ahead and try a Boston type beer as well.  I had tasted a few (and I may have actually had one of these at the previous bar?) but I ended up drinking some beer called UFO for the rest of the night.  Jared was drinking some beer called Harpoon IPA and Derik was drinking Smithwick's which we very quickly found out from the bar tender is not pronounced how it looks.  

When pronouncing the name, the 'W' is silent. In Ireland, it is generally pronounced as 'Smithicks', 'Smitticks', 'Schmiddicks' or 'Smeth-icks'. The variation of pronunciations is mostly due to differing accent and dialects of the Irish.

So for the rest of the night while ordering beers it was a test to see if we could actually say it correctly.  I think maybe you had to be there to enjoy this part of the story.  This bar was attached to a very nice hotel and even the bathrooms in this place were pretty spectacular.  After a few beers ya never know what is going to come out of my mouth.  Mark and I met a lady at the bar that was from Colorado and was also in Boston on business and she worked for Budweiser.  I talked to her for a little while about the new bud light platinum.  I gave the lady my business card and said if you ever need any taste testers or anything let me know I would love to come and participate.  I was getting a little bored with the conversation at this point and after I handed her my card she asked me what I did.  I looked at her and said - it's on the card.  Yes, yes, yes, that was dumb.  I left Mark to continue talking to her for the night.  

It was eventually time to make our way back to the hotel and we took a nice walk and we were all joking around with each other and having a great time.  We walked through this one area and Derik decided to climb and hang from a tree.  We all laughed and I of course snapped some pictures.  He said that it was his thing to hang from trees.

Above are a few pictures of us while we were walking around.  The churches were gorgeous there.  Unfortunately a lot of pictures are dark because I didn't have a big enough flash, but I tried to take some.

Back at the hotel and a night cap before bed and it was another fantastic and fun night in Boston.