One evening at the bar of the Rosewood Inn at Anasazi in Santa Fe…
It was our last night in our quick weekend getaway to Santa Fe, New Mexico, so we decided to go to the small but quaint bar in the Rosewood Inn, which is where we were staying. We figured that one last Herradura Margarita sounded just right! Just when we got there, two stools at the bar opened up and we thought…perfect. It seemed like if they were waiting for us.
The bar was lively in the sense that there was a musician playing known favorites, and there was a small group of people that we thought could turn out to be fun. “Thought” being the operative word here. In fact, as the minutes went by, two things became very obvious; one, that this wasn’t an inclusive group; two, that they were deep into their cups.
The group consisted of one local couple and two female tourists from New York. At first I thought they could be entertaining; however, it soon became painfully evident that these people were getting progressively more and more annoying! To the point where my friend and I desisted on attempting to have a conversation, because it took too much effort to speak loud enough to hear each other talk.
Shortly after, a gentleman joined us at the bar. He was also local to Santa Fe, albeit original from Boston. We were in the midst of a pleasant conversation, when suddenly the voice decibels of the annoying foursome became deafening. So much so that the three of us reacted to shush them at the same time! Politely, we asked them to please taper it down. Of course, like good drunks, they promised they would as they apologized while laughing…but they didn’t at all.
A few minutes later, the tall good looking man in the annoying foursome strutted over and verbally attacked the nice, soft spoken, Boston-Santa Fe gentleman. I mean…verbally abused him. All the while, the bartender tried to control the situation… very badly. It was quite embarrassing for the gentleman involved; but he knew better than to engage like for like with a drunk, and therefore he apologized in order to diffuse the confrontation. However, this bully didn’t let up…he began calling him “inconsiderate”! among other insults…Seriously?
Frankly, that is when I lost it. I just couldn’t stay silent any longer. I actually laughed out loud (I mean it really struck me as funny)…and I turned around, looked at the asshole in question, and said, “That is really funny coming from you!”. He had no response…it was like if he had swallowed his abusive tongue; then he strutted back over to his stool. I felt terrible for the Boston-Santa Fe gentleman. I truly hope that the bartender compensated him for his mortification. We said goodbye to the nice gentleman and left. It didn’t seem fair. Badly handled by the bartender.
This got me thinking about bullies. I have always hated bullies. I recall more than one occasion as I was growing up when I had to deal with bullying. Not me being bullied but the weaker ones. I especially hate it when the weak are taken advantage of. This drunken bully chose to pick on the slightly nerdy looking, nice gentleman. Why is it that he did not also zero in on my friend and I? Very simple answer…he knew how to pick his victim. Which goes to show that he is also very much a coward…very typical of a bully. He knew better than to pick a fight with us; two intimidating and attractive women.
My friend said to me, “I was afraid he was going to slap you when you said that to him”. Haha… I said, “I wish he had; because our vacation would have been paid for!”; but the truth is that I just knew he wouldn’t have. I know how bullies operate. His balls(if he has any) probably shrunk to the size of peanuts when I directed myself to him with evident disgust in my face.
Nothing worse than a bully. Except maybe a drunk cowardly one!
