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Sorry I’m so late with today’s questions. My wife and I took my grandma out for a birthday lunch. Her birthday is February 22nd. Punctuality clearly isn’t my strong suit.
1. I feel like we’ve already discussed our craziest roommates. But let’s be a little more specific, and talk about crazy décor. What’s the strangest thing your roommate has insisted on displaying? For me, it was an eight-by-ten picture that hung in the kitchen. A baby picture, with his mother. In this old photo, my roommate was being breastfed. Had we been part of a reality show, the FCC would have levied fines. [Lots more on that crazy four-month stint here.]
2. Last week, we discussed the best VHS tapes still in your video library. Let’s talk about the ones that got (thrown) away. What’s the greatest VHS tape no longer in your possession? For me, it’s “MAGIC HOUR (SELECTED EPISODES).”
3. At the aforementioned lunch, our waitress broke four glasses. We felt awful for her—and for us, since the staff’s slow clean-up made our exit John McClane-esque. This wasn’t as memorable as the time I watched a waiter quit, climb onto a table, publicly disparage his former employer, and slam shut the door at the BW3’s on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. But both incidents were admittedly tame. Have you ever been witness to anything truly nuts in a restaurant?
4. Mangesh sent me this Captain Capitalism cartoon, which got me thinking about tax refunds. If you’re getting a refund, how are you planning to spend it? (I’ll grit my teeth reading your responses, as we received a big fat “U.O.Us (more)” from the IRS this year.)
Have a great weekend!
[See transcripts of previous Friday Happy Hours]
Comments (42)
Comment
My friend, who is a teacher, was at Champps one night with a couple of her colleagues. When she went to the women’s restroom she opened the door to find a man in there, along with two women with no pants or underwear on. She told the manager and the three were asked to leave.
Yikes?
posted by Ira on 4-25-2008 at 2:57 pm
Finally a chance to publicly rant about my crazy ex roommate! She insisted on displaying a huge poster of a wolf on the living room wall it was probably 5′ x 6′. It was ugly and crappily drawn and the corners were tearing (she just scotch taped it up). My then boyfriend (now Husband) would rip it even more every time he was over. It finally took a fight for her to take it down. That was only tip of the senile iceberg. My sister and I moved out as soon as the lease was up.
posted by Sandy C on 4-25-2008 at 3:15 pm
Restaurant-
Back in HS there was a restaurant, north of Boston, MA, called Bickfords. It was open 24-7 and was mostly frequented by teenagers and people who were visiting after a night of drinking. One night a guy at another table jumped on top of the table, did ‘The Tuck’, pulled his pants down and proclaimed “I am vaginaman”. The police officer, who is usually on duty there at night, grabbed him and said “OK Vaginaman - time to go” and promptly walked him out to his squad car.
I only wish I was kidding!
posted by Joe on 4-25-2008 at 3:25 pm
In college I had a glittery and high-maintenance roommate who worked at Bebe retail store. She found it necessary to display, in our living room, 5 or 6 life-size Bebe posters depicting atrocioiusly beautiful women in unnatural poses fully clad in expensive Bebe wear and accessories. The posters were visible from the street and ultra-embarassing. For me, the living room became a despised room of shame after a while.
posted by Lisa on 4-25-2008 at 3:30 pm
1. I had a roommate who made chili con queso in her crockpot, the first week we moved into our apartment. She never finished eating it, and kept it out. The rest of us kept threatening to throw it out, and she would pitch a fit. Then, she stuck the entire crockpot in the fridge, where it mouldered. The alpha roommate finally went in and took the crockpot (as well as all of her dirty dishes that had sat in the sink for three weeks) into her room (he had to shove the door open), and left them there. They stayed until one of her friends was so disgusted that SHE did the dishes. The crockpot finally wound up on the front porch… and eventually in the garbage. Total time elapsed - 7 months.
2. The greatest VHS tape no longer in my possession would have to be my well-loved copy of my favorite Star Trek:TNG episodes that I taped in high school. (I even used the super long play mode, so I could fit eight episodes on one tape - oh, the wondrous technology!)
3. Sadly, I’ve never witnessed anything as extraordinarily crazy as that in a restaurant, but back in high school, I worked as a clown at a family restaurant, and one day I found myself in the middle of a birthday party for the kids of one of the Cleveland Browns. The whole place was full of football players who were more excited to get balloon animals than the kids were.
posted by Mel on 4-25-2008 at 3:35 pm
1. My strangest roommate is my husband. Let’s see… We have a skull piggy bank displayed in our living room. And he has an ENTIRE room dedicated to Transformers.
2. Probably, Strawberry Shortcake.
3. The wierdest thing I’ve seen was not in a restaurant, but the video store I was working in. A fellow in a tiger suit, toting a video camera, ran in the entrance door, made a quick run around the store, and darted through the exit - all while screaming at the top of his lungs.
4. We are not those awesome people that get to go on a trip every year. So, this year, our refund is going towards are quintannual trip to Myrtle Beach!
posted by Pearl on 4-25-2008 at 3:37 pm
Years ago, I had a roommate who had a life-sized cardboard cutout of Morrissey in the corner of the bathroom that would stare pensively at you while you were on the toilet. I have very few fond memories of those days.
posted by Keri on 4-25-2008 at 3:39 pm
1) My roommate lived with a girl who was staunchly Pro-Life. This was fine, until the girl put pictures of aborted fetuses all over the refrigerator. Yeah, my roommate is glad she lives with me now.
2) I wore out “Fantasia” as a kid. Then I bought a DVD, which turned out to be scratched. I miss “Fantasia”…
3) There was a waitress at our local Perkins who would set tables going “Fork…fork…knife…knife…spoon…spoon…” and so on. She worried me.
posted by RhymesWithSilver on 4-25-2008 at 3:41 pm
1) my roommates displayed a life size zombie bride head named ‘Mary’ which hung from the ceiling above the fridge. This was all year ’round, not just halloween. right below it on top of the fridge was a glass jar filled with ‘blood’ and eyeballs.
Also, one of them LOVES the color brown and for her birthday we made her a 8ft tall creature made out of boxes (which were brown) and said that the color brown came over for her birthday. That thing stuck around for months.
posted by susan on 4-25-2008 at 3:41 pm
I, too, am spending my tax refund on a trip to Myrtle Beach this summer. I’ll be there at the end of July.
posted by Konstantine on 4-25-2008 at 3:59 pm
the owner of the nyc restaurant i used to work in(which shall remain nameless) was a raging alcoholic. among other things, he used to dance around the full dining room shirtless, fall face down into his mashed potatoes and made out with his cousin at the bar(on different nights). he would also abuse the older conservative crowd who frequented the place. it’s amazing those people kept coming back day after day, though i think it had something to do with our generous buyback policy and my heavy hand behind the bar…
posted by brian on 4-25-2008 at 4:05 pm
Sadly, I don’t have anything to mention half as strange as what has been posted so far, but I feel compelled to describe the decor of my roommate freshman year of college.
Most of our room was covered in my posters because I had so many and she had none, but towards the middle of first semester she started putting some of her drawings up. These were not fancy, artsy drawings. They were meant to be cute and funny. She had one of a crab that I think was supposed to have crabs, and another one of a girl dressed as a sexy pirate. These drawings were neither cute nor funny, and whenever I had people over (which was rarely, but enough) I had to explain.
posted by Ana on 4-25-2008 at 4:11 pm
The most crazy thing I have seen was when I went to 5 & Diner with my buddy and we were enjoying our meals when all of the sudden there was an old man a table or so down having a stroke.
It was very discomforting.
posted by vince on 4-25-2008 at 4:20 pm
1. My old roommate had a cardboard cutout of Princess Leia in his room.
3. I was having lunch at a semi-fast food Greek restuarant and as one of the kitchen doors swung open, I noticed two Parrots sitting on a wire shelving unit that stored the dishes. GROSS. Needless to say, I haven’t eaten there since.
4. I used my refund and will use my stimulus check towards paying off my credit card. Boring.
posted by Sarah on 4-25-2008 at 4:25 pm
1. Well, I’m not sure if it was my college roommates or me (kind of all of us, I guess), but we had a 5′ blue paper-mache penis in one corner of the common room (we were all male, and all straight as far as I’m aware). Also the “disco tree” hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Like a disco ball. But it was a miniature christmas tree. Yes, all year.
Those probably aren’t all that weird, actually.
posted by Mark on 4-25-2008 at 4:25 pm
1) Actually, I’m guilty of displaying a strange thing. I stayed in a dorm with some roommates that liked to display posters of scantily clad models. One day, as a joke, I stuck a color print of Barbara Bush’s face over the face of a rather buxom model that was perspiring slightly and holding a can of beer. The subtitle of the poster was, “Does this seem flat to you?” We all though it was hilarious and left it up. It always creeped out anyone that came to our room… watching some of the reactions was priceless.
2) We had a nice recorded VHS full of old Disney cartoons (the short ones, not feature films). It mysteriously disappeared long ago, and I’ve always missed it. You never seem to see those anymore…
3) Once, we witnessed a man at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant grab a microphone and announce to the restaurant that he had an important announcement to make. He walked over to a table and professed his love to a lady named Cheryl that was sitting there. He told everyone that they had been dating for a while, and that he had found the love of his life, etc. He was very romantic and poetic, and Cheryl blushed with embarrassment while everyone cheered him on. Then he got down on one knee and proposed. Everyone held their breath… then the lady, laughing, said, “Who are you?” Apparently, her name was actually Kim, he had never met her before, and he was just playing a big joke… pretty funny actually.
4) Part of my refund will go to pay off a debt, and the remainder will go into savings. If the Government is looking for ways to stimulate the economy, maybe they should learn to budget better.
posted by Jason! on 4-25-2008 at 4:55 pm
1. My roommate freshman year in college was really obsessed with royal families from around the world, and she had this poster that she made, and which she periodically added clippings to, covered with pictures cut from magazines of various royals.
2. I really wish I would have held onto the skits we had to video tape for my high school Spanish class, very funny!
3. I had a strange experience once when I was at Ash Wednesday mass, and this woman got up and left, and came back about half an hour later with take-out from some restaurant.
4. My refund went to paying off my credit card, but my surplus check is definitely going toward having fun in Greece on my honeymoon next month!
posted by MC on 4-25-2008 at 5:00 pm
1. I once had a roommate that kept her room set up like a recording studio. She had instruments, mics, speakers, you name it. This doesn’t sound odd alone but she couldn’t play an instrument, she couldn’t sing, nor did she have any interest in learning… she just liked the “feeling” it gave her… often spending her rent check on buying more to enhance her “studio”.
2. Swan Lake. A cartoon set to the music. I wish I could find it again. I played it out.
3. I was waiting tables once and a guest stabbed a girl for taking his plate up too early. I think you witness a lot of strange things when you go out to eat… but working in a restaurant? That’s crazy.
4. I’m paying off some credit cards as well. Sigh.
posted by Aubrey on 4-25-2008 at 5:17 pm
1. Not really a decor thing, but I shared a bedroom in college, and my roommate was a total slob in most of the apartment, but was creepily neat in his personal space. I mean, hospital corners on the bed, his lamp and tissue box sqaured away with the corner of the nightstand about 1″ away from the edge, a comb, nailclipper, and alarm clock all perfectly squared away, and he’d fix them every morning. Yet he’d leave piles of filthy dishes in the sink. Good guy though.
2. Penn and Teller Get Killed. Directed by Arthur Penn, and not likely ever to see a DVD, so it’s a treasure. Penn has said he hates it, and insists that fans not watch it, but I think it’s great. I also don’t have Tivo, and still set the timer to record shows on my VCR. Kickin’ it old school.
3. This is nuts - I was at Nathan’s out in Coney Island a few summers ago, and there was a woman who felt that another woman had stolen her seat (this is in the outdoor area, and it was packed out). They start arguing, push comes to shove, and they start grabbing food and throwing it at each other. they were both covered with mustard and ketchup and there was food everywhere.
4. Going to Vegas soon. Maybe I’ll use it to see Penn and Teller…
posted by burgeon on 4-25-2008 at 5:23 pm
1) My very first play, “Peter Pan”, was left in the VCR by my step-aunt. I’m not sure why she was watching it. Star Trek TNG was all programed to record, and record it did. So now, instead of tiny me looking very cute in politically incorrect faux buckskins, we have an episode about Warf’s Klingon heritage.
1) My ex-husband once hung a Star Trek Enterprise poster over our television. For about 5 minutes. Our apartment had a very open floor plan. I told him that I could not do dishes with Scott Bakula gazing intently at me and my scrub brush. There was a fight and he ended up tearing down the poster. We fought about some really stupid stuff.
I am not a Star Trek hater, I swear (though Enterprise was a bad, bad show- and don’t get me started on that stupid theme song).
3) I am ususally the one doing weird things in restaurants. Like the time that I had a complete emotional break down in a Taco Del Mar. . .
4) My tax rebate will go toward paying off last year’s tax debt. Yipee. Being an actor and getting paid as a contractor makes tax time interesting.
posted by Tam on 4-25-2008 at 5:27 pm
4. Mine went right in the savings account. As for that bonus stimulus check, I’ll probably use it to cover to cost of a wedding I have to fly to later in the year.
posted by MH on 4-25-2008 at 5:35 pm
One VHS tape that I miss was a Star Trek marathon my uncle had taped when he was a kid. It was at my grandmother’s house still, and she said I could take it home. It had about half a dozen epsiodes of the original series, not too shabby, but all the local waterbed and roto-rooter commercials from 1970’s Brunswick, GA, just seemed so funny in central New York twenty years later.
posted by Jimmy on 4-25-2008 at 5:55 pm
I once dated a nurse- don’t get me started about them- who collected and had a large display of antique bed-pans. Strangely enough, after we broke up she began working at a hospital co-ordinating kidney transplants.
posted by harold on 4-25-2008 at 5:59 pm
My brother, in the course of a year, had two waitresses quit their jobs - between taking his order and bringing him his food. But that was also the year that he witnessed the (still talked about in our family) elderly woman at the buffet who filled 3 plates mounding with bacon and sat down and ate it all. Ahhh the simple joys in life.
posted by Patti on 4-25-2008 at 8:46 pm
One of my college roommates collected skunks. Luckily not real ones.. but the way that some people collect items featuring unicorns, or pigs, or whatever.. for this chick, it was skunks. She also made a “Christmas tree” by putting some random branch into an empty Coke can and putting tinsel on it. Nobody touched it until she moved out in May.
posted by Celeste M. on 4-25-2008 at 9:54 pm
A lost/thrown away self-recorded VHS I miss was “Steven Banks: Home Entertainment Center.” The best one-man show I’ve ever seen. Alternately funny and poignant, it was brilliantly written and performed by Steven Banks, who apparent has progressed to writing for Jimmy Neutron and Spongebob Squarepants. In a just world SB:HEC would be available on DVD somewhere.
posted by Kyle W on 4-25-2008 at 10:25 pm
My tax refund will go straight into savings, because I will need it in the coming months to pay for the dentist and my health insurance deductible. If there is any leftover, I will either pay down credit card, put it towards a washer/dryer, put it towards a sofa or futon or keep it in savings. I doubt much will be left over. (*sigh* being responsible with your money sucks.)
posted by Sally Villarreal on 4-25-2008 at 11:24 pm
i was in a little itsy bitsy town in mexico at one of the most modern restaurants/hang outs for miles. It was a coffee shop/internet cafe/taquiera…or something. And they also had games and goldfish.
I was on one of the computers and there was a group of 20somethings playing jenga a few tables away from me. I was bored, and I kept glancing over at them and the goldfish. And it seemed like the goldfish were disappearing.
apparently, every time one of them lost at jenga, they had to eat a goldfish.
posted by kelly on 4-26-2008 at 1:10 am
1) my college roommate was an art major and she insisted on hanging up this gigantic (at least 3ft x 4ft) charcoal drawing of an eye on our wall. i constantly felt as though i was being watched that year. imagine that.
2) the reluctant dragon
3) i was on a road trip with some friends in the southern united states when we decided to stop and grab a bite at a steak-n-shake in georgia. we walked in and were about to be seated when two employees came crashing out the kitchen holding each other by the hair. they start throwing punches, slapping, and clawing at each other. my friends and i just stood aghast as they crashed into table after table, spilling milkshakes and sending food and condiments flying everywhere. guests at the tables were tripping over chairs to get out of the way, it took 5 other employees to seperate them. after the two “ladies” were escorted away, the entire restaurant looked like a war-zone.
my friends and i then decided subway was a better option…
4) i’ll use it to take another trip, maybe to croatia or romania this time. with my current location it’s easy and not too expensive :)
posted by lis on 4-26-2008 at 3:09 am
I lived for three years with an Orthodox Jewish friend of mine, so the mezzuziot on the doorframes and the menorah at Chanukah weren’t weird in and of themselves, but was was weird was having to pretend they were mine when her uber Catholic, Irish Grandpa who didn’t know she’d converted came over.
posted by Heather on 4-26-2008 at 6:07 am
I saw a fat infant get stuck in a high chair after eating a large stack of pancakes in Williamsburg VA at The Gazebo Pancake House. His parents could not get him out and requested that the waiter bring out some butter. They literally pulled up his shirt and buttered up his body in order to slide him out of the chair. He slid out but smelled pretty disgusting as they passed us on the way out.
posted by Jon on 4-26-2008 at 9:19 am
I was working at a buffet restaurant and during a relatively busy time a girl that looked to be about 9 or 10 started getting sick at the buffet. Her dad just stood there by her while she threw up all over the floor and told her “it’s ok honey, just get it all out.” Didn’t even try to rush her to the bathroom or anything.
Also, at the same place an old man deuced in his pants, shook it out his leg and on to the floor, then left.
Needless to say, buffets are kind of nasty.
posted by artie on 4-26-2008 at 10:00 am
since i got divorced and my daughter is now claiming herself, i had to pay in $340 this year. my incentive check will be $300. i’m in the hole by $40. sigh.
posted by shelly on 4-26-2008 at 10:43 am
1. My first college roommate had a bunch of chippendales pictures from an old calendar, on which she had taped pictures of her boyfriend’s face.
4. On tuition and books! I start classes to get my teaching license May 17 and my husband is going back for a seminar for his license renewal in June. Yay college!
posted by Fruppi on 4-26-2008 at 11:05 am
1. I used to know a guy whose room was completely filled with action figures. Shelves and shelves of them, even his desk and nightstand were covered…basically every flat surface had action figures on it posed to attack. His closet was completely full with all the boxes from them. I once asked him why he saved all the boxes, he said, “In case I move.”
2. Back in the day my friend was videotaping himself smoking pot in his room and his dad walked in and caught him, it was the funniest video ever but he taped a concert over it.
3.After eating at a diner my friends and I waited about a half hour for our check before finally complaining the manager that we hadn’t seen our waitress in 45 minutes. He went back in the kitchen and then she came out and was crying. She said she fell down in the kitchen and thinks her arm is broken. We all felt like jerks so we left her a huge tip…$50 on a $40 check.
4. I already got my refund and bought a new guitar with it!!!
posted by CJ on 4-26-2008 at 3:54 pm
As my mother, sister, and I were leaving a family restaurant, we heard a huge argument in the kitchen which then moved into the lobby. One of the cooks was yelling threats at a waitress. The owner told the cook to go get his things and get out while he called the cops.
We went as far as our car, but decided to stick around in case the police wanted a witness statement from us. That’s how we were in the right place to see the cook slip out of the back door with a chef’s knife, disappear behind the building next door, and return without the knife. We told the police when they arrived a couple of minutes later, and the last we saw of the cook he was face-down on the sidewalk being cuffed.
posted by Coeli on 4-27-2008 at 1:45 am
I had a horrible roommate in college, she was literally crazy. (in that she checked into a mental institution a few months after moving out…) We had a lot of weird moments, but one of the worse was when I returned from Christmas break after visiting my grandmother in France. I’d been gone for a month. There were at least 7 bags of trash on the balcony, and she hadn’t changed the cat’s litter box since I’d left. Plus, she was refusing to talk to me since I wouldn’t move out. She thought I was stealing her boyfriend… (I thought he was gross and he creeped me out, I used to stay up and wait for her to get home when she was on dates to make sure she got in ok.)This was the same boyfriend who set our apartment on fire a few months earlier- not a major one, but damage was caused. Needless to say, not a great roommate situation.
posted by greenstrawberries on 4-27-2008 at 4:21 am
1. My roomate my freshman year of college had a picture of herself gutting a deer hanging on the wall (I’m a vegetarian, I think she hung it up just to spite me…)
posted by jiminyjillikers on 4-27-2008 at 8:14 am
3. I was a hostess at the local TGI Friday’s when I was in high school and one night I was standing at the hostess stand waiting to go home. The restaurant was kind of dea but the bar was packed. Out of no where, this couple starts arguing and the man storms out the big double doors that all Friday’s used to have. Next thing I know the woman launches her frozen alcoholic beverage at the doors, the big crazy glass shatters and both the doors and I are covered in frozen booze and fruit juice. I had to go in the dish pit and hose myself off so I could drive home without smelling like I was tanked!
As far as employee stories, a co-worker of mine at another Friday’s had a side job cooking at Chili’s and on a bet put a latex glove over his head with the fingers sticking up (so he looked like a chicken) and took off running around the restaurant clucking as loud as possible and flapping his arms.
Honestly, I could write a series of posts on the craziness I saw in my 9 year stint working for TGI Friday’s!
posted by Marta on 4-27-2008 at 10:11 am
1. Giant inflatable penis in the living room of apartment shared with three others during university.
2. The Making of Thriller. behind the scenes of Michael Jackson’s zombie video.
3. Took my step sons to a restaurant when their father was out of town. Sat by the giant fish tank. Youngest kept says, SUPER LOUD ” that fish is pooping ” Then after about a dozen times, and me quietly trying to distract him, he yells “EEEEEWWWWWWWWW He JUST ATE HIS OWN POOP”
4.We are going to use the refund from the American government to pay the bill from the Canadian goverment.
posted by Tonya on 4-27-2008 at 5:42 pm
1) A door room roommate in college had a lover who stayed over many a night. Ugh. The most interesting thing on “display” was her lover’s prosthetic leg that I tripped over a few times.
4)We are using our stimulus rebates to pay off debt. Boring but wise. Why does “wise” have to be so boring? Being a grown-up sucks sometimes.
posted by GFoskett on 4-28-2008 at 8:56 am
one of my past college roommates kept her mildy annoying Spanish-speaking boyfriend (as well as his always-present Spanish-speaking brother) around nearly constantly. they stayed up late everynight, when i just wanted them all out of my house.
i have nothing against Spanish-speaking people. what was so irritating was the fact they she never really seemed to learn their language, so most of their conversations consisted of “what do you call this in Spanish?” and drinking large quantaties of alcohol. ugh. she finally moved out and moved in with boyfriend-and-brother.
my rebate check will go towards paying off my credit card debt, in turn paying off my recently necessitated new fuel pump for my car. it is a bummer being so monetarily responsible. although i may pull aside a small portion of it to get a new tattoo i’ve been lusting over…(that way i will be helping local business too!)
posted by the creature on 4-28-2008 at 4:23 pm