If you haven't figured out by now, The Cooker and my former employment there has been on my mind non-stop since Thursday morning.

While I was pissed off about many things, I also realized that I had a lot of good times there too.

To give you some insight as to why I stayed there as long as I did and put up with so much (and just so I'll have something to look back on to remember The Cooker by), I give to you, My Random Happy Cooker Memories:

*About four months after I began work at The Cooker, I was having a really off night. I was sitting back on the carpet, rolling silver when one of my co-workers came up to me and looked at me for a moment. I was so deep in la la land that I didn't even realize anyone else was around me. After a few moments, he began singing. Not only singing, but singing my favourite Aura. And holy crow, could that boy sing. Although I didn't notice him before that night, and there is a five year age difference between us, Josh and I have been pretty much inseperable since then. We've never dated. Never talked about dating, but every assumes that we are.

*I'm not exactly sure why we weren't friends sooner, but one day in the kitchen, I was standing at the dressing line looking about as down as a person could, and I look over near the expo window and Ursula holds her arms out. I literally ran across the kitchen and almost knocked her over to get the hug. We cracked up at it, and have pretty much laughed non-stop since.

*When I was BEING TRAINED (WAY back in the day), I was trained by Matt Grant. Unfortunately, Matt is a HUGE Friends fanatic and one of the nights he was training me was the night that Rachel had her baby. My training that night basically consisted of him going "Make sure you remember to do this" during commercial breaks, then fleeing back to the bar to watch the show.

*We had recently aquired a manager who would say "how long ______" for whatever she was waiting for. One particularly crazy Friday night, Maria walks up to me and goes "How long liquor?" Later that night, Maria, Karen and I went barhopping and finally decided that we liked the atmosphere and bartenders at Beethoven's the best. Thus started the weekly Cooker drinking night. I think the largest the group ever got was about 12 people and the smallest was 2 (Maria and I....we were dedicated!).

*During one drinking night, a girl that I'm not particularly fond of decided to invite herself to the group at Beethoven's. The bright shining side to all of this is that she is only 19. I went up to the bar, got my drink and wasted no time in ratting her out to Wayne (one of my favourite bartenders). A few minutes later, Wayne came back to the table with our drinks and carded everyone at the table. "The Bitch" as I affectionately call her (and the sad thing is that everyone knows who I'm talking about when I say that) was the only one thrown out. No one felt bad enough for her to go with her, nor did we shed any tears over her leaving.

*On my 24th birthday, I was taken to The Asylum (a club) in Nashville to see Voltaire. I arrived home shortly after one the following morning. About half an hour after I got home, my phone rings. It was a guy from work calling to make sure that I had gotten home safely. I told him I did, and wanted to know how he knew that I had been out. He told me that he had been there. I told him that I hadn't seen him there. He got kind of miffed at me and told me that I had sat right across from him. It dawned on me that he had gotten my number off the staff list, but all he had looked for was "Amanda". He didn't realize that there were 2 because I had simply always gone by "Mandi". I still tease him about that.

*The same guy from the previous story and I also became very close. He began working at Cooker about seven or so months ago, but we didn't start hanging out until the early part of this year. I've been drunk *maybe* five times in my life, and this guy has been around for three of them. Basically we would start out drinking at Beethoven's but take it back to my apartment where we would throw a movie on (usually one of the LOTR movies), bust out the alcohol and drink. The more we drank, the more open we became with one another. It's odd how friendships start. We would always curl up on my sofa bed, but nothing happened between us physically (well, okay, I kissed him ONCE just because I wanted to see what kind of kisser he was), but most people don't believe that. One Saturday night at work, I thought it was just he and I in the bar and so I informed him "Everytime you spend the night, you leave an article of clothing" (which was true...I had a shirt and an belt of his at that time). To my suprise/horror, I discovered that The Bitch was lurking around the corner and heard what I had said. She immediately started pressing me for answers. "Did you sleep with him?" etc. I politely told her it was none of her concern, which she took as a yes and immediately started spreading rumors. Anyway, the part about those times that I remember is drinking and talking...he really helped me through a lot that had been going on in my life, believe it or not. At one point I was so drunk, I was holding myself up with the wall and a poster tube, debating if I could actually make it to the day bed (which was approximately 7 feet away) without falling over.

I should probably wrap this up. I'm on my roommate's computer and he's waiting patiently. Plus I'm meeting Maria at Beethoven's in 1/2 an hour....The Cooker may be gone, but the drinking night lives on!