I Haven't Had This Much Angst...

...since I was a teenager. I am trying to put it aside in order to concentrate on how cute I'll look tomorrow and how happy I will be to wear "work clothes" again.*

In lieu of moaning and groaning about how nervous I am and how certain I am that I'll be a complete and total failure for the rest of my life, I will cover Friday's Happy Hour, since I've been somewhat remiss in covering Happy Hour regularly.

The first part of Happy Hour took place at The Opening Bell, a coffee shop cum bar cum sandwich shop cum music lounge in the ground floor of the Mosaic Building in downtown Dallas. It is probably a much better coffee shop/sandwich place than it is a bar, since their beer selection is lacking. They served bottled Guinness, and not the good Extra Stout kind that is meant to be drunk from the bottle, but the Draught variety. And the widget in my bottle was broken, so it wasn't properly aerated. I switched to Shiner Bock, after the first bottle of Guinness proved to be a disaster. I have a hunch not many people go to the place to drink.

If you want to pretend to be classy, you can buy wine by the glass or by the bottle.

After being there for a beer or two, I decided that skipping dinner was not such a grand idea, after all, so I went to buy a brownie or a scone, which is all that I could see. It was at this point that the oh so helpful bearded cashier informed me that they serve sandwiches, too! The sandwich was fresh, made with yummy Romaine lettuce and juicy, flavorful tomatoes (I ordered the turkey and cheddar, in case you're wondering). The croissant was okay, but definitely not the worst I've had.

The reason we went to The Opening Bell - which bills itself as Coffee Music Stocks - was because of the music aspect. A friend of a friend was singing that night. So far as intimate venues go, it's a pretty good one. Sadly, the two female singers sounded almost exactly the same, and both had the same Indie Folk music sound. Even their first names were similar! As with many local/unknown musicians, most of the songs sounded the same.

About halfway through the second performer's set - okay, a sixth of the way through - we all sort of gave up on the "attentive audience" performance we were giving and quickly devolved into a bunch of gaggle of giggling yahoos.

* For the record, I will be wearing a short-sleeved white button-up blouse with an olive drab high-waisted pencil skirt, brown flats, and a wide brown belt. You know, just in case you care.

The image used is in the Public Domain, but was originally published as the cover of Classic Comics in December of 1943. The illustration is by Lilian Chesney. Thanks to Wikimedia Commons contributor Chordboard for scanning it!