62*

We had the biggest crowd we have ever had at pub quiz last night.

Fortunately for me, I can anticipate such things and I have an incredibly understanding and cool boss. Once we got the first round started, I surveyed the room. Lots and lots of people looked back at me. I got anxious. I knew I would be cleaning and doing other helper jobs very late into the night. I also correctly guessed that I would be drinking rather late.

During round 3, the match round, I snuck out the front door and called my boss. "[boss], it's Dave."

"Why aren't you coming to work tomorrow?" My boss is no dummy. He knows what's what.

"Actually I am coming to work tomorrow, but I'd appreciate it if I could come in an hour later."

"Busy night at pub quiz?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you at 8. How many people do you have there?"

I wasn't sure, honestly. We didn't have an accurate headcount until round 6. I estimated 65, and was only off by 3. Not a bad guess. Not bad at all. We finished a little late, which was to be expected, and I started making my game show host rounds. Old faces and a couple new faced adorned my crowd last night, and I wanted to make sure I got to chat with everyone. Chat away I did. I might have, knock on wood, recruited another rider for my MS Ride team. I'm very excited about that.

Back to last night, though. The owner, my friend and new hockey fan S came in and pretended to be from the Fire Department. "Sir, you're over the legal occupancy limit for this room." It is rather hard for him to do impressions, as his brogue is a dead giveaway. We don't have a lot of Scottish fire marshals in Chicago.

One of my less frequent but definite favorite quizzers came up to me afterwards. "Soon, you're going to need a bigger pub!" I laughed and told him I'd let him know if and when that happened. I love my quizzers. Good people, every one.