The new 'drunken-truth device' ~ coming to stores near you

Miss Manners dictates that if you are brave enough to drink like a fool and get drunk, you should be grown enough to face the consequences. This, my friends, is exactly why when I’ve gotten drunk, I’m never afraid to face my demons the next day.
And friends, if you are grown-ups you should never do anything while drunk that you can’t face the next day.
Now for me, I’ve always joked that I should have recording mics and cameras attached to me when I get drunk, for the simple fact that I’ve done a number of crazy things while intoxicated that I would be petrified to learn of the next day. But then again, I’m a seasoned drinker, as well as a bartender. So my ass has been on both sides of the counter.
Still, I’m classy enough to know that when I’m out drinking on the town, that if I ever find myself being a drunken mess, that I have a number of people in my corner to watch not only my back, but their backs as well.
In this world that we live in, and Asbury Park in particular, when we go out and drink ourselves under the table, we have many responsible workers in the establishments we frequent who are looking out for our own good. And speaking for myself, I rely on the managers, bartenders, security guards, servers, etc., in the bars I frequent to watch my back. I’m grown enough to realize that these individuals working there aren't cutting my drunken ass off because they have a problem with me – they want to protect me and themselves.
I would never assume that if my drunken ass were told I couldn’t have another drink, it’s them being mean, rude or inconsiderate. I’m smart enough to know, being a bartender myself, that they are doing it for my own good. Everyone in the service industry is in it to make money. So how absurd it is for some people to make the leap that they don’t want your money; they just want to make things difficult for you.
Now I’m not saying that it is inconceivable that in the rarest of circumstances that it would never happen. A person may have a personal grudge against a person for whatever reason. But when you run into a situation where you’ve had too much to drink, and the crew you are hanging with have also had too much to drink, and not one, but three or four workers in the establishment have taken note of your obvious drunkenness … well then it’s time to look yourself in the mirror immediately after, and ask yourself, “Dude, where’s my manners?”
When I’ve bartended, I’ve been in the unenviable position of having to cut people off, a couple of times bouncing them from the bar. Trust me, it’s no fun, and no one loves to do it. And when you know the “drunk one” well, it’s a tough situation. But it’s something that needs to be done when the situation presents itself, no matter how hurt your feelings become. It’s in these situations when the old adage is not true … and the customer is, in fact, not always right.
But I’ll tell you this – if that person I had to boot and not serve anymore alcohol were to go out of their way to try to embarrass me or my place of business through the use of social media, … well things would not turn out pretty. Once you put something out there on social media, it’s out there for good. And when you only have access to, maybe, 25 percent of the true story (researchers have analyzed these situations and have concluded in some studies that when you are drunk and in a heated situation, you aren’t in a mindset to remember much; only the part that makes yourself seem as if you are the victim), you are doing a disservice to those employees who are forced to deal with you.
This is one of the main reasons why I always believe that a great invention would be a “drunken-truth device”, something that once you reach the legal alcohol-level where you start to get hazy on things around you, that a microphone device would begin taping your every sound and move.
Because I’ll tell you, if we all had one of these instruments on ourselves when we went out on the town, lives would be much simpler.
So my moral of this blog post is quite simple to comprehend … if you go out on the town and become inebriated, don’t resort to name calling and giving an establishment an offensive, flaming review. Take a long, self-reflecting moment to clearly ask yourself, “Gee, what did I do to cause me to get flagged at the bar and why did things get so out-of-hand?” Also, it is a good idea to ask someone, anyone, who works in the establishment or who was also in attendance at the establishment what you did, and why all of it went down. You may just figure out that you were the one who was in the wrong, and people stopped serving you alcohol for YOUR OWN GOOD.
Because people, sometimes using social media while in a drunken haze over a heated situation can be just as dangerous as getting behind the wheel of your automobile while highly intoxicated. Sometimes it doesn’t end well.
After all, why do you always hear that drunken texting is not a good thing to do? Because nine times out of 10, it’s not.