its a done deal!!!!

big al and redneck steve are now the new owners of the beer bucket!!! the ink is on the paper…

thanks to all of you that have wished us well. this is such an exciting time and yet, like i said yesterday, its a scary time as well. but im going to try to focus on the positive. yesterday i was so disoriented after wiring (the most money that i had ever wired), that on my way home from the bank, i went through a school zone, and one mile past it, i noticed that i was still going 20mph. i came home and screamed YEAH!!! YESSSSS!!! all to an empty house. I know my neighbors probabbly think im crazy. my doggies sure do!!! then i went to primos at 4pm and ordered tequila shots for all 5 people in the bar. i called steve up so we could toast together over the phone but apparently, being in mexico, he was a few shots ahead of me…

ok, now to the sappy part:

this was such a high. and at the same time, it was so sad that bartendica wasnt a part of it. i know, i know… i should man up and move on… im just telling you how i felt. it just didnt feel right or complete that while all this was happening, i couldnt even call her and tell her. but i did send her a text message, informing her of the good news. of course i got no response from her, but i did send it. well, let me back up. on mothers day, i sent her an email telling her how great of a mom she was to payton when he was here and telling her happy mothers day. no response. oh, i also invited her to hang out with me and my family on mothers day after she hung out with hers, no response again….(you would think i would get the hint???duh.  so yesterday, i woke up so mad… (i NEVER wake up mad!) and i wrote her a short letter telling her how inconsiderate i thought that was (not responding) and i took her the key to her apt and put the letter and the key under her mat, basically saying goodbye. its pretty clear that the bartendica chapter is complete. and that is the last time that you will see her name in my blog!!!it does make me sad… but as they say, it is what it is. i had her, i screwed it up, i tried to get her back and it was too late. its done! im gonna lick my wounds and get up off the floor and move on. and allow her to do the same without being hounded by me! dr. phil says you have to earn your way out… i think i did!

back to the bar…we now have 8 days to get it together. we need to plan the grand opening weekend events, come up with a catchy slogan for the grand opening t-shirts, order the t-shirts, wash the bar, paint the bar, fix the bathroom, figure out how much beer and alcohol to order, sooo much to do…not to mention the fact that i need to lose maybe 10 pounds of break-up weight that ive put on. ok, its 2:56am… im going to jog!

guys, im in debt up to my eyeballs… come to the beer bucket… or at least, buy a t-shirt! 

support the dream! drop in the bucket!

 

todays word is: WOW!!! 

 

love ya’ll.

 

al

1 more day!

The plethora of emotions I have going right now is impossible to describe. But basically, if you can name it, then, im feeling it. im excited, optimistic, anxious and scared as hell. Not to mention that anticipation feeling that makes your stomach turn flips over and over. If you’re new to my blog here, you have no idea what im talking about. Redneck steve and I are buying a bar in mexico. no, I didn’t say that right… let me try that again. REDNECK STEVE AND I ARE BUYING A BAR IN MEXICO!!! there, that’s better. Guys, I don’t know if any of you have ever put it all on the line, but that’s pretty much what im doing. No one likes to lose money. But if you don’t take a chance from time to time, you never get anywhere. At least that’s my feeling. Now, I cant speak for steve, but im pretty much going all in here. Not only that, but this is the one thing that anyone that’s known me for any length of time can tell you…ive wanted to do for a long, long time. In fact, maybe 10 years ago, I had the bright idea of opening a soul food restaurant. So without doing a whole lot of research, (or any) I put down a $6000.00 deposit. Then I went to the restaurant supply place and paid a deposit of about $2500 on restaurant furniture. I had all of the utilities turned on which ran another $1000 or so and that was about the extent of my bank account. Oh God, it pains me to even think of this mistake… maybe the biggest (financial) mistake of my adult life. And this restaurant was 10 miles from my house, in uptown… an area of town that I frequent almost daily. This time, I have wised up.
(right)… now, 10 years later, steve and I are investing WAY more money! In a bar that is WAY farther from where we live. But on the flip side, its 2 blocks from the beach. Its 100 feet from “the strip” in playa del Carmen, one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth. I have often said that I wanted to do this. I have dreamed of it. I have thought about it. I have almost tasted it…and now, its here! In 24 hours, if all goes well, papers will be 100% signed and executed and we will be in business… which brings on a whole new set of challenges but hey, one thing at a time.

Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for steve and i. and more importantly, if you have a dream, go for it… keep plugging away at it and when the time is right, and the opportunity presents itself, GO FOR IT!

I promised that I would give you a word everyday and in true big all form, I dropped the ball over the weekend. So, to make it up to you, I will give you Saturday and Sundays word as well as todays word. and the last word will be tomorrow. The first email I get with all of the words in the correct order gets a couple of free t-shirts and will be put in a future drawing for a free trip to mexico. go to www.bigalandredneckstevesbeerbucket.com to email your submission to me.

Later,

Al

Saturday’s word: ARE Sundays word: OFFICIALLY todays word: WE

quickie!!!

well everybody, i hope you all have a great weekend! we’re headed to a show tonite where gavin degraw is performing so you know i gotta go see my boy. steve is out of town on business so we wont be hanging for the next few days. and the morning show is headed to san antonio to hang out at mixfest. we’re taking one of those million dollar tour buses. its gonna be great.

anyway, i will have some news on monday. so please make sure you check out my blog.

have a great one.
word of the day is: ARE

love ya’ll… be safe

big al

my new “thing”

First it was beans, then it was Kenny chesney. Both were very pointless temporary passions. (no offense to the bean lovers and Kenny chesney lovers of the world.)
But now its on to something useful. At least its useful to me at this point. Im going to learn Spanish. I mean im going to REALLY learn Spanish. I mean I want to learn it to the point where I can communicate with people and even have a conversation. HOW???
Good question! With the exception of a brief stint in a junior college where I spent the first and last day in the parking lot drinking a beer, I haven’t taken a class in a number of years. So this is going to be tough just getting my head in the mindset of being a student.
I was an OK student. Not bad, and not great. Just OK.

Im going to get cd’s. im going to get a private instructor. and im going to even take a class at the junior college. I will listen to the cd’s in the car. Im going to download them to my ipod so I can listen while I jog or work out.

This is scary. Buying a bar in a foreign country is scary enough all by itself. But mix in not speaking the language and its even scarier. So I feel like the least I can do is to try to learn how to communicate with the locals. There will be a variety of people that I will be coming into contact with from the customers, other business owners, employees, vendors etc…I may even have a test every week on the air so listeners can track my progress.

Ok, lesson one as we just discussed on the air is for me to learn 50 spanish words. And I will be tested on the air tomorrow.

Word of the day is: NOW

ONE LAST TRY!

so, i came home today and asked bartendica to lunch. it had just been bothering me and i felt like i needed to try one more time. we met and it started out as a rather chili ordeal. she wasnt saying a whole lot and i was trying to use a few funny lines to break the ice. (sorry, thats what i do)…when the ice finally did break, i fell in. she was still mad about something that happened the night she ended everything, about a month ago. i agree, it was completely my fault. i invited her to meet me at primos and when she finally said she was coming, i told her we were leaving, which we were. and rather than telling her to meet us at the next spot, i said, (after a few beers), that we wouldnt be there past 9 (an hour or so)… apparently, (i only say apparently because i dont really remember because its been a month), but apparently, we stayed until 9:30 or 10. whichever the case, i should have been more considerate. considering we have such limited time to hang out. she works deep nights, i work early mornings. i was wrong.

there were several other things that i did wrong as well…(i was reminded), including never taking her on vacation alone. like i did with justine 5 years ago. and to think, i had almost forgot about that. but in the four trips that i invited her on to mexico this past year, we went with jc and kinsie, or shanon and some chick…

i was also made aware of my intimacy issues, always wanting to be in a big group of people, and several other ways that i fell short of being a good boyfriend. so i would say that overall, it was a very informative lunch.

i love her ya’ll…very much. we’ve been through alot together this past year. the biggest of which was payton’s arrival. (my 16 year old son that lived in kansas city but came to live with me…only to leave 3 months later.) but yesterday, i was truly confused as to why she ever was with me in the first place if i have this many problems…

how in the heck have my parents made it for 50+ years? neither of them are perfect but they seem to be putting up with each other pretty well! i guess what they say is true. its all about not only the work you put into the relationship, but simply how willing you are to accept not only the stuff you do like about the person… thats the easy part. but its also about how much of the stuff you’re not crazy about that you are willing to put up with. i’ll touch on that at a later date.

i actually invited bartendica to lunch with the thought that maybe we could try it one more time. but after hearing all of the ways that i had screwed up, it became pretty apparent that there was no way that i could once again make happy the woman that last year this time, from all indications, was REALLY FREAKIN happy. as people have told me, sometimes love just isn’t enough.

i will say this, through it all, my boy redneck steve has offered some pretty good advice. maybe because we have both been through the same trenches. we didnt go through them together but we know what they smell like. ive probably talked more to him than any other dude ever about this whole thing and he gets it. he likes us both so dont think he’s just on my side. its hard for a dude to talk to another dude about relationship crap but for whatever reason, we can do it.

im glad thats the dude im opening up a bar with!!! he’s a good friend.

go to www.bigalandredneckstevesbeerbucket.com to get the latest on the grand opening as well as directions to the bar and we plan on even having web cams to watch the happenings. in fact, if you buy a t-shirt, you never know…you may be the one to win a free trip to mexico just by buying a simple tshirt!!!

the second word to win is: BAR…

MY BLOG…DUH!

Who would think that Andrew, our webguy, would be getting more action than me??? but then again, I haven’t really been trying. But, I have made up my mind that im not gonna be all depressed and bring the room down this time around. Bartendica and I haven’t spoken in quite some time. We have exchanged a few text messages but that’s about it.
Come on AL!!! get out of this “social slump.” This isn’t like me. I guess that’s why I stay so “busy” doing a whole bunch of nothing on the weekends. So I can at least keep my mind occupied while I try to find “something productive” to get into.
With all that said, last night for cinco de mayo, I watched my favorite show “house” but I did get out for a minute to celebrate for a brief moment. I ran into a buddy of mine, billy, that is “that guy” that I run into at fernandos restaurant from time to time. Its so weird that at every restaurant/bar that I go to, I seem to have one or two people that I run into all the time. Its like we’re “the regulars!”

Wow, so this is what being single feels like??? (I said I wasn’t going to be all depressed so I think im gonna change the subject now!) redneck steve seems to think that if I even THINK about trying getting back with bartendica, I better be ready to get married. Somehow, proposing to someone as a means of getting back together doesn’t seem quite right. To me, getting married (or engaged), should be done as a “next step” from being soo freakin happy that you cant stand it…(I feel like ive said this on here before.) people shouldn’t be broken up and on bad terms and pop up and say, “you know what, I know we have been pissy at one another for a while, but I think we should get married!” just my opinion!

I guess the Kenny chesney phase has come and gone and I have not fallen back into “bean world” so whats next? The crew and I are getting ready for mexico. i need to start thinking about keeping the group busy while we’re in mexico. we’ve done the “four wheeler” thing, we’ve done the jet skiing thing. But anyone who knows me knows I like to take the reigns when it comes to having guests over to my house… and mexico is my “second home.” I’ll keep you posted.

I will have some seriously good news in about 6 days!

In fact to give you a small hint, I will give you one word hints everyday until Monday. But these one word hints are not going to be in order…And if you are the first person to figure out the phrase and send me an email, I’ll send you a 2 free tshirts and I’ll also enter you in the drawing for the “buy a shirt, win a trip to mexico” contest @ www.playabeerbucket.com. i hope this works out… i just had this idea within the last 10 minutes. haha

Good luck! And the first word is: MEXICAN

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

busy weekend

Friday night was the first “kkitm” night on the town and im gonna go ahead and call it a huge success. It started out slow but it did get some legs later on. We went to this nice place called “the porch” for dinner. I really enjoy hanging out with my friends. In a group setting, im your guy. I can hold my own. I enjoy meeting new people. And it just seems to be my comfort zone. Put me in front of 1 person in a one on one situation, and I will turn into “uncomfortable man.” This is not a new development. Ive been this way for a long time. Back to the night out, we went to a club that had MAYBE 4 people in it before we got there. But we had 14 people in our group and by the time we got there, we turned that place into the hottest place in town!
On the way back, we had a ½ mile walk and we pulled a small joke. We passed by a house and I ran up to the door, (at 1am) I knocked on the door and ran. Yeah, it was a stupid idea, I know… but it seemed like a great idea at the time. 

Saturday, it was all about Kenny chesney. That little small man is a hell of a performer. This was my first big time country concert. And I have to say, even though I didn’t know a lot of the music, I did enjoy the show. But dang, the beers were $8.50 each. And oddly enough, people were waiting in line to not only buy them, but they were also waiting in an even bigger line to pee them away!

More to come…

alone!

It was my moms birthday yesterday so before I did anything else after work, it was birthday celebration time. At least, I thought it was… I went and bought a red velvet cake with chocolate icing,mmmmm, and then I went to get her a dallas maverick jersey. She loves the mavs… (bad timing, since they were just eliminated from the playoffs, I know!)
Anyway, I was pulling up to wal-mart to get the hats, blowers, birthday paper plates and stuff when she called to tell me she was about to leave to run her new dog to petco to get a bath. NOOOOOO! So I rushed home with just the cake and her jersey and we didnt have the mini party. Man, I was really looking forward to that part. How come every time I try to have a party, it doesn’t work out? 
Anyway, I got there and gave her everything and we hung out for a little bit and then I left so she could get on with her day.

About 2 days before bartendica broke up with me, I got us tickets to go to the kanye west concert. Since she broke up with me, I was kinda stressing about who I was going to take. I asked a couple friends (girls) to go and after being turned down, I decided to ask redneck steve to go. He agreed but had no idea who kanye was. The next day, yesterday, he kinda eluded to the fact that he really would rather hang out with some chick, so that meant I needed to find someone to go with me. As tempting as it was to call bartendica to ask her to go, I didn’t. well, at least not right away. not that she would have gone anyway.
So I made a few text messages to a few girls that were in my phone. Lets see, I got a few different responses. They were mostly things like, NO, NO, NO, NO, and oh yeah, NO!!! after the first couple of no’s it became more of a mission than a concert. Well, mission impossible that is… long story short, I ended up going to see kanye and rihanna in my tenth row seats by myself. But the concert was awesome. Rihanna was beautiful. Kanye was great. He stood on stage all alone for the entire time he performed. As usual, the concert was running late, so I asked my date, (myself),  if he would mind if we left early. I answered “no, not at all.” So I caught a cab and headed to the casa! That’s one thing that’s great about going alone… you don’t have to check with anyone when you’re ready to go!

odds and ends

Last night I was a party animal. First I headed to an ice cream parlor to be a “celebrity ice cream scooper.” It’s a charity thing that I have done for the last 2 years and its a lot of fun but when I left, I was covered in mango-mango flavored ice cream.

I left there to get over to the Freddie thing on time. He was performing next door to the studio and it was packed. At the last minute, I was asked to do the intro for freddy and of course, I may have been a little bit long winded. I swear, ive never met a microphone that I didn’t like.

Then it back to my house for a fun filled, pimped out evening of stuffing envelopes..
Actually it was more like stuffing packages. Tshirts, bandanas, for “big al and redneck steves beer bucket.” The first batch came in and weren’t quite right so they had to be reordered…and the second batch made it in and they’re perfect. So, single handedly, I stuffed I don’t know how many oversized envelopes and boxes with tshirts and stuff and addressed the labels and im headed to the post office today to send the stuff out.
Doesn’t that sound like a night of fun???

Singledom is setting in and tomorrow will be rough. I had 2 tickets (originally for bartendica and I), to go to the kanye concert tomorrow night…(she’s off on Thursday nights) but now, well you know the rest. I guess I could ask steve to go but two guys at a concert is a little gay! (not that theres anything wrong with that!) I’ll keep you posted.

Much love!

wake up call!!!

As discussed on the show today, the last time I was single, BEANS seemed to take the place of my girlfriend. Well, not totally, but you know what I mean. I was making beans almost non-stop. This time, it seems as though Kenny Chesney will be the focus of my time. At least for a minute. I have surfed a lot of Kenney chesney sites this morning and he seems like a pretty cool guy. Ive never really been a huge country music fan but I’ll try anything once. What do I have to lose right? So im all about Kenny chesney. Im gonna learn about him. Im going to listen to his music. Im going to join his fan club!
We’ll see how that goes!

Pete, pete, pete. I have not given up on you man…but you are going to need to try a lot harder…meanwhile, I may spend considerably less time trying to help. You are going to need to get out there and look for something that you want to do and most of all, something that you can make it to, on time, every day! I have to admit. When I heard that 7am was “too early” for you, I was a little, no, a lot disappointed. Then again, I wake up at 4am every day so maybe I’m not being fair. But later, when I heard that the vet clinic gave you a chance this past Sunday, asking you to show up at 10am so they could “give you a shot”, you showed up at 2pm…man, these people are trying to help you, but you have to help yourself as well. That’s a part of life. These people are running a business and they can’t operate on “pete’s schedule”. (or anyone else’s) they operate on their schedule. And if you wanna work there, or ANYWHERE as far as that’s concerned, you have to conform to their schedule. That’s just life. I would love to sleep until 9 or 10 every morning. But if I want to work here, I have to wake my butt up and hit it! ok, I sound like im preaching. Im just saying pete, (and to any other pete’s out there), get up, get off your ass, and get with it. obviously, there are people out there that will root for the underdog…people want to help people. Its in our nature. I, along with the people on here that posted encouraging words for you, should be a little proof of that. People want the underdog to succeed! But only if the underdog is putting forth some effort!