The Yard and Flagon on a Monday Night

on monday, June 29th I had a big night ahead of me. at 1am (so i guess that would make it tuesday?) i was scheduled to perform for a group of highschool graduates at their "After Grad" party, where presumably all the lame/square kids who couldn't get access to alcohol were going to be while their hipper counterparts were at bush parties, drinking too much and fearing the future while talking about how much they were going to "love" the "rest of their lives". "it's going to be so much better than the past four years!" they'd say. ah, youth. so much better, and yet also so much worse.

before i was due at the seniors' centre (this fact is perhaps the best fact about the After Grad -- it was held at a seniors' centre -- the kids were being fast tracked through adulthood) patrick and i decided to saskaspoon for a very, very late supper. we shook the ipod and got a bunch of restaurants that were not open that late at night. we shook until we got the Yard and Flagon, a hipster/student bar we were all too familiar with.

oh, urbanspoon, we KNOW we were limiting you with our need to go to a restaurant serving food at midnight. but there are a number of sketchy dive bars out there we've never been to. why send us to one we are sick of?

sigh. we went anyway, because "thems the rules", as i'm sure someone, somewhere, says.

we walked in to find the music very loud, and the tables very full. we got a tiny table for two in a corner. as we sat down, patrick said, "look it's that-young-person-you-supervise". sure enough, That Young Person was sitting with his friends at a table just behind us.

i see That Young Person around sometimes. At parties, or concerts, or, like that night, in bars. I always feel guilty when i see him. once we were both at a party and i went outside to share a cigarette with someone (don't worry, mum, i don't make a habit of it) and That Young Person was also outside smoking. We were both awkward because no one wants to smoke in front of their boss, and no one wants to smoke in front of their lackey. It doesn't really help anyone out.

so i always feel bad when i turn up in places where he is. i never know if i am supposed to walk over and talk to him, or ignore him, like a parent who's at the same movie as her teenaged son. i chose to ignore him. i had enough to worry about. the show, for one (if i was having this much trouble figuring out how to handle seeing That Young Person in the Yard and Flagon, how would i ever make jokes those new grads could relate to? (in the end it turns out i couldn't. a joke about the unibomber, for instance, which would have killed if the seniors' centre had been filled with actual seniors, got no reaction beyond, "how old are you, anyway?"), i also had to decide what to eat.

luckily on Mondays they have a "beer and burger" deal for only 6$, so that is what i went with. only i had a diet coke with my burger. patrick had a reuben sandwich with salad.

all in all, "the yard" as we locals call it, has fine food. it's better than most pub food (with a menu that includes elk and good veggie burgers, fresh veggies, good salads, and delicious fries), not as good as other pub food. it's doable it's a good place to go if you can't think of anywhere else to go, or you are due to act at the seniors centre down the street (convenient!)

i just now asked patrick if he had anything to add about his experience at the yard and flagon. he shrugged and said, "i wasn't particularly hungry". you can interpret that statement as you wish. i will add this: when you eat at a pub or end up at a party or concert with That Young Person You Supervise, you should acknowledge them right away. because as i was eating my pretty-good burger, my Young Person came up behind me, patted me on the shoulder, and said, "Hi, Jenny", in a voice that conveyed his understanding that i was deliberately ignoring him, and he thought it was hilarious, and totally unnecessary. after all, i'm his supervisor at the public library of all places, not his mother.

i almost wish i could have joined him outside for a collegial cigarette, but i had a show to do.