Things I Learned at Riley's Tavern, San Marcos, TX

Tonight I learned that Riley's Tavern in San Marcos, TX is a cool place. It's a great little Texas dive bar with a lot of character and a great "back yard" with lots of tables, as well as washer and horseshoe pits.

However, the other things I learned there make me never want to go there ever again. They are:

• If you're going to be loud and obnoxious at a bar, don't do it right in front of the band. Some people actually want to hear them and not you. Shocking, I know.
• The only thing less attractive than a guy doing chew and continually spitting on the ground where other people need to walk is a girl doing chew and continually spitting on the ground where other people need to walk.
  
• The only thing nastier than the smell of a cigarette is the smell of a cheap cigar. If you're gonna smoke a cigar, don't buy it at a gas station.

On the plus side:

• Beer is freaking cheap in Texas.
• Paula Nelson and her band freaking rock. It was nice to hear a few songs that I hadn't heard them play before. Of course I was outside getting some noxious fume-free air when Paula played my favorite song of hers ("Be That As It May") but I heard it, and it was great as usual.
  

These are all very important lessons. I'm sure more will come to me, and I will share them when they do. Now it's time to de-fumigate my clothes and scrape the nasty cigarette filth off me in a shower.

Did I mention that smoking cigarettes is a filthy, disgusting, putrid habit that makes everyone around smokers smell as bad as they do? No? OK. Smoking cigarettes is a filthy, disgusting, putrid habit that makes everyone around smokers smell as bad as they do. There I said it.