It’s been a long week but a good one. Tonight will be my fourth consecutive night working at the club until 4AM and the pace is starting to wear me out a bit.

My favourite image from the past week is from Wednesday night. It was below freezing as I biked up Maynard Street–I was definitely not in the mood to be going to work. Walked in the side door of the Marquee and headed for the stairs.

I was just starting to head down the stairs when I caught a glimpse of the bottom half of a familiar ski jacket and below it a familiar leg coming up to kick someone in the ass. From that little glimpse of ski jacket, I knew right away it was Claudette.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, there she was. She was laughing so hard she was stumbling around, after just having booted one of the bouncers in the rear. I have no idea what it was all about.

I grabbed her by the arm and said, “Is this woman giving you a hard time?”

“Get her out of here!” said Rob, the bouncer. I pretended to give Claudette the “chicken wing” towards the back door.

So I arrived at work and almost immediately found myself sitting at a table with Claudette and Larue, two of my favourite women in the North End, if not the world. It definitely put me at ease about being at the Marquee.

Every time I looked at Claudette all night, she was either smiling or laughing her head off (I almost suspect she might have been drunk).

And Larue is so beautiful that I just want to crawl inside one of her hugs and stay there for the rest of the year.