I bet you have a typical type of life. You get up in the morning and are upset that you have to go to work. So, when you punch in to start the day, you are sad – and when the clock strikes five, in most cases, you are happy to punch out. Am I right?

I know I do not have a typical type of life. While most people work from nine to five – so do I – I know, how is that not typical? I’ll explain. While I may spend eight hours a day giving you my thoughts, when that clock strikes five, I’m not going home, I’m going to work.

For home is where my bar is. I am the bartender of a homebar called “Paulie’s” and let me tell you it has everything, and then some. Enough beer stuff to stretch from St. Louis Missouri to Golden Colorado in a frat-like, treehouse-ish, I can’t believe this is somebody’s homebar. Dozens of people have passed through my door just this past month, and all of them tell me they love it here.

That requires work – see, so that is my job. While I may spend my days as the mild-mannered newspaper reporter Paul Wein, when I go home, I transform into Paulie, the bartender/host/comedian/singer/busboy/TV host/commentator/friend – and you know what – I love it.

I’m busier when I’m not working, and I love it. I love it more than my real job which brings home the bacon and this one does not, but I like it better than the one that does.

I like it because I have made so many friends that I have lost count. That means a lot to me considering that throughout my life, I hardly had any friends. Now I have more friends than I know what to do with – actually, I know what to do with them – I’ll fit them in this story. If I am the bartender/everything else at Paulie’s, then my friends can fit into one of three categories: Senior Management, Employees and Customers.

There are those few whom I hold so dear to my heart that I consider them Senior Management. There are those who have come here and done so much that they were hired as employees, and there are those who have either come here only once, once in a while, or have just been to lazy to fill out the job application, so they are customers.

If this is my job, then so be it. If I transform into Paulie, then I can only hope that I will be as recognized, honored and cheered for as all of the other heroes. If this is my job, then I’m asking myself for a raise!