yesterday, while looking online for fun bars to go to in pensacola, the internet found us an irish pub that advertised live music.  whoopie!  this is right up our alley.  we arrived, and were greeted with this sign:

this was only the beginning of our evening in an alternate universe.

"what is that," you say?  that is...dollar bills staple-gunned to the ceiling and to every other available surface in this restaurant/bar which was ENORMOUS, and other claire got lost on the way back from the bathroom before alcohol was even involved.  this place was SUPER cheesy - not an irish pub like our favorite back in atlanta where the bartender/owner is from ireland and runs the place out of love.  mcguire's, here in pensacola, is a tourist trap and exists only to live out irish stereotypes.  the dollar bills are everywhere because you can give them a dollar and get a card making you an honorary irish person for life.

pause for you to stop vomiting.

we did not leave upon realizing the cheesiness...we just did a LOT of people-watching and a lot of "this would never happen at limerick junction back in atlanta."  the music was pretty good (and the musicians sounded irish, which we appreciated) and the beers were delicious (they brew the beer on site, supposedly).

after a couple minutes we realized the two men sitting at the table next to us were blind.  and that they come here a LOT.  they knew all the words to the songs and pounded their beers on the table in time to the music, they were friends with the waiters, and the band came over to say hi to them during a break.  i made up the story that these two dudes live at a blind people home that has an activities shuttle that drops them off at this bar and then picks them up late at night.  (we did not stay long enough to find out if that was true or not.)  we DID stay long enough for this to happen: the waiter comes by the table.  blind guy #1 whispers something in his ear.  waiter helps blind guy stand up, holds out his arm for blind guy to grab, and then proceeds to slowly walk him to and back from the bathroom.  (you will recall that other claire got lost going to the bathroom - it was in another time zone.)  the same situation happens half an hour later, as another waiter takes blind dude #2 to the bathroom.  truly just the sweetest thing.

and thennnnnn the blind dudes came over to our table and talked to us.  just hello and have you come here before and isn't the music great and we hope "you beautiful ladies" enjoy yourselves.  note: i was flattered by his "you beautiful ladies" comment even though he could not see me.  hahaha - whatever!  he could tell i was beautiful!  how they knew we were sitting at the table next to them, i don't know; presumably their sense of hearing, etc. is finely tuned...and i'm not exactly the quietest person.  we also think blind dude #1 had some sight.  i'm obviously a medical professional who can make these diagnoses.