With drink in hand, you tell yourself not to panic and that you'll just make the best of it while you're there, but vow that it will definitely be a while before Dave sees you again.
Calming yourself, you consider your options:
You can go watch some others compete in T.V. trivia. Maybe someone will break a record for highest score tonight? You can watch Boise State Junior College compete against Southeast Louisiana Tech on ESPN 2. If you are a bit perverted, you can walk through the bathroom corridor and watch some of the guys read the sports pages while standing in front of the urinals.
If you are a music lover, you may want to fight your way through the crowds and try to find good standing room near the speakers, to hear the Grille's CD of the month. Don't be disappointed if you are unable to do so; you'll hear the same song again before the night is over.
As the night draws to a close, and your blood alcohol level rises, you find yourself strangely attracted to those you found less so, just two hours and ten beers earlier. If you're lucky maybe others are finding you a little more attractive too.
This article is not a "How to Pick up Someone in the Grille" handbook, and so I will leave the completion of the night to each's imagination. Maybe it works out, maybe not. In any event, there is always tomorrow night.
This being Harvard, the majority of us stumble back to our rooms with a possible detour to Noke's. We feel a sense of frustration and boredom at another wasted night (no pun intended) and are left with the overwhelming realization that the Grille is essentially, as one Harvard student put it, a "necessary evil."
Its necessity stems from the fact that it is where the majority of Harvard students socialize, and its evil lies in its domination, one which prevents the growth of diversity in our social lives.
The Grille is by no means a bar to be avoided entirely, but to be visited less frequently. It is an ideal sports bar to enjoy Sunday football and March Madness. With a good size crowd, but ample seating, food and beer, the Grille is equipped to provide a great atmosphere for avid sports fans.
It is not, however, able to satisfy the social curiosity and excitement of college students on an everyday basis. No one bar should handle such responsibility. Rather, in a more perfect world, this job would be divided among the several bars in Harvard Square.
If over the course of our typical three-day weekend. Thursday nights were spent at Shay's, Friday nights at Grendel's, and Saturday nights at the Grille, with an occasional night at John Harvard's or House of Blues, the result would translate into major degrees of improvement by introducing some variety in the lives of Harvard students.
By replacing the absolute monarchy of the Grille, with an aristocracy of which the Grille was merely one member, the monopoly would be abolished, and with it, the monopoly it has creat-