Crush- the Night from Hell

[AlphaChiS2K]

So tonight was our Crush party...we had it at the Barking Dog, a really really sweet local bar. We had the whole upstairs floor to ourselves, a great DJ, and our own bar. Awesome place. I'm Risk Management Chair, so I was Sober Sister tonight. I got there early and gave the bouncer the guest list to have at the door- 206 people. Feeling very satisfied with myself, I get my water from the bartender and go upstairs to put the box of t-shirts by the DJ to hand out later (very cute: a shamrock and the saying "Some guys have all the luck- AXO Crush Spring 2002).

Well, yadda yadda, people start showing up, I'm standing at the base of the stairs going up to our event talking to my ex-boyfriend for most of the night- I'm making sure that people are basically staying upstairs and are ok to drive if they are leaving. The topic of t-shirts comes up, and I go upstairs to get my ex-boyfriend one. Box isn't there. Mild heart attack. Search all around the upstairs- box still isn't there. So now 150 t-shirts are missing as well as my purse, which was at the bottom of the box since there was no coat room. Now, I start to panic. $1400 in t-shirts.... my California drivers license and credit cards... and I'm thinking, what the hell is someone going to do with 150 t-shirts??? I get the one of the bouncers, who tells me he moved the box from one end of the room to the other- god knows why, but he did. We go upstairs to where he moved them- no dice. Box is gone. I freak out and our VP and I search the entire bar- kitchen, employee room, office, storage, everything. Nothing. We find my purse hidden behind the jukebox next to the kitchen. Everything is there, thank god, but our t-shirts are gone. I'm searching outside the bar with the owner in the bushes (it was 45 degrees and raining) for them, hoping some boy thought it would be funny to hide them... but nothing.

By this point I am close to tears and the damn photographer keeps getting in my face trying to take my picture. I yell at him to get the hell away from me, I am not feeling especially photogenic at the moment. I go downstairs to talk to the owner about the possibility of a staff member taking our shirts. This would be the point when a pledge of fraternity XYZ decides it is a FABULOUS idea to put his hand through the front window of the bar. He gets taken outside and schooled by the bouncers, and I'm trying to figure out who he is to see if he was on the guest list. I argue with his brothers for about 10 minutes before they'll tell me his real last name. I check the list, and he's not on there. So the bouncers apparently weren't doing their job checking the list we had given them... but one of them tells me that my sorority is paying for the damage (a shaved-glass window worth about $3600, according to the owner). This would be when my heart starts trying to escape from my body again.

My ex-boyfriend, who is a senior in XYZ, steps up and hands over his credit card to the owner, and tells him to put the cost of the damage on his card. Phew. I'm telling the owner we have no liability because he was not an invited guest and it was the responsibility of the bouncer to check the list, and since that obviously didn't happen, it's their own fault. Right around now, the staff is herding everyone out the door, cause it's closing time. I stay and discuss everything a little longer with the owner and get it straightened out- he's not holding us anywhere near responsible. Okay. Feeling better.

I'm the last one outside with my boyfriend and some friends, and we start walking to my car. I see a group of boys in the middle of the road... brothers of fraternities AB and CDE. These two groups ALWAYS have beef with each other on some level, and this time was no different. Two guys are trying to fight, and the brothers are just egging them on ("Let 'em fight one on one" and "It'll be good." Where the hell am I, Fight Club?). Anyways, a pledge of CDE brushes against a brother of AB and AB comes out swinging. They start to fight and none of the brothers are trying to stop it. A cop car rolls up. Evryone is yelling "COP!" but again, no one tries to break it up. The cop busts them up and has them against the wall. SIX MORE COP CARS roll up and arrest the two fighters. This was all RIGHT OUTSIDE the bar, so the cops are asking questions to the owner, etc, and ask to speak to me because the CDE pledge is underage and very much intoxicated. He is on the guest list, but listed as under 21, so we're ok... it's the bar's liability at this point, it is just another bar fight.

But all in all, a crappy night. I found out later that the XYZ who punched the window broke not only his hand but his wrist and arm as well...

Something like this happens at every sorority event at my school... the fraternity boys come, and someone starts a fight. Last semester at our crush one kid hit another in the face with a beer bottle over an intermural football game, and the kid needed surgery. The two fraternities carried this issue to EVERY sorority event for the rest of the semester- at my roommate's Crush, 2 weeks later, the cops had to come with a paddy wagon.

Does anyone else have this at their school, or are the fraternities here just overloaded on testosterone? Who decides that punching a window (or anyone else) is a good idea? And WHO TOOK OUR DAMN SHIRTS???

argh. Okay, had to vent there. Thanks for bearing with me y'all!