jackdied: Hey look: Douchebags.
bobsalive: Who? The three guys in the convertible?
jackdied: Yeah
bobsalive: I don't get it. Wait .. is that guy playing a guitar?
jackdied: and .. they're singing.
bobsalive: douchebags.

Originally this post stated the tickets were company freebies. I assumed wrong. You know what they say: don't "assassinate" because it makes an "ass" out of "I" and "Nate." Or something like that. More autobiographically I have a blind spot for knowing when to chip in or even ask if I should chip in. I try and make up for it by throwing in more the times I know I should and by occasionally stealing a tab. By way of for instance on the drive back I snuck $25 into the jacket of the $25 parking ticket bobsalive got while we were in the game.

Stealing a tab has a fuzzy etiquette and has all the possibilities for social offense as not offering to chip in when you should. At my brother's recent birthday his wife tried to pick up the bar tab (which was less than horrific considering there were ten people in rough shape) and one of my brother's friends tried to steal the stolen check. He meant well but you don't stiff arm The Wife. A good rule of thumb: don't steal in a room full of peers (it's Alpha behavior) unless they are very close friends. A good time to steal is when there is a mixed group of people and the total isn't large - everyone gets to avoid spending time figuring out if the bill should be split evenly or itemized. Always the best way to steal a bill is to grab the waitress before it hits the table. Otherwise you waste people's time doing math and it can come off as gradnstanding (Alpha bad).