Call me a freak, but I have found myself working more in bars than I do in an office. And not just because I’m a nightlife reporter, or because the Creative Loafing offices are nestled between BUTTER, Wet Willie's, and Black Bear. Perhaps I really am a freak, but it’s just a better working environment than an office.

For starters, the bar ambiance is more fun to be in than a cubicle. And bar stools don’t hurt your back the way computer chairs do. And there’s a bartender on hand to make you coffee so you don’t have to do so yourself … or a cocktail. Pick your poison.

Sure, people always look at me funny when I pull out a laptop and legal pad on a bar. But most bars have free WiFi for a reason. And the annoying people who interrupt you to ask, “Are you working at a bar?” are the alternative for the annoying co-worker who asks “Does someone have a case of the Mondays?”

Employers should have company Happy Hours, the morale would be high. Though I am spoiled, and slightly jaded, from my days working at MAXIM Magazine back in 2003-2004. On Friday, the interns would turn the office into a bar and serve us drinks to our cubicles. Fresh out of undergrad, I hadn’t yet mastered the art of drinking functionally, so I’d always have to redo everything on Monday, completely defeating the purpose.

Some of the places I’ve set my office up at locally include Mac’s Speed Shop at Lake Norman, Yn2 Cafe, Pillars Pub, Rusty Rudder, Ed's Tavern, Loco Lime, the new Growler’s PourHouse in NoDa, and M5 (which is actually closing and transforming into Zink, which closed Uptown).

Nightlife is fun ... and you can utilize it to make work a little bit more fun too. But I don't suggest getting a drink from Wet Willie's when trying to do so. I went to go work on their patio and ordered a "Naked Willy" (their low-sugar daquari-slurpee selection), so that I could pretend I was at the beach rather than just across from the CL office. And a few sips later, I was too tipsy to get much accomplished.