By Lisa Simonson Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Feb 14, 2013 at 2:03 PM

"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee.com is back for another round – brought to you by Aperol, Pinnacle, Jameson, Fireball, Red Stag and Avion. The whole month of February, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun articles on bars and clubs – including guides, the latest trends, bar reviews and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!

I believe I've mentioned that I'm somewhat of a workaholic, but one job or 10, we can all agree on one thing, sometimes work just sucks.

You know the feeling I'm talking about, the days where everything seems to be against you; your phone stops ringing as you trip over your headphone cord to answer it, you drop half your lunch in a garbage can filled with your coworker's chew spit, you're late for work because you didn't know it snowed, every time you try to print the machine is jammed or out of paper, and someone drank the last cup of coffee.

Days like that and you spend the whole day wanting to smash your over-worked head straight into your cubical that looks like you got the short straw in the company cube draw. I don't know if this is a national thing, Wisconsin thing, or maybe an immature 25-year-old thing, but usually those are the days I want to head straight to happy hour and wallow in my self pity.

For me, yesterday was one of those days.

Of course because we are on this whole "the universe hates me trend," yesterday was also one of the days I had to work after work, which means I missed all the good happy hour specials. Go figure. Who even decided happy hour typically runs till 6 p.m.?

When I got to my second job the day ceased to improve. Dropped silverware right after it was washed, spilled sauce on my shirt, and knocked over chairs in the dining room at the exact moment the jukebox shut off. Clearly this was not my day.

Finally my shift was over, but instead of heading home I decided to try my luck one more time and see if a few cocktails could at least bring me out of my foul mood and cloud of self-loathing.

Hello Hotel Foster and all your hipster glory.

I chose this not so-on-the-way home establishment because I wanted a bit of consistency. One of my coworkers from Palomino happened to be working and I knew, if nothing else, I could at least count on her ability to make a drink. When I arrived, Lauren immediately made me a Gin Bramble, one of my favorites. I'm not exactly sure about the origin of the sweet gin infused elixir, but it's a hit every time. Somewhat sweet, yet somewhat sour, it really can't be beat.

To ensure that my late night happy hour was a success, I wrangled up two friends to join me. Neither had ever been to Hotel Foster and both were quite impressed with not only the flashy drink list, but also the extensive beer selection. A few standard classic drinks are even listed directly on the coasters (helpful when scrambling to figure out a decent drink order).

We all passed on the Old Milwaukee drink special in favor of a few higher-end cocktails. By round two, everyone was getting frisky with the craft cocktails, going as far as to ask the bartenders to "invent" new drinks. After pulling together an impressive something, one of my gleeful partners exclaimed, "he's an alchemist, no wait, a mixologist!" I promptly gave him a scathing look and wrist slap.

A few more friends arrived; while the bar wasn't packed it was busy enough for us to feel like we weren't the lifeblood of the place

The evening proved to be exactly what I needed – a simple way to wind down after a botched day at work. Cheers to hoping tomorrow doesn't involve falling, slipping or crashing into anything.

Lisa Simonson Special to OnMilwaukee.com

As a self-proclaimed aficionada of dive bars, Lisa Simonson knows a thing or two about drinking and our city’s bar scene. She now calls Milwaukee, one of America’s drunkest cities (coincidence?), home after growing up in world-famous Port Washington (“Step by Step,” anyone?) and spending time in both Minneapolis and London.

Now, back in her favorite city in the world, Simonson blogs about her adventures in Milwaukee, one bar at a time. Although her primary focus is sampling the best the city has to offer in beer, wine and whiskey, when not abusing her liver, Lisa can be found cruising on her bike, obsessing over Adobe products, jamming to her favorite bands or attempting to teach her cat to walk on a leash.