Under the Arch

• I went to Novaks again last night. I tried to explain to Will about how a lesbian bar and say a bar on the landing are a completely difference experience for a girl and so next week we are going to attempt a little social experiment to prove my point.;)

 

• The weather has been amazing the last few days and I'm sorry to see it go again, I can't wait for spring to truly get here.

 

• I'm finding myself more and more annoyed by the ex-boyfriend, though I'm trying really hard to bite my tongue so I don't ruin him even more for the next girl. I'm afraid that anything I say at this point would just be mean rather than helpful.

 

• I'm being promoted at work, but I'm not supposed to know and have to act surprised when it happens. ;) The new position is full time, more creative and should give me most weekends off. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan.

 

• I went to a craft fair today and bought a pair of earrings from a glass artist. She was explaining to me the process and I think I can make them myself, so I'll have to dig my supplies out of the basement soon and give it a try.

 

• Though something else is going on, I've written and deleted several sentences to say that I have no idea what that something is or if it is a something at all and rather than be upset, I'm mostly amused and curious to see what happens next. How's that for cryptic?

In the same night we found a doctorate of bats, Will and I also met a man we called "mysterious man" who was flitting about the bar, wearing a fabulous hat. We did eventually pin him down to ask about the hat and talked for a while about hats and Frank Sinatra. He invited us to another bar this week for karaoke. I love making new friends.

Some of the night is rather fuzzy, but I remember taking off my shoes several times, and I think I may have asked Will to hold them for me, poor man. On or off, they got many compliments. Here they are, on one of my favorite sites for shoes.

I met a volleyball player from New Jersey, with the accent and all. He was also an excellent dancer. He insisted that I MUST see New York, which then , of course turned into me giggling over Will and I living in New York ala "Will and Grace". This is the ridiculous stuff that pops into my head, people.

Anyway, a great time was had by all and I'm looking forward to many more nights dancing my ass off there.

 

Other things I've been up to...knitting. I'm in the middle of 3 projects, cuz it's next to impossible for me to just work on one at a time....a sleeveless shell, a hat, and arm warmers.

I watched last week's LOST on saturday (I know, I know, I was busy) and HELLO this season is screwed up! Ben kills Locke and makes it look like a suicide?! And then Locke comes back to life?! Then the other plane crashes on the island?! WHA?! Can't wait to see what happens next....

It's so funny to me to say that phrase. All the silly adolescent fantasies of the rock and roll boyfriend that now make me roll my eyes with embarrassment. It's ridiculous the things we think are cool way back when. Now, when I actually get to say it out loud, I felt like an idiot. ;) I was sitting on a barstool and a guy asked me what I was doing there, alone in a bar and out it came. "I'm with the band." Inside my head, I'm giggling as I explain to total strangers why that is so funny to me. Then, of course, I'm trying to quietly and unobtrusively listen to the music, when the band raises their glasses to toast my Saturday off work. As the room's eyes switch to me (ok, so maybe it only felt like it) I'm sure my face turned ten shades of red. (Thanks guys!) As I listened to music and sipped my spiked cider, I was also wishing I had an ink pen, for I was once again itching to record my surroundings here, in this place. ;)

There was the couple to my right, who lived next door and were shocked to see a man taking photos of two very naked women in another apartment across the street. Apparently, they stumbled onto porn production in our fair city. If that wasn't enough, a guy at the table to my left was shouting about republicans in strip clubs. (Nope. No idea what that was about.)

I dedicated my Saturday to being as lazy as humanly possible with T. (The guy with the cute dog now has a letter, he's moving up in the world. lol) We watched TV and cooked dinner and....that's pretty much it. I succeeded at my goal. ;) Oh, I did finish a new hat that I was knitting, so, you know, there's that. lol

Sunday, I spent chasing down a pair of shoes I wanted and making the changes you can see here. I'm still working out the bugs and fitting in all the bits of things I had before, bear with me, even starting with a ready made template I still made changes that I had to figure out as I went. Which means, I was working on it all afternoon and evening and I'm still not satisfied. There's an "about me" that's new and I updated the Naked Monday page to include all the posts.

Ok, that's all for now, I have work in the morning and should already be in bed. ;)

• pretty sure my neighbor stole food out of my grocery bags right off my front porch
• went to a meeting of the St. Louis Bloggers Guild this morning
• I joined, though I haven't put the badge up, yet
• I was hungover
• I don't think anyone noticed
• I had been out the night before celebrating a coworker's new job
• Her brother tried to impress me by buying me shots
• Vodka is bad for me
• So is Red Bull
• Did I say that vodka is bad for me?
• Good
• It bears repeating a few more times
• I had fun and hadn't expected to
• I paid for it today
• Naps are good
• Vodka is bad
• I now have hot dogs buns but no hot dogs
• I find that really annoying
• Typical....day starts out good and ends weird

After being a nervous twit about it for several days (one of my frustrated friends yelled at me over the phone, "Yeesh, it's not a date!!) I left my apartment in a new top and heeled sandals to meet MP at The Chocolate Bar in Lafayette Square. I had looked up the address from the website and studied the map (I have a ridiculous ability to "see" maps. It's weird and I don't know how to explain it, but I was a pizza delivery driver for a while and I rocked at it.), but I neglected to write down the number, so I knew that if I took a certain exit and went down two blocks and turned on Park, it would be there before I hit the park. BUT, for some reason I thought it was on the left, rather than the right, so I passed it and didn't see it. So, I knew I was in the right place, I parked and walked, figuring it would be easier to see on foot. MP called as I was walking and she waved me down from the door. We hugged and giggled, because how else do you greet someone you've been talking to for months but had never actually met in person? ;)

MP and I decided to get started with the drinking (and yes, I downloaded the menu at home, so I would be able to pick what I was going to order. am. FREAK.) and ordered a couple of chocolate martinis. And, as I said last night, took pictures before we even tasted them. Hee. They were delicious, but we'd barely even started when BOSSY arrived with her host, Tempered Woman.

Let me tell you, Bossy really is as gorgeous as she looks online, maybe more. She was so funny and just natural to be around, I would NEVER have been able to do what she has done, travel around meeting strangers every day, I thought I was going have a nervous breakdown and I didn't even have to drive, but for a few miles. We all settled in at a back table on their patio and just chatted like we had all known each other for years.

Over the next few hours, I met Angie from Fluid Pudding, Raquita from WOBL in Training(wise old black woman, how funny is that?!), Heather from Three Boys and Me, MP from My Second Journal, Sonrie from 1017, Jenny from Mommymae (it turns out that Jenny and I went to high school together in Southern Illinois, though we didn't know each other), Kelly from Mocha Momma, her daughter, Mallory, Tempered Woman, and her sister. (I can't remember her name at the moment, she doesn't have a blog and for a while, we were calling her Dooce.)


Conversation was fast and furious as we chatted about, I swear, everything under the sun. I found myself telling Heather and Raquita about my clothing woes and at one point, we all talked about my eyebrows, again.


With a short bit about The Chocolate Bar, I'll end this longer than normal post. Yay you, if you've made it this far!!!

More expensive than a casual night out would warrant, it's perfect for a special date or birthday celebration. The cheese plates were amazing and the drinks strong, I certainly felt like I got my moneys worth. My only complaint? The bathrooms, while completely charming and nicely appointed, are down a set of steep stairs and the bathrooms are unisex, so not marked with ladies or gentlemen. While it is probably more convenient that way, my inebriated self had the worst time figuring out which door to choose. ;)



To sum up....had a great time....food and drinks were good....company was excellent.

If you haven't already, please visit everyone else's blogs!!!!

Milk Chocolate Martini (yum!)

• I "rescued" my friend Randy from a bar where he was drunk and needed to spend more money to close out his tab. We were able to knock that out with a drink for me and one more beer for him.


• I drove us to another bar where our friends were waiting. (This was at the beginning of the night, Randy had gotten started without me, and admitted that he hadn't exactly "thought it through".)
  


• After another drink, I was dancing next to the table and trying to convince my friend Sarah into joining me. I can't remember what the song was, but it may have been Sinatra.


• This prompted, not one, but two older men into coming over to talk to me. One was very pleasant and quite drunk but backed off calmly when I politely declined a free drink. The other claimed he came over to "save me" from the first guy. When I walked away to get another drink(the third and last of the night), he apparently told the first man that he was my boyfriend and that I got a little "freaky from time to time". Yeah. These are the wackos I attract. I'm just lucky I guess.


• Illinois has instituted a new smoking law, so you can't smoke inside at all, which meant we spent a lot of the evening on the patio. (not because of me, I don't smoke)


• I left my wallet on the patio table and had to go back out to get it. I pulled one of those the door doesn't open but you keep going and smack right into it with your whole body things. I. am. winner. I don't think anyone saw, but I went back to tell my friends all about it, cuz that's how I roll.


• I stood on the patio and stared in wonder up at a tree in the back.

• The tree had one of those fake faces on the back of it that looked like it wanted to kiss me, but I was too short to reach. Yes, I would have done it, too, even sober.

Me: What are those trees called? the ones with the white bark?

Dan: A birch tree?

Me: Yeah, birch. This is the biggest fucking birch tree I've ever seen. Look at it! It's fucking huge!

Dan: Uh sure?

He turns to Sarah: She's in one of her moods, isn't she? (See, I told you!)

Good times, good times.

By the way, I REALLY don't enjoy the newest (prolly not new, could be I just noticed) technique of cutting a girl out of the dancing crowd and rubbing your body on her uninvited. When did this become ok? It is especially icky when perpetrated by THIS guy. (below)

Please forgive the poor quality of the photos taken with my cellphone, but I need them for...you know...proof. Um, sort of.