Thursday, August 27, 2009

Adventure Day 33 Part2 - #12 & #6

#12 - Convince 5 other girl friends to go out for a night on the town
#6 – Have a shot of Tequila

Adventure Day 33 held one of the most memorable nights I would have in a very long time – it was going to be my girls night out, and a chance to try my first taste of tequila. What a night it would be!

As I mentioned early on in my 40 Day Adventure finding 5 friends to go out with was a huge challenge, or at least I was making it into one. You know how you have different groups of friends? Like old school friends, job friends, for me home church friends, maybe neighbourhood friends. Initially when I put this item on my list I thought ‘How hard could it be to invite 5 friends out for some fun? I have lots of friends – I can do this!’ … until I started making lists of invitees. That’s when it hit me. Girls aren’t always that easy to mix up.

Come on ladies, you know what I mean. We all have, and have been, the friend that was looking forward to hanging out with specific people that we know then we come to find out they’ve invited a bunch of other people they know. All of a sudden our quaint, safe gathering has turned into a block party and we have no one left to talk to. (Ok block party is a bit extreme but in the moment that’s what it feels like). We’ve also had those friends that we invite to a group function that feel like we have to ‘babysit’ the whole time because we know full well they aren’t the social butterfly we are (I’ll admit I’ve been this person too) and in the end we wonder if it was all that wise to have them join in.

You see this is the dilemma I faced, along with something else: I wasn’t too sure if I ended up inviting friends from all different areas of my life how they would all mix together. It’s kind of like menu planning … is it ok to serve grapes on a snack buffet along side of the chips and salsa dip? Is chocolate going to be an appropriate addition (of course chocolate can liven up any buffet)? What about orange juice being offered beside red wine? Will all of these various forms of indulgence compliment each other or completely clash and ruin a potentially great evening?

After creating and sorting through several different lists of people I had considered inviting to my fun night out, I had to finally just make a decision. Since my time was indeed running out and I was forced to choose, I felt no other option but to take a risk and mix up the party. I went on facebook one day, tired of trying to create ‘the perfect group’, and just started typing random names of people that came to mind that I thought may enjoy a chance to mingle and have fun with possible strangers. I invited around 11 people hoping that there might be five that would respond with a ‘yes’. I thought to myself ‘Surely it won’t be that hard to have 5 people out of this list that would want to come – I’m a nice fun girl’. Apparently that’s up for debate because it was no easy task.

In the end I got 4 movie goers and 5 Tequila watchers – and the perfect 5 they were!

Here was my plan: we would meet at the theatre to watch the new movie “Julie & Julia” (which was recommended by Sista and I had wanted to see), then we would travel across the street to a trendy little bar and grill for some drinks and appetizers (and most likely at least a taste of dessert). My final list of movie people were Shell Bell and her friend (whom I’d never met before), Sista from work, along with her best friend Mammy (also from work), and myself. We would lose Mammy after the movie and gain Smiles and Cricket (one of my home church leaders) at the restaurant.

I waited patiently at the theatre for my posse to arrive, nervously wondering how this night would play out. Would everyone get along? Would we like the movie? What would we talk about? How awkward would it be? I wasn’t sure of any answers but at that point was so ‘in the middle of it’ that I didn’t have a chance to care too much. Before long we’d assembled into our seats for the movie and none of my ponderings mattered much. Everyone was introduced and comfortably awaiting the show.

I’m not sure how it happened but I ended up sitting at the end beside Shell Bell’s friend (who fit in well by the way!), it seemed odd to me that after all of this ‘Eva’s night out’ talk happened that I ended up beside a stranger and in the aisle – appropriate I suppose after all of my lessons on meeting new people. Miss T was good at conversation and I thought to myself how cool it was I had been able to assemble the group necessary (including someone new) before my deadline hit. On to the movie…

Sista had told me she had just seen the movie and that it totally reminded her of me and my little experiment. I decided to trust her. Wow! She was dead on. If you don’t know, the movie is about a 30 year old woman who wants to shake up her life by cooking through Julia Child’s cookbook in a year and blog about it. I don’t know how many times through out the movie that I found myself thinking ‘Oh my goodness that’s me!’ or ‘Wally has totally said that to me before!’ (Regarding my blog). It was THE perfect movie (at least in my opinion) for my night out with the girls. At one point a line was given by one of the actors and apparently 4 heads leaned over and peered all eight of their eyeballs at me – luckily I hadn’t noticed (it was the part about bloggers being narcissistic – I have no idea where they’d get that idea!).

I think it’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed the movie. We then strolled over to the restaurant for some eats and there would soon meet up with my other friends. It’s at this point I wondered if accomplishing #6 on my list would be a good idea. You see I was exhausted from doing nights that week and starving (as I hadn’t had supper). I wasn’t too sure Tequila was the answer to my problems, however Sista convinced me otherwise (I was getting the impression that perhaps it was going to be an experience not only for me, but everyone else to see my first Tequila). Sista had brought her camera and was prepared for the whole event, so I went ahead and ordered my first shot. It didn’t take long after our drinks were delivered that the camera started snapping away, we got pictures of me with everyone there (along with me drinking everyone else’s drinks), as well as a step by step picture story of me and my Tequila. (Wally saw the pictures later and was a bit stunned at what I boozer I appeared to be, I really wasn’t, I just enjoyed a tasting, that’s all!)

I have to say, I had a lot of opinions given to me about what the Tequila would taste like, how much I wouldn’t like it and where to stop at. Marshmallow didn’t even want me to try it, another friend of ours (a veteran drinker) said he couldn’t take more than 2 shots at a time of it, and yet others talked of the horrible flavour. I however didn’t understand what the fuss was about. The taste wasn’t bad (at least not compared to other stuff I’ve had), I definitely felt good after one, but I could’ve handled another without a strip show on my part, in the end I made it out of the experience no worse for the wear. (In fact, I think Tequila would be choice of beverage if ever having to live through a torturous family occasion).

Once we had our drinks and some yummy appetizers the evening seemed to sail along. I can’t say that I remember what the conversation was about. I think some was about my blog (as a few were readers), some was about past drinking experiences (or lack there of), and maybe a little about men. I find it amazing that you can put together a group of women (the right ones anyway) and simply find a common thread. Everyone I had talked to afterwards said they had a good time, and I do think that if we got together they would come out again. Though none of them expressed their fears before hand to me, most of them did confess that they wondered how things would go and what the night would be like. The part I LOVE about it all was that everyone just took a chance on their Friday night to come out and spend some time together. In some ways I wonder why some of them would risk the only free evening they would get off from their regular woman/mom/work duties to be with people they barely knew - but they did, and I am so grateful!

As I mentioned before, #12 turned out to be one of my favourite events on my ‘List’ by far. It definitely ended up feeling like MY night. How many of us get a night to celebrate ourselves? Everyone was gathered there knowing the premise of the night’s events and came out to be a part of it – I couldn’t be any more honoured to have people that would do that with and for me! (And it wasn’t even my birthday!!!)

I am one of those people that feel as though you should never wait for someone to throw you a party or give you a compliment before you realize how important you are, just know that you are. I know people that get upset that they don’t feel loved or cared for in life. They want someone to notice them and do something special for them. Of course my hope is that everyone feels special in life without these things but sometimes it’s nice to know you are valued in extra ways. I’ve had days where I sat and wondered why no one thought to do something for me or why I don’t have surprise parties planned on my birthday every year (every year does count you know). But one day I realized that if I waited around for that it may never happen – why not make your own party then? Why not throw your own party to celebrate living life? Unintentionally that’s what I felt like I did with this little outing and I LOVED it!!! I was surrounded by fun, amazing women that ‘got’ me and weren’t afraid to celebrate my crazy firsts that many of them had long past accomplished. The part I love the most is that they lived it with me and shared my excitement – does it get better than that? Someone sharing your joy – acting like it’s theirs too? Well in my humble opinion it doesn’t and for those reasons I will cherish my #12 and #6 on my list forever.

The next time you feel like giving yourself a gift, do what I did and you will find out you are loved and celebrated more than you could ever imagine … 4 friends, 1 stranger and 6 hours = amazing things!

BTW: I totally went out with Smiles and Sista after (since I had no curfew) to another place to share a quiet beverage (mine was only hot chocolate). We did more visiting and I didn’t get home ‘til 2am – great memories. Thanks gallies!