21 February 2009

First Night Out with the LM Folks

Last night was the first night I went out with the LM folks. It was the most fun I'd had since Halloween!

Kevin picked me up around 9:30, we "found" and wagered our way to Jason's to pick him up. On the drive downtown Jason and I reminisced about how Jason's leather seat heater was on for a week before he realized it, haha! And this was in August!

Our first stop was Wall Street, but we didn't go after all (bummer because I've never been there and wanted to see what all the talk was about) and ended up going to this really neat place called Embers. It was indoors and outdoors, they have great drinks at a fair price, and the building's architecture is old Spanish! Beautiful place! A lot of places around here have the outdoor heater lamps like they had in Australia!

Here's the group (pre-Kiley's arrival) (Kevin, me, Jason):



The bought the first round with no hesitation. I had a delicious White Russian! Next round was from Kevin: Malibu and Coke (double shot as requested by one of the group, haha, I didn't know until I realized how light-colored my drink appeared). It was so good, though! We saw a guy wearing a sweater that had fake suspenders screen printed on to it, haha! Kiley arrived after his UCF baseball game wrapped up:



Embers played a lot of great music ranging from pop to 80s. The DJ was really friendly and played Mr. Jones for me and Kevin. We requested Take Me Home Tonight, but didn't hear it played because we left to go to The Lodge. The Lodge is downtown Orlando's equivalent of Harry's back at Purdue and The Down Under Bar in Brisbane: packed, dirty, cheap(ish), dancing, drunks and totally fun! Here's a shot of Kevin rocking out to some Joan Jett and the Black Hearts!



Kevin is quite a little people-magnet! He knew about everyone we bumped into, granted he's from the area. Here is one of us with his friend John:



The girls!!!



Me and Kiley:



Me and Kiley:



A few random thoughts about the night: It's Kevin, not Kyle. Just take the spare house key next time. Fun times being "that girl" in photos, haha! Making friends in the line for the "unofficial" ladies room. Being turned down with a flat no from the DJ upon requesting Walk Like an Egyptian, haha! Quarreling over the artist who sang Mr. Brightside (I was right, by the way, with The Killers' Hot Fuss album). Dancing with my eyes closed. Losing my straw. "Shooting" with the guy in the glasses. Mr. Photographer! Smiling at cute strangers on the other side of the crowd and then looking away as I take a sip of my drink. Zachary.

Awesome night out with some awesome people. I'm very thankful for my new friends, especially now with being so new to the scene. One of the best gifts in life is that of friendships.

-Amanda

PS: chat with old friend, Steve Bray:

him:
although I gotta say...I saw in your blog where you gave a description of harry's as old, dirty, and cheap...
I'm curious on your choice of word with cheap..

me:
hmm
that was more in line with the down under bar in australia i gusess
it's that weird culture of griminess but everyone loves it any way
i hope i didn't offend you
harry's is where the purdue nightlife heart beats

him:
no haha it wasn't offensive...just curious is all

......The point of adding this conversation was to exemplify that Harry's, The Down Under Bar and The Lodge are all places one MUST experience. It's just one of those things.

1 comment:

dingle said...

Apparently I am in a weird "comment to Amanda so much she'll short-circuit"-mood today. Anyways, Harry's and the Lodge sounds like aaawesome places! If you ever come round to this woodneck (haha, is that a squatlydoodle?) we have to go to Martins and Jekyll & Hyde, they are to some extent similar places, nicer in daylight, but the people tend to make it more Dub-like =)

And beiing turned down over Walk Like an Egyptian is just sad. Bad judgement-DJ is what we call that, what's the fun in that? Hey everybody, let's do that funky dance where we look like a poodle with spasms! Yeah!

Also, proud you were right about Mr. Brightside. Any girl who knows good music knows her Killers. Gosh, I have a video of Sara and Patrick downstairs in Boundary Street at what I think was Tour de Chambre or possibly Alice's birthdayparty, and they're singing almost all of Romeo and Juliet together almost without music, drunk and looking into each others' eyes and giving it all... Man that was fun. And yes, I do know that song isn't the Killers', but yet, I love their version, just made me remember that, lol.

And last but not least: "Smiling at cute strangers on the other side of the crowd and then looking away as I take a sip of my drink." THAT, is what fun is all about :) I'm going out with Mari, my best friend here in Norway this Saturday, and that's what I'll try to do, just for the fun of it.

Oh, about that, I'm betting my ass off (hoping more like it) that I'll be the only Norwegian commenting here, so I'll tell you our mottos. Our summer motto was "full er gull", where full=drunk, er=is, gull=gold (thinking about it I think we might have talked about the whole full meaning drunk, not full as of food as in English, dunno if you remember that). So in other words, it's as simple as drunk is gold. Usually, we sing and shout (at least I do...) this all over the place when we are in fact drunk, lol =) Guys are always charmed by that (or not...). But, we have a new motto. Mari just got single after more than four years and they had lived together and he was her biggest love ever and they work together and it's a sad situation. But she's the one who came up with the new one. It says "jeg er ikke laus, jeg er raus". Practically speaking, it means something like "I'm not easy, I'm generous". I'm guessing you might be sitting with your mouth open laughing right now, and it's not like we're gonna live up to it in the bad meaning of the words, but none of us are tied down and we don't have any strings attached right now, and we're gonna have fun and not stop ourselves from getting to know new guys and give a little bit of our self, in the social meaning of the word. Just felt like sharing, you know, from girl to girl, just a reminder to have fun but at the same time follow your heart =)

Okay, stopping my babbling now =) I'm heading off for bed. Have a lovely day hun =) XXXX (Four X, haha)