Well, I Can Strike That Off of My To-Do List!

I have pictures but my laptop is acting up, so I will do a separate post with pictures. . .

The 21st birthday party was fun and tiring and interesting and did I mention tiring! Rach was a rockstar by the way, Miss Thang rocked it with her eight month pregnant belly way better than my old self. And the evening started with me getting lost. . .

I have been to her house many times and each and every time I take a wrong turn. It never fails. I got to take a tour of Dickerson Road at one point all because I get the turns all wrong. Oops. I finally made it to her house and got to visit with the kiddos and her hubby. We had a blast just chatting and then I thought, man, I am ready to hit the hay. Then I remembered the reason I was there and that I couldn’t head home and get into my jammies.

We headed next door to her mama’s house to get the food ready and wait for the kids to show up. Yes, I called them kids. And after meeting them and listening to their conversations, I realized that I had nothing in common with them, period. Bonaroo? Please, I cherish my sleep, my bed and my shower too much to go to a music festival where none of that would happen or be there.

At 10:30 (past my bedtime, I can assure you) we loaded up on the party bus. Which is quite cool and should hell freeze over and I actually get married, I want to go on one of these for the bachorlette party. Of course, the party would start earlier than 10:30. The group was smaller than anticipated but that was fine for us since the chances of the group getting out of control or losing someone diminished with the cancellations. The bus had a DJ that played whatever we wanted, of course I wrote down a request for Def Leppard and AC/DC. Was it loud in there? Umm, yes and I have been known to rock out in my car, but the lateness of the evening coupled with my desire to curl up and sleep equaled a potential headache.

They wanted to stop at a Tiger Mart for some beer, so after much gawking my onlookers, the kids got their beer and off we went to the first club. Birthday girl requested a place called Play. Never heard of it, but I told the DJ that was their first choice, so off we went to Play. As we pulled up, I noticed two girls intertwined and pointed it out to Rach. She looked at me like I had two heads or maybe my dress had somehow fallen and my boobs were on display for all to see. Then she started laughing and said, “Amy, you know what kind of club Play is right?” Umm, nope, not a clue. “It’s a gay club, they have drag shows. Tribe is right next to it, Church St is the corridor for the gay community” I so didn’t know that! Oh goody, are we going in, cause I can so mark this off of my to-do list and ooh, I can blog about it too!

Well, let’s just say that with my soccer mom looks (I was in a madras dress, sweater neatly tied around the shoulders) and Rach’s pregnant belly, we were a sight to be seen. I leaned over and said, “Look, if anyone asks, we’re together and I knocked you up, k?” And then I got my first, real live look at drag queens in all their glory. And they were beautiful. Seriously, whatever good thoughts I had had about my body disappeared as soon as I saw the queens dancing around on stage and lip synching.  There goes those 21 pounds I have lost. . .all for naught because they looked fab!

I love to people watch so this is one of the greatest places to go! And there were people from all walks of life there, straight, gay, bi, you name it, they were there. It was nice to be in a club again after all these years and not feel like I was being looked at as if I were a cut a meat. I have been asked why the kids chose to go there and quite frankly, I think they made the right choice. No one bothers you there, young women can go there with their girlfriends to dance and drink the night away and not worry about some creep trying to hit on them.

After the show, the dance club portion opened. I was going to just stand close to the bar and people watch but then a song came on that made me want to dance. So off I went to dance with the birthday girl and another friend. It even snowed while I was dancing! Had I not felt like such a dork in my outfit I would have stayed out there and danced but I knew that all good things must come to an end, so I headed back up to where Rach was to people watch, giggle and know that my time as a club rat had already passed.

The kids then headed to Graham Central for their last bit of clubbing and we wisely chose to stay on the bus to chat. I hated that place when I was younger, so there was no way I was about to go into that place now.

I had a blast hanging out with Rach, seeing what is cool to do now but the 2AM bedtime is something that I do not miss. Sometimes when you get older, you start to think about the good ole days and forget what it was like to function on three hours of sleep or the fact that the night’s drinking is still quite with you even a day or so after the party. I still love my Jack and Diet but I know my limits and am thankful that just like my teen years, my 20s are firmly in the past. I love that my friends think a good time is getting together to grill out and chat. That their kids call me Miss Amy or even Aunt Amy. Their cuddles, kisses and laughter make my evenings now. And with another little Spence on the way, I can’t wait to see his/her personality. I also can’t wait to see my BFF’s little boy be born, so I can play with him and watch his parents smile after all they have endured to get him here.

Getting older can be a pain but I wouldn’t trade it for all the clubbing in the world.