Well it looks like girls night out was the most popular choice and I don't blame you for picking it. What a crazy night we had. Last Saturday I agreed to host one of the really parties that I mentioned before I hate to attend. My work bff started selling for a jewlery company called Lia Sophia and asked if I would host a party. I didn't feel like I could guarantee many sells but I agreed to co-host with another girl from work thinking between the two of us it might be more successful. The party was actually not bad at all. It turned out to be fun actually. The ladies all seemed to have a fun time and a few bought so it was a win win. Two of my closest friends from church agreed to go if we could leave the party and have one of our girls night outs. There are three of us who have been going out semi regularly for a couple of years now and a couple other girls that come on occasion. We love to go out and just talk over our drinks and when I say drinks I mean of course diet Coke for me and Dr. Pepper for Danielle and Torrie seems to mix it up a little she is a little unpredictable. Some times Coke, sometimes a diet, and on occasion she has a water night. We left the party and sat in Torrie's very pimp new SUV (I am horrible at cars I couldn't tell you what kind but it is VERY nice). We started talking options of places we could go on a Saturday night. We thought about movies but none of us could even name a movie that is out right now. Finally we all agreed we could eat and then there was the whole restaurant discussion (you need to know that EVERY time with out fail that we have gone out at night we have gone to TGI Fridays). We are total creatures of habit we feel comfortable with the menu we know the people who work there it is always where we decide to go but we always take like 15 min to get to that decision. So after the obligatory 15 minutes of, "we could go here" and "we could go there" we ended up at Friday's parked in our regular spot walking in and greeting our regular hostess Samantha. We sat at our regular table and started chatting about kids, husbands (nothing but good stuff Jeremy), jobs, family. It is always fun to catch each other up on our lives. We had to send our poor waitress (who I might add was new to us we had never had her before) away like 4 times before we were ready to pretty much order the usual. We go out as a group probably every 4-8 weeks depending on what is going on in our lives. We love to draw the whole thing out and really take advantage of the no kids thing. After eating our yummy food and chatting for about 1 1/2 hours we started saying how we weren't ready to go home yet. It was about 10 pm and even though we had church in the morning it had been a very long time since our last GNO. We had no idea what to do for fun in Amarillo TX at 10 pm at night for LDS 30+ year old moms. We started trying to think if there were any bars with live music we could go to and hang out but I had to complain that I don't want to go home smelling like smoke because I really didn't plan on showering the next day.
This next part is an explanation of my previous statement. Feel free to skip the next paragraph it does not have anything to do with my GNO story.
I know this is probably TMI but I HATE to shower. Is that weird? I love to be clean but I hate to do my hair again. I kind of have a math equation all worked out on my showers, basically if I took a shower after 12 noon and I didn't wear make up that day I don't have to shower the next day. If I shower in the evening (after 4 pm) and then put on make up as long as I don't smell like a restaurant, smoke, or anything else funky I consider myself good the next day with a refresh on the deodorant and freshening up the make up. I know I that is kind of gross but it's how I roll. I am sure everyone loves having a copy of my shower/math equation feel free to try it yourself, it pretty much works for me every time.
There was no way I was going to any place full of smoke because that would require a shower for me the next day and I just showered at like 5 that night. Danielle had this idea of trying out bingo. I asked if it was non smoking and she assured me that she thought there was a non smoking bingo hall in Amarillo. Torrie and I thought it could be kind of silly and fun so why not. We drove out to the bingo hall that was closest to us and as we pulled into the parking lot we noticed some very nice vehicles and even a couple of limos parked on one end of the old mall that is now an art center/bingo hall. None of us thought these cars drove people here to play bingo and if they were we started feeling a little under dressed. We saw a couple come out of the building dressed very nice so naturally we had to find out what was going on. We get in the building and we hear the 80's classic, "That's what friends are for" coming from some where. We started walking toward the music very curious as to what was going on. When we turned the corner we saw a huge banner with the words "Panhandle AIDS benefit" hung over two sets of heavy double wooden doors. There was also some huge ficus plants and balloons decorating the entry way. I went to the door and saw a police man there. Danielle asked if we had to pay to get in and the man said, "no it's late in the evening at this point you could just walk in if you want to". We all look in at the same time and see lots of people dressed up sitting at nicely decorated round tables watching a show on a stage. The stage was set up so it had a very long runway and on that run way was a drag queen singing along to the Dionne Warwick classic. I think at this point I literally clapped my hands in excitement. We looked at each other and knew that everyone was game for a drag show. It was very crowded around the run way so it took awhile for us to find empty seats. We sat on the out skirts and looked at the program realizing we missed the first half of the show. At this point we wondered how often they have such events and how we could get on that mailing list. It was so much fun one act after another with the results of a beauty pageant half way through. I was so upset that none of us had a camera I did however have my cell phone which takes mediocre pictures so I asked a lovely little "beauty queen" to take a picture with me. She/He was very obliging and we took a picture together. I have to admit I did have some self conscious moments standing next to this guy. I am a tall woman and that night I choose to go with the full make up and wear boots. I was slightly taller then this man in heels and I started wondering if people thought I was a man. I decided that most tall women would feel a little concerned in my situation. The ironic part to me is that here in the "Bible belt" I was able to randomly run into a drag show where as in crazy wacky California the closest thing I ever got to a drag show was working at the GAP.
Jeremy is chomping on the bit to get to the computer and check his fantasy team so I will have to cut this all short (er... wind it down). So no one is confused this is were I stand on the topic of homosexuals. I do not try to "shun" gay people or judge them either. I know what they do is wrong but as people I am sort of drawn to them. I have no close friendships with gay people but Jeremy does work with a couple of gay men and I am not going to lie I love to chat with the younger one. He is so funny.... I know its wrong to label a whole group of people but come on like 80% of all gay men are soooo fun to chit chat with. They make me laugh. Now I have very different feeling about the gay ladies... not such a fan. Am I being a jerk? OK I need to stop before I get in trouble here. Just as a side note on our way out of the show the three of us ran into Jeremy's boss and his *cough* boyfriend... (the whole boyfriend thing is what sort of weirds me out on the gay thing) I know that probably doesn't make any sense does it? They were surprised to see me but I told them we had fun and asked them to keep me posted for the next show.
To sum it all up:
drag shows = fun
gay men = fun
what makes a man gay = not so fun
