I had a really fun weekend...
This weekend was so much fun. Like, just good old fun...I almost feel like I took more than my fair share of it - but I am very thankful for it. :)
Lots of names and quick write-ups, since I will probably get confused of who was where if I don't.
Essentially, I managed to see a wide variety of my close friends and spent lots of energy just enjoying myself.... no worries, good times, and thinking about it just makes me really really happy.
Thursday - Challenger Happy Hour after work. Spent time talking to a whole lot of challengers I've met at BP and we made new friends. Got to see Ji, Jeanne, and Greg too. Kaila and I, and Luis (the guy on her floor) were the last three to still be there at 9:15.... the happy hour was only about 2 minutes from my apt, so not a big deal for me. All the Land-group people we met were SO much fun...they are crazy party animals...all of them. And I'd heard they were like that, but it's cool that those personalities are in BP....we get kind of used to the hundreds of engineers after a while. PSCM people and Land people are fairly similar in personalities.
Friday - Woke up at 6 am to a text message...did the short periodic sleep thing afterwards.
Tony had volunteered to drive some tools to Houston, and so he was going to be in town for a few hours. He got to my place just as I had to leave for lunch with my new boss in Chicago.
My new boss was very nice - and I've heard really great things about him. I'm SOOO excited to work on the team, and with the work I'll be doing...and in Chicago! This was lunch #1.
Lunch #2, I joined Tony and Kyle for lunch, and Kaila came a few minutes later. Then he, Kaila and I went to Starbucks. Kaila left, we waited for a while... then his old boss Christina joined....hung out for a little longer.
He left back to Longview, and I went to go workout.
Then got ready to go out to Deco with Monique. She was a Racial Ethnic Student Aid at MSU, and one of her students was going to be in Houston. So her student, Jigna, and Jigna's Houston-based cousins all came out to Deco after dinner.
It was so funny because when Monique and I got there at 11:30 it was nearly empty! Most of the people there were white - only maybe a couple on the dancefloor. We were pretty perplexed because usually the crowd is Asian, Indian and Black, with a packed dancefloor. Haha, started wondering if it was an Indian religious holidy or something....but it wasn't! Well, apparently 12:30 is the new 11:30 - by the time Jigna and her cousin's joined us, more people had shown up. We danced hardcore for like 2 hours...it was a blast!! Talked outside of the club for a good 30 minutes and I made it home by maybe 3:30 or so.
Saturday -
Let my body recover from Friday - I didn't drink or anything, it was more the working out on top of dancing and being tired... made a few phone calls and chilled at the apt.
Well, there were plenty of plans going on for the evening and I wanted to do all three. What started as one, maybe two plans with the entire group...somehow mutated into 3 that split everyone up. Two of the plans worked out.
So, first Allie, Kyle, Monique, Derrick and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Get Smart. This movie theater is such an AWESOME concept, I can't believe I didn't go sooner - and now I understand why a lot of guys refuse to go to any other theater.
Basically... you're in a theater with cheaper tickets, and menus for food and drinks - beer, liquor, wine..whatever (the food is cheaper than movie theater food too!!). Servers run around and serve you food and drinks throughout the movie.
Seriously, what a concept!!...not having to stand in a slow line to buy popcorn and a drink for an exorbitant price....and just being served through a movie??? And they had a pretty nice menu too - I just got an appetizer platter, which was good. Apparently the real food is only so-so...but hey, it's okay...it's really a movie theater!
The movie was pretty good - I was afraid the previews would've given it all away, but they didn't!
Then I drove downtown to join Natalie, Kathy, Jess, Kaila, and Heidi at BW3s. They finished eating and we drove back to Natalie's....and we've been planning to see her place for a while, so it was nice to see be there! It's in the new up and coming area of Houston, and by that I mean it's definitely going to be under construction for the next few years.
We took a cab out to Shot Bar a little after midnight, and okay... so... back at Kathy's bachelorette party in march, we had these name tags with stripper names on a cartoon male anatomy...well, we had been wanting to wear them again, so we did. We had a pile of names, and this time I pulled out Trixie. So...the bar was so much fun because people were already loosened up by the time we got there, and on top of that, everyone I was with was in a good mood too.
Like in sum of the random guys... there was one that was like "I'm a stripper, want me to strip for you? I have a business card..I need business" haha; then another I kind of dance-offed with, because I didn't want to dance with him...kept one of my friends in between and I'm not quite sure how we ended up dancing-off...fun anyway (he came up to me later to say I was the coolest girl in the club...aw, that's sweet); and there was a guy that started serenading Justin Timberlake while I was waiting at the bar. Between the 5 and 7 guys that came up to me in that two hour period, just having fun with all the girls... it was like, wow... this doesn't happen normally...
It was all just so go-with-the-flow, dance, talk, dance a lot more.... seriously just fun, and good fun. My favorite part was that I got to wear this guy's cowboy hat...livin' up Texas! Oooh.. and back at Kathy's bachelorette party, one of the things she had to do was get a guy's underwear. The guy who gave her his underwear was there!!! Apparently he'd only been in Houston a week when he did that. And there was this Challenger there too...I've had training with him before, but that was nice because seeing Challengers feels like the mark of a good crowd.
And then it was 2 am. We took a cab back to Natalie's. Well, this van-cab only sat 4 people, so Jess asked to go back in the trunk and the driver let her sit back there. It was fun to recap the night and Jess was saying "Drunk in the trunk!!" periodically during the trip. At one point, she was like "You have a cooler back here!! Do you have pastrami sandwiches in there??" And it wasn't until after Kathy busted out laughing that I realized how absolutely random that question was. Haha, what a good night.
We got back to Natalie's and went through pictures and chatted for a while..then all went to sleep. Except then Kaila and I got up, snuck downstairs to the bed Heidi and Kathy were sleeping on, tiptoed into their room and JUMPED onto their bed....Heidi's reaction was clasic "AHH! I seriously almost just pee'd my pants!!!"
Then Sunday I tried sleeping and recovering again. Then I went to the gym and swam for a while. Unfortunately, the gym pool is only half the size of the pool at MSU...so I have to make the double the laps to keep the same distance. Either way, I managed to do okay in breaking the mental barrier and counting more...did 50 laps! I need to work my way back up to 62 laps, which is the equivalent of what I used to swim at IM circle (31 MSU/olympic laps).
Also unfortunately, there is no deep end...so I can't tread water for 10-20 minutes like I'm used to... man, I was spoiled with that pool at State. When I move to Chicago, totally going to find a place with a big pool.
After that, went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Allie's 23rd birthday. It was her, myself, Erika, Mike, Chris, Chris' roomate Clint, and Kaila among little kids, broken machines and little games. Haha, it was still fun though. I hadn't talked to Mike since April, so that was nice. We played some video games, some basketball, air hockey...good stuff.
Then came home and crashed....
Woke up and back to work. There was something to do every single day....how cool is that!
And now a trip to the waterpark and tubing down the river is underway - both these things are like serious wants before I leave the south!!
Yay for fun times and fun friends! :)
Lots of names and quick write-ups, since I will probably get confused of who was where if I don't.
Essentially, I managed to see a wide variety of my close friends and spent lots of energy just enjoying myself.... no worries, good times, and thinking about it just makes me really really happy.
Thursday - Challenger Happy Hour after work. Spent time talking to a whole lot of challengers I've met at BP and we made new friends. Got to see Ji, Jeanne, and Greg too. Kaila and I, and Luis (the guy on her floor) were the last three to still be there at 9:15.... the happy hour was only about 2 minutes from my apt, so not a big deal for me. All the Land-group people we met were SO much fun...they are crazy party animals...all of them. And I'd heard they were like that, but it's cool that those personalities are in BP....we get kind of used to the hundreds of engineers after a while. PSCM people and Land people are fairly similar in personalities.
Friday - Woke up at 6 am to a text message...did the short periodic sleep thing afterwards.
Tony had volunteered to drive some tools to Houston, and so he was going to be in town for a few hours. He got to my place just as I had to leave for lunch with my new boss in Chicago.
My new boss was very nice - and I've heard really great things about him. I'm SOOO excited to work on the team, and with the work I'll be doing...and in Chicago! This was lunch #1.
Lunch #2, I joined Tony and Kyle for lunch, and Kaila came a few minutes later. Then he, Kaila and I went to Starbucks. Kaila left, we waited for a while... then his old boss Christina joined....hung out for a little longer.
He left back to Longview, and I went to go workout.
Then got ready to go out to Deco with Monique. She was a Racial Ethnic Student Aid at MSU, and one of her students was going to be in Houston. So her student, Jigna, and Jigna's Houston-based cousins all came out to Deco after dinner.
It was so funny because when Monique and I got there at 11:30 it was nearly empty! Most of the people there were white - only maybe a couple on the dancefloor. We were pretty perplexed because usually the crowd is Asian, Indian and Black, with a packed dancefloor. Haha, started wondering if it was an Indian religious holidy or something....but it wasn't! Well, apparently 12:30 is the new 11:30 - by the time Jigna and her cousin's joined us, more people had shown up. We danced hardcore for like 2 hours...it was a blast!! Talked outside of the club for a good 30 minutes and I made it home by maybe 3:30 or so.
Saturday -
Let my body recover from Friday - I didn't drink or anything, it was more the working out on top of dancing and being tired... made a few phone calls and chilled at the apt.
Well, there were plenty of plans going on for the evening and I wanted to do all three. What started as one, maybe two plans with the entire group...somehow mutated into 3 that split everyone up. Two of the plans worked out.
So, first Allie, Kyle, Monique, Derrick and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Get Smart. This movie theater is such an AWESOME concept, I can't believe I didn't go sooner - and now I understand why a lot of guys refuse to go to any other theater.
Basically... you're in a theater with cheaper tickets, and menus for food and drinks - beer, liquor, wine..whatever (the food is cheaper than movie theater food too!!). Servers run around and serve you food and drinks throughout the movie.
Seriously, what a concept!!...not having to stand in a slow line to buy popcorn and a drink for an exorbitant price....and just being served through a movie??? And they had a pretty nice menu too - I just got an appetizer platter, which was good. Apparently the real food is only so-so...but hey, it's okay...it's really a movie theater!
The movie was pretty good - I was afraid the previews would've given it all away, but they didn't!
Then I drove downtown to join Natalie, Kathy, Jess, Kaila, and Heidi at BW3s. They finished eating and we drove back to Natalie's....and we've been planning to see her place for a while, so it was nice to see be there! It's in the new up and coming area of Houston, and by that I mean it's definitely going to be under construction for the next few years.
We took a cab out to Shot Bar a little after midnight, and okay... so... back at Kathy's bachelorette party in march, we had these name tags with stripper names on a cartoon male anatomy...well, we had been wanting to wear them again, so we did. We had a pile of names, and this time I pulled out Trixie. So...the bar was so much fun because people were already loosened up by the time we got there, and on top of that, everyone I was with was in a good mood too.
Like in sum of the random guys... there was one that was like "I'm a stripper, want me to strip for you? I have a business card..I need business" haha; then another I kind of dance-offed with, because I didn't want to dance with him...kept one of my friends in between and I'm not quite sure how we ended up dancing-off...fun anyway (he came up to me later to say I was the coolest girl in the club...aw, that's sweet); and there was a guy that started serenading Justin Timberlake while I was waiting at the bar. Between the 5 and 7 guys that came up to me in that two hour period, just having fun with all the girls... it was like, wow... this doesn't happen normally...
It was all just so go-with-the-flow, dance, talk, dance a lot more.... seriously just fun, and good fun. My favorite part was that I got to wear this guy's cowboy hat...livin' up Texas! Oooh.. and back at Kathy's bachelorette party, one of the things she had to do was get a guy's underwear. The guy who gave her his underwear was there!!! Apparently he'd only been in Houston a week when he did that. And there was this Challenger there too...I've had training with him before, but that was nice because seeing Challengers feels like the mark of a good crowd.
And then it was 2 am. We took a cab back to Natalie's. Well, this van-cab only sat 4 people, so Jess asked to go back in the trunk and the driver let her sit back there. It was fun to recap the night and Jess was saying "Drunk in the trunk!!" periodically during the trip. At one point, she was like "You have a cooler back here!! Do you have pastrami sandwiches in there??" And it wasn't until after Kathy busted out laughing that I realized how absolutely random that question was. Haha, what a good night.
We got back to Natalie's and went through pictures and chatted for a while..then all went to sleep. Except then Kaila and I got up, snuck downstairs to the bed Heidi and Kathy were sleeping on, tiptoed into their room and JUMPED onto their bed....Heidi's reaction was clasic "AHH! I seriously almost just pee'd my pants!!!"
Then Sunday I tried sleeping and recovering again. Then I went to the gym and swam for a while. Unfortunately, the gym pool is only half the size of the pool at MSU...so I have to make the double the laps to keep the same distance. Either way, I managed to do okay in breaking the mental barrier and counting more...did 50 laps! I need to work my way back up to 62 laps, which is the equivalent of what I used to swim at IM circle (31 MSU/olympic laps).
Also unfortunately, there is no deep end...so I can't tread water for 10-20 minutes like I'm used to... man, I was spoiled with that pool at State. When I move to Chicago, totally going to find a place with a big pool.
After that, went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Allie's 23rd birthday. It was her, myself, Erika, Mike, Chris, Chris' roomate Clint, and Kaila among little kids, broken machines and little games. Haha, it was still fun though. I hadn't talked to Mike since April, so that was nice. We played some video games, some basketball, air hockey...good stuff.
Then came home and crashed....
Woke up and back to work. There was something to do every single day....how cool is that!
And now a trip to the waterpark and tubing down the river is underway - both these things are like serious wants before I leave the south!!
Yay for fun times and fun friends! :)