June 02, 2003 - 9:32 a.m.

Not-So-Drunken Revelry

Saturday night with the girls was a blast. We seem to have bad luck with the weather when we go out, though. It was rainy and chilly the entire evening, so instead of doing a "bar crawl" as we had planned, we only visited two places. The first was nice and quiet so we met there and had a bite to eat before moving on to another nearby bar with a dance floor. Once the crowds started to arrive, and the idiot DJ stopped playing techno (he didn't seem to notice no one was dancing to it), we made good use of the dance floor.

This particular bar has funky lighting, fog machines, and little platforms (about bench height) for dancing if you're an exhibitionist or just want to escape the possibility of getting elbowed in the head by someone's robotic interpretive dance. We mostly stayed on the floor, but occasionally hopped up on the platforms for when we were really feeling the groove. :)

Later in the evening, we hung out closer to our table because the dance floor was getting ridiculously crowded. it isn't nearly as much fun to dance when you're packed onto the floor like sardines such that you can only move your arms below the elbow and the woman behind you keeps impaling your calf with her stiletto heels.

Once we moved off the dance floor, our proximity to the bar and the path between it and the dance floor inspired us to create an amusing game. We stood in the usual circle, and the one or two girls nearest the flow of traffic would turn around and sort of dance at a passing guy and try to lure him into the group. I guess you could consider us some sort of frenetic, land-based Sirens. :) As the evening wore on and we gained some alcohol-induced boldness some members of the group even goosed their targets rather than just gyrating at them! Of course, the women closest to the passing guys also had their backs to them, so thos eof us on the other side of the circle took to shouting, "Now! Now, now, now!" when we saw an unsuspecting male approaching. I am sure we were making a scene, but we were having a blast.

The poor guys we victimized displayed a wide range of reactions to our antics. Some rolled their eyes and hurried away. Many grinned or laughed as they moved on to wherever they were going. A few would turn and dance with whichever Siren had caught his attention before moving on. A couple of guys even joined our circle for a while. Despite their amusing reactions, the best part of the game was getting those of us in the group who are a little more shy or reserved to join in. They managed to get me to participate pretty quickly despite the fact that I was totally sober! I think I am highly susceptible to the mob mentality. Either that or I just really appreciate the anonymity of an urban bar and the safety in numbers.

I couldn't believe how much fun I had and how uninhibited I was without being at all drunk. Not that I didn't drink. I actually had four different drinks over the course of the evening, but only felt the tiniest bit tipsy for a few minutes. I guess my alcohol tolerance has gone up. I certainly wasn't displeased that I didn't get drunk, though. I have no deisre to do stupid things, be hungover in the morning, or need my friends to tell me all the fun we had. Much better to just get hyper and have a fabulous time, which we did.

Yesterday, between being exhausted from the overnight with the kids and a long night of dancing and the torrential rains, I decided to pretty much fritter the day away. I stayed in my PJs the entire day, never left the house, and alternated between lounging on the couch and the bed. I watched a some TV (mostly the Food Network), read a lot (finished the last third of The Devil Wears Prada), and talked to Sam three or four times. That's highly unusual for us; we sometimes go four or five days without talking on the phone. That's partly because neither of us likes talking on the phone much. We do a lot of our communicating via email. Yesterday we just had tons of random things to tell each other from the hummingbird he saw at his feeder to the recipe I saw on a cooking show. It was nice to just chat with him so much. We often have a hard time finding a good balance in our phone conversations. Since we see one another so rarely, I always feel pressured to find plenty to say but without babbling. Often, over the course of a day, I think of a million things I could tell Sam, but when I actually pick up the phone to call him, most of those thoughts hide in some dark, inaccessible corner of my brain only to come out and taunt me in the middle of the night ro while I am driving the kids to school. Argh. Yesterday that pressure just wasn't there. Maybe because it was the weekend and none of us had major plans for the day, so we weren't worried about calling with frivolous anecdotes and useless trivia.

today's project: taking advantage of the extremely rare weather that actually feels like early summer - I already we