A very nice evening (SG1)

Last night Stanfords guy and I met up for date number one at Roux off of N Killingsworth. I stress the N because for some reason when I looked at the map before I left I thought I was going to NE and ended up being about 10 minutes late because of it. I must say that I arrived at 1700 NE Killingsworth on time though, because I do want credit for that.
So we meet in this restaurant and have one drink a piece and after chatting for a while see that if we are going to make the play that we have to go and we have to go now. So we stroll down to the car, drive to the pearl, find a parking spot right away and head into the armory. The show started at 730pm; we got there at 734pm and they would not allow us to go in…. I was so close! So close!! Haha
So from there we decide to go get something to eat. He asks me if there is anywhere in particular that I wanted to go but I wasn’t really hungry at that moment. I was thinking that I wanted to try something different since I have pretty much been everywhere in the pearl so he suggested this French place downtown (about 10 blocks away or so). Alright, lets get walking (he asked if I wanted to get a cab but my feet were not hurting so I opted for walking, I was thinking that it would make me hungry anyways). So we get down to the restaurant and guess what??? Not only is it closed but they are tearing the thing apart! So… what to do now? It was at this point that I remembered that I wanted to try Andina, in the Pearl, but didn’t feel like walking all the way back there and all the construction on the road where we were reminded me of the melting pot… which I have been wanting to go back to for quite a while now. Melting pot it is.
We get there, they say it will be about a 30min wait so we head into the bar and proceed to order some drinks. I had one of the most perfect key lime pie martini’s ever and he ordered a Manhattan. I will say that the smoked salmon cheese ball was quite good; the crackers were not… unless you like stale crackers that is (they were the type of crackers that are supposed to taste that way, because they were “fresh out of the package” apparently; after I made a comment about them they brought us out some more).
Dinner was good… I was really impressed how he took charge of a very, eh, difficult situation when it came to getting the food we wanted. Impossible you say?? Nothing is impossible hehe.
It was a very, very fun night. Conversation flowed, laughter was non stop. At one point we were having a very heating discussion about why Mars doesn’t have an atmosphere now and if there was water on the planet where did it go, etc. I found myself half yelling! Spewing out numbers, facts and figures that the average person doesn’t just know…. It was great!! Those are the sorts of conversations that I love having but never seem to find anyone to have them with…

It concluded on a very high note and I am still smiling today. Its funny, when I am in a good mood people seem to approach me more. I have had more “hi, how are you doing??’s” today by total strangers then I think I have had in the past 6 months combined… all because I don’t look like I want to kill someone today. Hehe. Makes sense to me… I’d be afraid to approach me too. But with this smile, finally the good side is coming out to play.

:)

Sipping Martini's at Midnight (least that was the plan)

Sometimes in life we get second chances. This was a second shot at a great birthday celebration for K.


So, we started off at Henry's Tavern for a quick drink and something lite to eat. After circling the bar many times we finally located a decent location to sit, right at the bar. I went and found a cozy location for our coats to hang as they pushed the three seats together in preparation of the night ahead. A Mango Mohito, Raspberry Drop, some other fruity martini which I don't remember the name of at this moment and we were good to go. Really, nothing much exciting happened here aside from the little incident with the female bartender. So I will move on quickly, as we did from this bar. (There was a little run in with an old friend outside the bar, some things never change. I am glad that I did.)

Next up: Blitz

This cozy little bar is found in the Pearl, and was the reason that I opted to not do the little black dress that evening. We went there with the intention of meeting up with a bartender friend for some free drinks. Up to the bar we sit, they order drinks, I, being responsible and not wanting a repeat of the weekend before, opted to not have anything at that moment.
We ended up getting there rather early, it was around 9pm, so there wasnt much going on but the bar started to fill up quickly. There were these two guys that were sitting across the bar from us that in my opinion, if you put them together, would make a great representation of Michael Moore, that wouldnt stop staring at us. Not one of us would make eye contact with the guys but stare on they did. Next thing we know we all have shots of tequila in front of us and the bartender informs us that the guys across the bar had purchased them for us. We sat there dumbfounded. I was about to pick up my shot, walk it across the bar and give it back to them with a resounding "No Thanks" when someone convinced me otherwise... Oh I think it would have been funny! But no, not this time. So on the bar our drinks sat until the guys finally gave up and left the bar. Once they were gone there was no point in passing up free alcohol so a lime and some salt on my wrist later and I was good to go.
So a little while later J's cousin arrives and say that we should go to this club downtown. This dance club where there will be food and we'll have a good time. Ok, that sounds good. I am getting tired of sitting at this bar anyways (even if torturing all the men around me was quite entertaining) and since yet another female bartender was giving us trouble with us trying to order food I was all for getting out of there.
We're told that this dance club is called Ground Zero and is on 5th and Couch. I had never heard of this place before, and when we drove past it and there was no line I was kinda worried. When we got to the door and went inside I... Well....... This is what we found:

Ok when I think of a DANCE CLUB I mean PHYSICAL dancing! Not on an arcade! Not only was it horrible, but there was no way that I would trust food from this place. It was the low of the evening that is for sure and if we didnt make it out of there soon it was gong to be a repeat of the original birthday weekend! J didnt know that this was what this place was going to be so she says that we'll leave in 5 minutes. 5 minutes was all we'd have to spend in this place. Ok, so I can deal with 5 minutes.
I had a quarter in my pocket from a tip I got from a friend at work today so I plunged it into a speed boat racing game and got 7th place. I felt like I was at Chuck E Cheese with E. That's right. Ok, by this time it had been 5 minutes and I had it. My stomach was at the point to where it was so hungry that it was protesting and decided that to teach me a lesson it was going to eat itself. So I grab a very drunk K and we went out to find some food. You see normally it is me that is the tipsy one and she is the one leading me on. Not this night. Arm in arm we walk, me the protector, I fit well in this position (just ask anyone.. hehe). Where to go, where to go, where to go.......... we look up, almost in unison.....

Portland City Grill
Somehow we always end up at this place.
Tonight we ended up at a nice window booth, eating teriyaki chicken spring rolls and eventually, after waiting for them to make us a piece of chocolate hazelnut cheesecake from scratch we enjoyed that as well.
All in all the evening was great. I went home with a smile on my face and woke this morning feeling quite refreshed. Altho next weekend I do believe that I am going to be laying low... Going out three weekends in a row has gotten to be quite tiring... but I really cannot wait until the next time the three of us go galavanting about downtown portland after hours... hehe

Solo this weekend

Don't let the name fool you..

Solo, the nightclub in the pearl, is definitely not a place where you will find yourself alone...

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
9:30pm to 2:30am

So this weekend I was invited out to above club by an old friend of mine.
My girlfriends were either:

A) Working
B) Sick
C) Out of Town
D) Stuck in a small town far away doing homework
E) All of the Above

So I let him know that I would love to join him, but really didn't know because of the circumstances. He told me to not worry about it, to come and hang out with him and have a good time. He then said that it was a Vegas theme, so to dress nice. That was all I needed to hear, being that I had a little black dress that was begging to be worn and last weekend's fiasco was still needing to be deleted from my mind I decided to just do it. And besides, I love an occasion that allows me to go out and buy a new pair of shoes.
Lets just say it worked.
I get there around 9:30ish and there is already a line around the corner.
I didn't want to stand in line so I go up to the bouncer and get right in. Didn't have to pay either, which was nice. I get upstairs and am greeted by my friend and his entourage and am shown to our section in the VIP lounge.
I then head down to the bar to get the one and only drink that I will purchase for the night.. my typical Mai Tai and this was where the fun started.

"You are GORGOEOUS, do you know that??" he said to me..
"I am not going to give you any more of a tip just because you said that you know" I say mischievously as I walk away.
I glace back and he was staring at me, speechless...

So I head back over to the group and start scanning the crowd. There were a couple of people that I knew from my days as a club hopper, I made my rounds and said hi. But there was no one that was catching my interest so I went back up to the group of guys that I was with.

I feel my phone going off in the purse that I despise since I left the little black purse that I typically take out in K's car last weekend. I really shouldn't have opened it. I should have just left it alone. But we all know how I get when I am drinking, have unresolved issues and my cell phone. It was a message from my friend telling me something that I really shouldn't have been told, so I decide to ask the ex about it. Yeah, that was my first mistake... But I couldn't resist. And that was when I decided that I needed a real drink.
I was with my friends brother, DS, who I spent a majority of the evening with, who could tell I was distressed and said that he would get me a drink.
"What do you want?" he asks
"I really don't care, as long as it is strong..." I say
"What about an AMF??"
"Eh?? Whatever, sounds good"
"You do know what AMF stands for, right?"
I look at him puzzled, attempting to associate the letters with words but came up blank.
"Adios Mother F-er"
"Ha ha.. yeah, that sounds great!"
Little did I know what was really in this drink, and after waiting in line for 20 minutes to get to the bar, I was in awe as the bartender made it, four bottles of liquor going at once. Another shot of something. A quarter inch of sprite. A lemon on the side of the glass, about $9 later and I am good to go.

Here is the official recipe:
AMF
1 shot Vodka
1 shot Gin
1 shot Rum
1 Shot Triple Sec
1 Shot Blue Curisso
A splash of Sweet and Sour.

Amazingly it tasted great. I don't know if it was just due to the fact that I wanted to escape my conscious mind that desperately or what. But he gave me 5 minutes to drink it and drink it I did. Even though I was half tempted to see him try and pry that drink from my hands after those five minutes were up.. hehe
So anyways, this was when I started dancing. The crowd had gotten dense, there were people everywhere. And lets just say that it can be quite fun dancing and dashing... not getting their hopes up because there is no way that I would go home with anyone from a bar but sometimes its great to just dance your troubles away.......
2am came.
It is the time when the men get desperate and try every line they can in an attempt to get you to go home with them. All they get from me is "uh, no thanks" or "maybe you should ask her (as I point to someone across the room) she looks much more drunk than I am"
I got my coat.
Walked back to my car.
And went home.
In my opinion its better to go home alone than to go with a stranger, no matter how lonely you are at the moment.