A Night Out

Finally! A night out on the town. I've been wanted to go out for a while but it's hard to coordinate stuff, especially when you don't have a car. But this weekend was a double birthday weekend, Caroline and Noah, so plans were made to go to Winter Park.

I was excited to go and I even asked Dale, thinking he'd say no, if we could borrow a ranch van so we could all go together and he said yes! I told him I was the sober driver and he trusts me so it worked out so well! We left the ranch around 8 and there were 8 of us on the van and then Tyler, Paul, Crystal, Courtni, and Bruce met us at the bar. And a few of Max's friends from town were there too. So we had a good sized group.

We started out at a place called The Library. It was a nice sports bar and we had a good time. We had some yummy shots and I talked to one of Max's local friends for a while. This guy started college when he was 16! But he dropped out because it wasn't for him and he was in a band that met with Interscope Records which is like a HUGE deal. I mean, sounds like they didn't get signed, but they still met with the people from the label. Then after maybe an hour and a half we left the bar and headed across the street to an underground bar called Ullers. I'd been there once before. But since we had such a big group, we basically brought the party to the bar. They had a DJ who played some really good music and we danced and had a really good time.

And listen to what I did. So back in Columbia, they have this program called Cheers where if, when you enter the bar, you tell them that you're the designated driver, they give you a wristband and then you can get and bob-alcoholic drink free in the bar. So I decided to ask at Ullers. I just went up and asked the bartender if she'd give a free soda to the DD and she said sure! So that was cool.

But we danced and danced and hung out and it was perfect. A good way to end up my time here. And around 12:15am we decided it was time to go so Nate helped me round up the people in my car and it took a while to find everyone and get everyone upstairs but eventually we had everyone in the car.

And the car ride back was.... interesting. One of the girls seemed to be an arguing, angry drunk and the boys were just egging her on. Lots of loud talking and it was getting to everyone. It was getting to the other girl so much that out of the blue, she started crying. It was crazy. Drunk girls can be crazy. But Max was riding shotgun and so he tried to calm everyone down and just get everyone to listen to the radio. And I just focused on driving the huge van and not speeding or getting targeted by the police in our van and getting pulled over.

But lots of people in the van wanted to stop and get food so we stopped at a gas station and got snacks and then headed back to the ranch. It took like 40 minutes to get home but it didn't seem that long. And we arrived at the ranch and the girls went to bed and I hung out with the boys for another hour and then went to be around 2:15. It was a great night. I like hanging out with the boys and going out and having fun. And everyone was so appreciative of me volunteering to drive but I didn't mind at all! I sometimes feel like I've been a mooch all summer and this is a way for me to give back a little. But they wouldn't stop thanking me and that was nice. But I'd do it again if it meant we got to go out and have fun again. It was no different than when I used to volunteer for STRIPES in college.

But yeah, great night. Really happy it all worked out.