I thought since it was summer, I would be occupied with my new hobbies of surfing and sailing, and then the old past time, soccer. Not so. Not having a sailboat makes things a whole lot more difficult to sail. Weather and waves are determining factors for both the new sports.
Anyways, I'm back because I need things to do and people to meet. I miss writing too :(
So, let me start off with a little life story.
Beth Seitz Arroyo's Bachelorette Party 2010: Tampa Bay, Florida
I stumble off the plane into Tampa at 9:30am after basically four hours of plane-riding, airport-waiting slumber and back into the reality of my past college friendships and acquaintances. I was overjoyed and ignorant of my near future.
Jamie Willis ever so graciously accepted me into her home for the weekend, and chauffeured me around!
Fatigue and the longing for a body pillow could not escape me that day, but nonetheless, the morning turned into dancing.
I caught up with an old roommate, Charissa, for lunch at the Southeastern cafe. Good Times.
I came back and took a nap!
Frankly, pretty much nothing happened until, I don't even know what time, because the girls took forever to communicate and coordinate where and when we were meeting.
Let's just say around my normal bedtime, is when we finally left to join the wedding party girls.
The party participants primarily consisted of Southeastern Alum. Now, Southeastern girls are a different breed entirely from the rest of the college world purely in the fact that we signed a contract, and followed the contract (aside from a rare "hooligan") to not drink alcohol. That being said, while attending Southeastern it felt like most students were either priorly prone to radical religious beliefs against drinking entirely or they were being sucked into judging every action and mistake a person made involving that "sinful" activity.
That might be a little dramatic and I certainly don't have that feeling for all people at Southeastern. No doubt, there was a prevalent feeling towards that in my classes and in the general population. That Catholic background could have made my interpretation whack as well.
Regardless, the beginning of that night gave some merit to that. We went to Howling at the Moon which is a bar-club type restaurant that has two piano players taking song requests. Everyone belts out the songs along with them. Well, there were these buckets (almost a gallon?) of margaritas at pretty much every table with probably 10 straws--we ordered one. Our first alcoholic order. Two, maybe three of us had drank alcohol before (myself included).
The looks on the girls' faces were classic. Should I drink this or not? Will I be judged? Is this still taboo for me? Will someone find out? I could feel the peer pressure, the spiritual battle in the atmosphere.
I dove right into that Margarita! That gallon isn't going to waste--too tasty...and expensive for that matter.
Beth followed. And a few others (I think). They may have been pretending to drink because I could almost swear that Beth and I drank that whole bucket between the two of us. The other's sipped for the pictures.
It took a good while for people to get loose and sing; have fun.
The real party started when everyone became loose enough to have a drink and celebrate this weekend. We left Howling at the Moon; we went to a club and danced. I didn't dance much; I just got hit on by someone who was staring at me for 20 minutes. Poor guy; I didn't pay any attention to him and he went away after a sad attempt at conversation.
Then we went to a lounge/bowling alley. By this point, Beth had a little too many to drink; the other SEU alum had had one drink, and that was one too many. My eyes were on the heavy side which is usually my stopping point--I actually have a fear of drunkenness. So, perfect time for a whole group of guys to buy us shots--I couldn't tell you what of.
These guys, they were on their game; well, they were playing a game. Not sure about the well part. They were making the rounds to all of us, striking up conversations; hooking up was written all over their eyes, their drunken eyes. I was woozy, but I could tell that much. I had two come around to me, one didn't last long in conversation before moving on; the other....
Jay was his name. He made sure I knew that and made me feel guilty if I didn't.
We connected because he is a Marine; then he thought that meant we could kiss and "hook-up".
Italics = Me
" " = Jay
"Where you from?" North Carolina
"Oh yeah, I'm in St. Louis, but I'm going to be moving to NC because I'm being stationed there." oh, are you in the Army or the Marine Corps...or perhaps the Air Force?
"What do I look like?" ahh, I don't know; is there a look? I'd guess Marine though
At this point he goes on to tell me about being in Iraq twice and Afghanistan once. I could see past the drunkenness and into the pain in his eyes. I have no idea what has gone on in his life, but I felt the need to listen to him even with his current game playing. Plus, I wanted to hear his strategy of winning me into seduction.
It was somewhat amusing.
The next lines may be out of order and missing transitions because of my memory--they need to be included.
"so, I won't get you pregnant; you can trust me. You know. Us Marines; We good guys. What you think about hooking up?"
You do look like a trusting guy....when you're sober. I don't believe in this "hooking up"(I even did finger quotations); I have values.
At this point he was getting desperate, puppy eyes too; he proceeded to unexpectedly make out with my shoulder.
"You know you are a beautiful woman and we have things in common..."
Bam...this awkward kiss/lick directly on my shoulder. The shoulder of all places--I sneeze on that shoulder constantly throughout the day.
I look at him in astonishment and shock with a little smirk in there too. He interprets that as....
"Kiss me. I know you want to; I saw the way you just looked at me."
I am dead staring straight ahead in the opposite direction because he looks like he is about to pounce on my lips--I have never been so scared in my life.
"Look at me; look at me." No, I'm scared
Interpretation issues again.
Wham! Another make-out session with my shoulder. Why, are you licking my shoulder?
Alright, I'm done with this game; this isn't amusing anymore.
It looks like my wedding party has left; it's my responsibilty to hang out with them all weekend. I'm going to go look for them now. Nice meeting you, was it Jay?
"Come on, you know my name. You gonna do me like that." Yes. I need to leave.
He sticks out his cheek for a kiss and I refuse twice.
I'm only doing this because it is a custom greeting
And off to my friends for more laughter and witnessing to more crazy night. It was rewarding to see Beth enjoy the moments before getting married. Good times to share together.
On Voting for next activities:
I need to do some more research on what's coming up; then I'll post.
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