Up and at 'em

On Saturday Daisy and I thought it would be cute/sensible to catch the Stampede Breakfast at Chinook Centre before heading down to Coyotes to start the club crawl.

Ha! Right. Stampeding the night before definitely took its toll on us. Forget the breakfast. I needed those extra few hours to psyche myself up for the crawl. Let's do lunch instead.

Another reason my energy was drained: no sun. It was pouring that morning...so much so that I lugged an umbrella with me despite my desire to travel light. Luckily it fit in Daisy's purse. Our pleather jackets, (it was also pretty cold) unfortunately, had to be lugged around with us on the dance floor and wherever we went.

Tickets sold out pretty fast. Alas, too quick for Ms. T to come join us despite my invitation. Some of Daisy's group couldn't get them as well. In the end there were 8 of us; 6 for the most part, the other 2 floated in and out of the scene (They were a couple, if that explains anything.) The other 4 who joined us were a girl Daisy works with and her 3 girlfriends. Yes, if you count properly that makes us a group of 6 girls. Sure, Cosmo says that big groups of females intimidate men, but who really cares???

For the record, those girls rejuvenated my spirits and energy like you wouldn't believe. Hopefully this is not the last time we get to go clubbing as a group.

My mom used to preach to me about the "values of friendship." If you can believe, my mom claims that her and her girlfriends had a weekly girls night out. On birthdays, they would go out for dinner and a movie...no boys allowed. I found that a little extreme and would never ask my coupled friends to go without their guys on special occasions but apparently it worked for my mom's old gang. I argued it would never fly in this day and age.

These four girls proved me completely wrong. I was floored. I was in awe. Let it be known they are my heroines.

Like my mom and her friends, these girls claim they have girls night out every week (see, I'm still a bit skeptical). As of right now they're all single, but even when they were paired off they still got together all the time.

Now I'm thinking: is this a cultural thing? (These girls are East Indian.) Would my social calendar and social makeup be this way if I hung out with my fellow Filipinas? I have no idea. And forgive me for the racist-sounding remark, but in the "white" world I have been accustomed to through my friends, this female bonding closeness just doesn't pan out. Never mind if the whole group has the best of intentions, it just never happens.

But I digress.

Another reason why I admire them: they are all the same age as Daisy and I, and they still appreciate going out and dancing. Truth be told, if I couldn't listen to music, if I couldn't dance, I think it would be a death sentence to my spirit. Bonus points for those girls...they like to dance to the same music that I like. With my group of girlfriends we are absolutely at odds when it comes to what we believe constitutes a good time. I mean, when these are the same girls you've known since jr. high and high school a lot can change over time. We have nothing in common except for the fact that we've been friends this long. I can't chalk this up to a culture thing. I think these girls were just fortunate enough to like the same things at the same time.

So we started at Coyotes, follow that up with Ranchman's, The Drink, and Ceili's. Although part of the club crawl experience is bus hopping, Daisy wanted to take the same bus the whole day through. Can anyone guess her motives? Kiwi accent. Yes, our bus captain was from Wellington, New Zealand. It was all good.

Seeing as the quartet of friends like the same music as me, they weren't that thrilled with Ranchman's. A few of us were used to it, though, as we had met a few weeks earlier during our last venture to that bar. One poor girl, however, was definitely not feeling it. Even I was not feeling it, they had a live band playing the entire time we were there. And you can be sure that this band did not know how to play any of Eminem's songs.

Alas, I did not get to have my rematch against the mechanical bull. Seems like everyone with the crawl got the same idea since there was no "real" music to dance to. I don't think I would have gotten my turn on the bull before it was time to leave.

The Drink was definitely where the group came to life. We were all grooving, drinking, having a blast. As much as I gripe about drink prices I've always loved The Drink. It's come to that point in my life where one craves the clubs that have the older 20s clientele. I am so thankful we never had to set foot at Cowboys.

Ceili's was great but it was a shame it was our last stop 'cuz it brought most of the dancing to a halt. However, it was definitely dinner time and we all got to know each other a lot better over some noshies. The more we got to know the girls, the more it felt like "You know? This is what my life should be all about right now. You've got to relish in the great times while you have them. These girls know it. I should know it. I need to celebrate as much as I can while I'm still young."

Another thing I love about club crawls is the camaraderie. Random strangers (and not icky old ones, at that *grins*) will introduce themselves, chat you up. Not because they're looking for a hookup -- unless they're super drunk, I suppose -- but because you're all there for the same reason: to have a great time and make the best of it as a group. Already I can't remember the names of all the guys who introduced themselves and made us smile...and chances are I won't recognize them if I see them on the street (not because I was drunk, c'mon now) but they were all so friendly and non-scuzzy and terrific. I wish everybody could've come out for the crawl.

After we had tired of Ceili's nobody wanted the evening to end. We waited in line to get into Cowboys and made some more friends along the way. It turns out we never bothered waiting in line too long as they closed the down for a little while when the fire wardens realized the club was overpacked. We opted for Area 51 instead. This surprised me knowing how Daisy considers most of my RnB and hiphop music is crap. Alas, one of our new friends had lost her ID somewhere during our festive journey and they would not let us in.

The exhaustion was finally catching up to me and as much as I hated to say it I really had to go home. I was going to work the next day. So we split up from the happy quartet, hopefully we'd all get together again sometime soon (that'll be up to Daisy and her coworker to coordinate).

All in all I didn't get to dance as much as I'd have liked to, but then again I'm insatiable dance-wise. The club crawl was exactly what I needed to feel young again (or my own age again, depending on what your opinion is on "old"). I met some great new pals thanks to Daisy and her coworker. The guys on the crawl proved that they can be non-scuzzy and drink and party all at the same time. My oh my, it looks like I have 2 club crawls per year to look forward to from now on.