Bachelorette Party

My older (& only) brother is getting married this Thursday.  Last night, I attended a bachelorette party in honor of my almost sister-in-law (K), and I had a blast!

There were eleven of us, and we started out having drinks and dinner at an Asian themed restaurant on their roof-top patio.  It was decked out with lounge couches, seats, stools, and lots of bamboo.  Despite it being about 100 degrees outside, we managed to stay mostly cool until 8pm, when we headed into our state’s capitol downtown area.

K did her homework! She found a place that let ladies drink FREE from 8-10 pm, with no cover.  So what if you had to enter it from the alley?  So what if there was no one else there?  The lights were neat, the bartender was fun, (he did a shot with K) and they really did serve free drinks- anything you wanted made with vodka, or champagne.

At 10 pm, as we were moving on, a ton of people started to come in- guess that was the magic time, because we had the place to ourselves until then.  Two of the ladies, who are mommies too, had to leave, and for once I wasn’t the first person leaving.  Another mom, whose kids are older, and who were spending the night at their grandparents was there, and I joked I could never out-last her…she is the ultimate mommy partier- never mind she just got done working a 12 hour shift! 

K. knew of another place, about 4 blocks away, where it was ladies night from 10-12, and again the drinks were free.  One of the girls in our group thought it was at a sportsbar when she heard the address, and when we got there, it WAS a sports bar, but again we could have our pick from anything with vodka in it, or beer.

We decided to sit outside, and after about half an hour there, with not much happening- except for guys watching TV, as they do in sports bars, we decided to go dancing!!  Yea!!

We walked another few blocks to a really fun 80’s dance place, where I actually went for my bachelorette party, way back when.  K. “snuck” me in behind her veil- it was pretty funny- I felt like I was in high school, trying to sneak into a concert. 

When we were all in (some of us were also snuck in, and others paid), we started dancing.  It was so fun!  I went and asked a few guys throughout the night if they would dance with K, and they all said yes.  At one point the DJ said all the bachelorettes could get up on the bar and dance, so K hopped right on up and started dancing. 

The only bad thing was their air conditioner was broke, and it literally had to be about 150 degrees in this place.  We could only dance for about two songs, before we had to go outside and get some air.  At least it was only about 90 degrees outside, with a light breeze. 

As I was sitting outside with everyone, I realized I had not been out dancing since MY bachelorette party at this very place, just about 5 years ago!  I can’t believe how much has changed in 5 years, and never, never 5 years ago, did I ever think I’d be back at this place, 5 years later, with two boys of my own.

At this point it was 12:30, and I realized we had walked about 9 city blocks from where I parked, and I had about an hour drive home.  So I said good-bye to everyone and we all agreed we needed to do this again, and not wait for another bachelorette party.

I walked back to my car, which was a little nerve-racking at that time of night- there were a couple places that were a little seedy, but I quickly got back to the area where the bars, clubs, and restaurants were, so there were a ton of people walking around.

I got back to the car half an hour later, to discover a $30 parking ticket for having an expired temporary license plate.  URG.  We have been so busy, we haven’t had time to go get the permanent plates for Joe’s car (which I drove), so I guess that charge, off set my free drinks, and free admission- oh well.

I got home at 1:30, saw Joe sleeping with Cole on his chest, who immediately woke up when he heard my footsteps.  He reached out for me, and it was so nice to snuggle with my baby Cole.  After he fell back asleep, I went and peeked in on Ryan, who was sleeping soundly.  I gave him a kiss and went to take a shower. 

Since I don’t get to go out very much, it made me appreciate and really value the time that I had last night.  Of course I don’t want to do that all the time, but every now and then would be great. 

I think I am realizing that it is okay to take time for myself and do things that I enjoy, and my kids will be fine.  It is so hard to find that perfect balance, but I think it is important to try, in order to fill the “mommy tank” back up. 

So that was my “wild” night of “debauchery”- can’t wait until I can do it again.