Cheers to Friday

"Culture shock." It's a term we've been studying in Human Society class. It's like a Chinese man walking into a Charlotte "cowboy" bar. My friends, that would be a nasty bite of culture shock.

Last night wasn't quite so much culture shock as it was a new experience. In many ways, I was so far gone out of my element that the usual sensations of nervousness or plain fear were gone. I actually had a great time! And for me, doing something "new" or "different" nine times out of ten gives me no "great times."

 Down the sidewalk, my friends from last year "Woodstock" and "Charlotte" have an apartment with two other roommates. Woodstock isn't so much as partier as he likes big get-togethers, especially if there's going to be weed. Weed... yeah, not my thing. It was the main reason out of many why I broke up with my last boyfriend. I do not find it or what it does to your psyche appealing. But, when Woodstock asked me over to a little get together he was having as we passed each other in the pizza line at the UC, something told me to agree.

 "Yeah, sure I'd love to," I answered with an easygoing smile. Woodstock and his roommate Charlotte are good friends that I want to become great friends, and not because I want Woodstock to hook me up with some weed or beer... heck, I don't have to be his friend to get that stuff from him. But, both of them are really good people.

I met Charlotte in English 101 class when we were paired up together for an assignment. Concidentially enough, our assignment was to write an essay on the other, so we got to know each other (on the surface) quite quickly. From then on, it was the nice nod and say hey every time we passed each other, which was often as I was always on the fifth floor with the boys and he lived there as well. We had quite a few things in common, including a love for horses and growing up in the same area of North Carolina. And, he's pretty easy on the eyes.

Everyone knows Woodstock by reputation. I met him officially in Global Issues class where I tried my best to nudge him awake as he worked off a hard night of partying or whatever he did every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. While he can be lazy and people may judge him as shallow at first glance (I can only imagine what my grandmother would say about him), Woodstock is such a thinker! He would have me read his response papers for Global Issues because I fixed his grammatical errors. That boy can write! And, not that he just writes correctly... he put so much into it! I was amazed and did not hide my amazement when I read his first paper, which made him laugh. I would love to sit down and pick his mind for a few hours.

So, with this in mind, I decided to head over to their apartment and check out this "party."

When I arrived, I was one of four girls, and there were four guys already well into the beer. Charlotte, the perfect though tipsy host, constantly hovered near me for the first 15 minutes making sure I didn't want anything to drink.

"No, I'm fine," I answered. "No, I already had dinner." "No, you guys go right ahead."
Soon, the vodka appeared from the freezer, and the mixing of juice, V8, and various alcoholic substances began. But you know in the time that I stayed (God knows what happened after I left), no one was falling over themselves, no one barfed everywhere, none of the guys were stumbling over me trying to get my attention. Everyone was really genuine and just having a good time, and I sat back and laughed and laughed. Woodstock is very conscious, even in a buzzed and "gone" state, of how I feel towards drugs and alcohol and was very respectful toward my wanting to remain clean. No one made me feel like a "party pooper" or stupid for not wanting to participate in the active members of the party, and it was great. I got to hang out, meet some cool people, and sit back in different company in a new scene I wasn't used to. I honestly don't ever remember doing that my entire freshman year, and isn't that the whole point of college? Trying out new environments, making new friends, and getting out of your comfort zone? Ok, when the guidance counselor taks about that, I'm sure he or she is not referring to a party with booze and pot, but I wasn't drinking, and I wasn't smoking. I was hanging out with a new group of people, and even though Charlotte swears that I didn't have a good time because I wasn't drinking, eating, or really talktative to a big part of the group, here's a message to him: Charlotte, I had a great time last night!!! Thank you for letting me hang! It was awesome!
 There was that one part though... when a few people went to the back rooms to smoke then came back to the front room afterwards... wow, yeah me and pot... I have a zero tolerance. So when this aroma began to permeate the front room where I was sitting... yeah, I got a bit giggly. But that could have been all in my head.

 Afterwards, I went to Dave's apartment to hang out with the boys as it was BAD HORROR MOVIE NIGHT!!!!!! Which is my favorite night, by the way!! We gather around a television and make fun of, crack up at, and make up our own dialogue to crappy, cheap horror movies. Last night's film turned from a slow, boring another-babysitting-night-gone-wrong to holy freaking crap, she's baby-sitting Satan's own child!!! This kid had horns!! And the "evil man" trying to kill the kid was actually a priest trying to get rid of the mark of Satan from this world. And the parents walk in... "Last time I saw that guy he had a hachet in the back of his skull in Translyvania," said the father, him being the person who put the hatchet in the man's head. These people are completely bewitched by this demon child and they kidnap "pure" girls because that's what the demon child eats: pure, female flesh! Yummy! Talk about a plot twist! Amazing!

 All in all, it was a successful Friday night! There was booze. There was loud music making the floorboards jump. There was meeting new people and socializing. There was hilarious movies that weren't supposed to be hilarious. And there were great friends! Cheers to Friday!