Blood and bier goggles

I got an education yesterday. The whole day was interesting.

The first thing I learnt was that I should go to the hairdresser more often. He makes my hair pretty and I feel good...and his stories of his nutty ex wife make my life sound positively boring. That makes me feel good too...well, you know.

On the way home, I got a text from my friend S (who was my neighbour when I lived with the stranger). I haven't heard from her in a while and she wanted to know if I wanted to see a movie with her after she went shopping. I had to find some clothes too, so I said I'd do that. She made me try on dresses. If you know me, you know I'm not a dress or skirt person at all. I think she thought I was a complete nutcase when I tried on one dress and said I was in the sound of music...and danced around the change rooms accordingly. I should have realised being stupid would get me into trouble. I have no idea how it happened, but I was putting another dress on when I scratched my chin with my thumb nail. Not really having much in the way of nails, I was surprised how much it hurt. That was till I saw myself in the mirror with blood pouring down my chin. Mmmm, yes. It hurt. A lot.

Here's proof. That's a chunk taken out, not a mere scratch.

For the next half hour, I was walking around with a tissue held to my face to try to stop the bleeding and I felt much like Norman Gunston (couldn't find a photo online, but Aussies will know who I mean).

You know that fashion sizes these days make absolutely no sense at all when you walk into one store and walk out with a SIZE 8 (!!) dress, but in another, you can't get a pair of size 12 pants to pull up, let alone do up.

On that particular occasion, I yelled out of the change room, "Hey, if these are a size 12, then I need to go on the Biggest Loser!" The useless git in the shop asked if I wanted a bigger pair. No, I want to smack you, customer-no-service person with unrealistic clothing sizes!

It was interesting shopping with another girl. She made me try on things I thought I'd hate and ended up buying. And coloured things. You're lucky to find anything other than blue, black, grey, white, or khaki in my cupboard. Sssshh, ok! I know I'm boring! Somehow she convinced me to buy a dress and at least 3 'girly' tops.

After a nanna-nap for 45 minutes when I got home, I made myself respectable, and with the skill of a magician, I made the bleeding cavern in my chin almost invisible and off I went. [skip a whole lot of meeting and greeting of other friend T's friends, and picking up and dropping off of same.]

We went to the European Bier Cafe in the city. There weren't many people there when we arrived. We went upstairs to the band area and were surprised when a group of serious looking goths turned up...then hit the dance floor to dance to 80s music. Funny sight, all those folks mixing it up with guys in suits just back from the races (horse, that is) and the regular crowd...oh, and the hen's party.

I learned (or rather, was reminded) last night that the amount of alcohol a guy consumes is equally proportionate to the right he thinks he has to touch you up or do something equally lewd. Guys, it's unbecoming! It wasn't long before I yelled, "Do NOT touch me" to some guy who thought he was in when I stood next to him at the bar. Dude, let me get my drink in peace!

I learned that the seemingly quietest and least available girl in the group is generally the one who will get hit on the most and will have to be taken home early, because she's had way more to drink than she should have. Five became two.

'Back off' vibes don't seem to work all the time either, I found. In fact, a guy's lack of ability to read the back off signals is in equal proportion to his alcohol consumption. More alcohol, less clue.

In the end, it was just myself and T. She found a boy she was interested in. He found her when he turned around and saw her literally pointing him out to me. I made fun of his name - not to him, though. That was part of my job as the bitter, cynical offsider. Or maybe it was too easy a target. His name was Clint. You work it out. I didn't say it. Just outwardly pondered that he wouldn't want to write the letters too close together.

Anyway, I was presented with 3 of his friends. I managed to upset and dismiss two of them in quick succession, never to be seen again. He asked what I did to them. I guess my back off vibe was effective those times. A third was presented. He introduced himself as the wing man, there to look after his #1. I presented myself as the bitter, cynical offsider, there to make sure T didn't get into trouble and by the way, as long as you don't try to touch me, I'll be reasonable. We came to an understanding that we'd do small talk while our friends got acquainted. We talked about cats. He said I couldn't be so bitter coz I was laughing. I said he shouldn't misinterpret my sarcasm. For the most part, I was nice to the dude coz he was respectful. He was lucky. I even offered to share my chips (so I didn't look like a greedy pig). Still, after the three of them had Red Bull and jagermeister shots, he vanished too.

I wasn't pleased with the next part. I wanted to go home, T wanted to stay. Normally, I wouldn't leave, but I did (and had to walk miles for a taxi that would take me home, but that's another story) and she swore to let me know when she was going home and when she got there...which she did. So it was all good in the end.

That wasn't the end for me. I have no idea what happened, but when I got home, I thought I was going to have to get myself off to a doctor. I must have bopped a bit too hard on the dance floor and put my hip out. I could not get comfortable, no matter what I did. OMG, it was the worst pain I've been in for a while. I went to bed around 3am and between that and the headache from the cigarette smoke, I was still trying to get to sleep properly at 6am. Unbelievably, I got up at 8am and somehow the pain was gone. Good thing, too.

Today has been up and down, but I won't ramble on about that. I'm tired of being whiny.

Oh, and tomorrow I find out if I got that job. Trouble is, I found one on Friday that I think I would luuuuuurv, so will have to call the guy and see if he would be able to hurry up the process on that for me. Luck luck luck vibes!