Really, It's Like I Was Never in Africa at All

Though, you know, I do have the next four Africa entries ready to go over the next four days.

It was a stressful week. I mean, one could certainly say that it was a stressful week because I'm impacting positive change in my life. That didn't remove the stress. And then the weekend, wow. I hurt today. Physically hurt. Yes, it was that bad. It can really be told in three chapters.

Chapter One: Fortunately, I am not pregnant.
Friday, I was approaching two weeks late. (Yes, I know, you will read this when you get back and say, "You totally told me before I left that we didn't need to worry." It's true. I said that. I just wanted you to have a clear mind while you were on your trip.). Anyway, normally in that situation, I would have just said, "Travel. Super high levels of stress. Late is normal." But there was a small margin of error going on, and so I was worried. And so, on Friday, I wanted to know if I could drink over the weekend with a clear conscious or not. Later, we will realize that I should have just stayed worried and not been drinking, but who knew. So I picked up an EPT test on the way home from work. The very act of buying that test seemed to spur my body into action a couple of hours later, but before that, I did take the test.

I am thirty-three years old.

When I took the test, my two nieces were at my place. One of them is twenty-one years old. One of them is twenty-four years old.

Me (reading directions that make the act of peeing on a stick seem like brain science level challenge)
This is a lot more confusing than I though. I've never taken one of these tests before.

BOTH Nieces
Oh! I have! Let me explain it to you.

There's so much wrong with what I just described.

I still love them even if they're apparently, ahem, more active than I would like.



Chapter Two: Hott Scott Joins an Exclusive Club
This was the conversation on Friday.

Hott Scott
I kind of want to keep it mellow tonight. How about we call K-rock and have A-train and Latchkey hang out around nine and we just open a couple of bottles of wine and then call it a night around midnight?

Me
That sounds perfect. I had a week from hell, and I have to go out on a rager on Saturday night, so I'd super like to keep it mellow tonight.

And see, that's how the plans laid out. A mellow night of just drinking some wine with some friends and being home around midnight for a full night of sleep and a productive day the next day.

And four hours later, Hott Scott joined a very special club. It's a club with a small membership, but unfortunately not as exclusive as it should be. It's the official "I Have Put Jocelyn to Sleep on my Bathroom Floor" club.



Here's how this played out: After holding my hair for an hour while I threw up, Hott Scott let me lay down against the cool tile of the bathroom floor and pass out for a while. Then he came back.

Hott Scott
Jocelyn, will you get up off the floor and go to bed on the couch or one of the extra beds?

Me
(Insert about a full minute of moaning.)
Nooooooooo.
(Insert more moaning)

Hot Scott
Do you want to just sleep here on the bathroom floor?

Me
(Insert about a full minute of moaning.)
Yeeeesssss.
(Insert more moaning)

And in the morning, I woke up with a blanket and a pillow and a neck ache from sleeping on the bathroom floor. You know what Hott Scott is? He's awesome for taking care of my drunk ass.

To be honest, I'm not even sure how it happened. I had four, maybe five, glasses of wine over a three or four hour period. I mean, that's a lie. Not a lie about the fact that I didn't drink all that much, but a lie about how I don't know how I ended up that drunk. I had neglected to eat most of the day. I'd had, like, two rice cakes at 2pm and that was it. That's how I ended up spending the night on the bathroom floor.

Chapter Three: And then there was Saturday night...
Yes. Sigh.

Honestly, you may just want to look at the pictures from Saturday night. That's a better way to tell the story. Click here to see the full set.

Not only was Saturday night Jess's bachelorette party, but also as I may have mentioned all three nieces plus a bunch of their friends were in town for a birthday party. So the plan was that we'd do Jess's bachelorette and then all meet up at Ghostbar late night.

Here are some highlights.

We started at Voodoo with a Witch Doctor and some steak.



We went to Chippendales for Jess's birthday. Yes, we did. And we all rolled our eyes about how much we're not going to dig this. And then...we were wrong. We were not only entertained, we were all oddly turned on. And I have a total crush on Bryan Cheatham. We all agreed that the best scene in the entire show is the "art scene" in which there is an unexplained bed, chaise lounge and motorcycle on stage and three separate solos about the sadness of being alone going on. I may not have laughed so hard in years. In between stripping, the men just look hearbroken. I recommend. I strongly recommend. That is all. So.good.



After the show, the entertaining, fantastic show that I want to see again, we headed to Moon. Where I will leave it at "We got our drink on. We got our dance on."




And then, the explosion of ghetto hit us at Ghostbar and the party turned up even more, and I can't even think about it, really.





And then I got home at 5 and the nieces were at least an hour later than I was. Rough. I have big black spots of memory. Literally.

Okay, and so I had dreams of going to LA next weekend, but today I was brutally brought to the realization that I went to Africa, and came back and pretty much had houseguests every weekend and went through a traumatic job transition and had a bad pregnancy scare and I'm just exhausted and I need a weekend of Zelda and tea and quiet. So that is what I will do next weekend.

And that is all. We resume Africa tomorrow.