Just Dandy

The evening first began with our ginormous and fancy feast that Ming cooked for our flat. It was fun watching and being her little helper around the kitchen. The meal was absolutely delicious.

We had some interesting conversation after dinner. We really went into detail in our discussion about amusement parks. It was a delightful evening.

But oh, it didn’t end there. So around 10, Ming wants to go out. So we decide to go to this place in Covent Garden that’s supposed to be really neat. Mandy and Sandy. Those were our aliases for the night. Mandy = me. Sandy = Ming. The place was quite neat – the vibe was more mellow than a regular club and the crowd was young because it was student night. Plus, the music was great at first. Then, it turned into the regular Euro-techno-crap. But then, it turned back around to hip-hop. Oh, but it wouldn’t be a club in London without some ‘Footloose’ and Earth, Wind and Fire. It’s amazing how everyone knows the lyrics to the cheesiest songs ever.

The night continues with Ming and I, I mean Sandy and I having a spectacular time just dancing. Various creepy guys approached us and we kept having to save each other (I’ll get back to them later). I just don’t enjoy dancing with guys. I’m more of a dance-by-myself kinda gal – maybe it’s the personal bubble space thing, I don’t know.

(‘Ow’ moment of the day: This girl smoking a cigarette burned my arm with her cigarette butt. It still hurts and is red. I hope it doesn’t scar. That would bite.)

Anywho, Ming had been eyeing this fellow throughout the night, so finally towards the end, I just went up to him and said, “Hey, give my friend a dance, yeah?” That simple. And Ming was a happy camper for the next half-hour or so. I proceeded to dance by myself which I didn’t mind at all because like I said, I like that. But then, the two creepy guys I had been avoiding the entire night approached me at the same time. On top of that, another creepy guy joined the crowd. I was sort of getting scared and feeling trapped.

Scenarios

Creepy guy #1: (starts dancing towards me) Dance, yeah?
Mandy: No, thank you.
CG#1: Aww, come on.
Mandy: I don’t think so.
CG#1: (grabs my arm) Come on, I know you want to.
Mandy: Mmmmm. NO. (ignores CG#1)

CG#2: (tries to hold my hand – this is a big NO NO… it’s the hand for goodness sake! That’s personal!!!)
Mandy: (pulls away quickly - I wanted to yell at him, "OH NO, YOU DIDN'T!!!")
CG#2: Come on, just hold my hand.
Mandy: No thanks (ignores.)

CG#3: (just keeps trying to dance with me)
Mandy: (just ignores)

So finally after the creepy men one by one were out of the scene, I met a guy who watched the scenario with CG#3. He thought we were together. So we both just laughed about it.. Then, the Latin/salsa music comes on (I totally thought of you Ames). And it was so much fun just dancing. It’s so hard to first, find a guy who can dance, second, find a guy who can dance to Latin music. So we had a great time; he respected my personal bubble space and it was strictly just dancing and spinning. He was quite a gentleman and just so much fun.

Towards the end, I was tired, so we sat down and had a conversation about where we were from, etc. He was born in Ethiopia, but raised in London. Finally, I asked him what his name was (it’s strange how that was one of the last things we talked about) – his name was Solomon. I should have given him my real name, but by this time, ‘Mandy’ was just rolling off my tongue. After I told him my alias, he just smiled and said, “That’s nice. I wanted to know. It’s nice to know” So I asked, “Why didn’t you just ask?” He says, “I didn’t want to. It’s nicer this way.” It was quite sweet, one of those cheesy movie moments.

Overall, a dandy evening.