tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48369017331273689982024-03-12T19:19:08.094-07:00A Girl Walked Into A BarA blog that helps me to exploit my recently acquired singledom by documenting and sharing my exploration of local Bay Area night life hot spots whilst observing the reactions to some of my favorite pick up lines as I cast them out among the bar and club going men I encounter.Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-51716646917876763472013-03-24T20:00:00.001-07:002013-03-26T10:16:01.424-07:00What the Hub bub's about at Menlo Hub, Menlo Park, CA<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b><span style="color: purple;">The Spot: Menlo Hub</span></b><br />On
Friday evening my coworker and I decided to take advantage of the 5pm – 7pm happy
hour at Menlo Hub, a stylish little bar/restaurant on El Camino in Menlo Park
that boasts an outstanding happy hour menu featuring $5.00 personal pizzas
(which are quite satisfying both in taste and size) as well as a few other appetizer
and tapas selections and $5.00 drink options including several wines or your
choice of a margarita, Lemon drop, martini, Manhattan or cosmopolitan. They
also host live music several nights a week, so it was a rare find- a place to
enjoy a sophisticated libation (or two or three or in my case last Friday 5 or
6?) in a classy fun atmosphere while paying hole in the wall prices. How quaintly
awesome! <br />
<br /><b><span style="color: purple;">THE LURE: a healthy serving of meat OR the beef slider that wasn't on the menu</span></b><br /> While perusing the menu, we put our heads together to come up with a pick up line
for the evening. As it turned out, our menus were actually a good muse for
crafting lurid lines. The “beef sliders” appetizer sounded like a pick up line
in itself. As in: “have you had the beef slider here? … ‘Cause I heard the
beef in it isn’t nearly as thick and juicy as the beef slider you serve up. I’d sure
love to get one of those in me.” As we were giggling about how that
establishment really knew how to put “happy men” in their “<b>happy</b> hour <b>men</b>u”, I
caught a glimpse of a tasty dish that wasn't on the menu, but seemed to come with two good sides (front and back): our tall, lean, neatly-bearded waiter. <br />
<br />When he approached and asked my friend and I if we were both 21 and when we both said we were, he seemed satisfied,
but my co-worker, who is 22, and still seems to enjoy the novelty of being
carded, eagerly presented her ID to him despite his not asking to see it. I couldn’t
be bothered to rummage through my pockets for mine (and didn’t want to feel old
compared to my young friend), so I didn’t offer mine up, but after he returned my
coworker’s license to her, our waitor looked at me expectantly with his twinkling green
eyes and said with a playful smile: “Well since I checked her ID, I think I
should take a look at yours too.” <br />
“Fine.” I relented as I fished my driver’s license out of my jacket pocket, adding with exaggerated candor,
“There goes my anonymity and sense of mystery.” <br />
“You’re still mysterious” he said once again flashing his adorable smile, adding that he was born a year before me. <br />
<br />
As we got to the bottom of our first round of drinks, my newly single coworker,
enlivened by the healthy splash of tequila in her margarita, mentioned that she
was a little excited about the idea of taking a dip in the local dating pool or
perhaps, as I teased her, letting a local date take a dip in to her. I offered to
take a night off from my own man-fishing to be her wing man, but she said
she didn’t really see anyone at the bar that was her type. I’d been so
dazzled to that point by our cute waiter that I hadn’t really taken stock of
the crowd, but as I looked around, it did seem like we would not be likely to hit anyone in our target demographic in that bar. There were certainly a lot of men there, but
the majority of them were probably between 40 -70 years old. <br />
<br />
“What about our waiter, he’s cute!” I offered to my co-worker. <br />
“Yeah he is cute.” She conceded.<br />
“but he talked me out of getting pepperoni on my pizza and now I really wish I
hadn’t let him. I want meat.” she complained<br />
Laughing, I told her that she should say exactly that to him – “just tell him
that he’s going to have to find some other source of meat to satiate you since
he talked you out of the pepperoni”<br />
She reciprocated my laughter and added: “Yeah, seriously, I should just tell
him that I was really hoping to get some meat in me and he’s just the one to
deliver it.”<br />
I continued to laugh, but I was starting to feel like a traitor to vegetarianism
at that point for harping so hard on the meat/ penis metaphor, but I guess sometimes you've just gotta take what you're given.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: purple;">THE CAST:</span></b><br />
We were still giggling as our waiter returned with the second round of drinks
we’d ordered. I looked at my friend expectantly as he asked if there was
anything else he could get for us. <i>What a
perfect set up, she better go for it</i> I thought to myself. <br />
<br />
“No, we’re good. Thanks.”<br />
She replied to him. <br />
<br />
“Wait, wasn’t there something else you needed?” I said to my co-worker, cajoling her
like a mother prompting her child to say ‘thank you’. <br />
“no. I don’t think so.” She said, clearly annoyed with me.<br />
“What? I thought there was something missing on your pizza.” I coaxed.<br /><br />
“Oh. Was there something wrong with your pizza.” Our waiter asked, brow furrowed with polite concern. <br />
<i>God, he’s so adorable when he’s thinking about customer satisfaction I mused… then giggled inwardly about how much
satisfaction he could bring to this customer.<br />
</i>Meanwhile, outside of my pervy brain, my coworker was telling our waiter
that she was sorry her friend (that would be me) was being rude, but her pizza
was really good. We ordered another round of drinks and our waiter disappeared again. <br /><br />After a sharp, “I can’t believe you just did that” from my coworker, we went
back to enjoying our drinks and talking about work, and were after not too long interrupted by a guy who’d been sitting next to us. He introduced himself and asked about our jobs... then he started leaning over and
jumping into our conversation </span>intermittently for the rest of the evening. He was nice guy, in his mid 40s and seemed fairly
interesting, but neither of us wanted any part of his beef slider, so we weren’t
too engaging with him, especially after the return of our waiter who, by the way, became even sexier to me when, he revealed that he too was a vegetarian* (which I decided was why he’d taken it
upon himself to talk my friend out of the pepperoni pizza and was therefore, I decided, both chivalrous and smooth). It was hard to refuse such an attentive, chivalrous, golden tongued, good looking guy, so every time
he asked me if I wanted another drink, I flashed him the most adorable smile I could muster and gave
a resounding “I sure would!” ( Which is one reason why hiring a super attractive waiter is an excellent business strategy for any barkeep). He
definitely put the hubba hubba in the Menlo Hub that night!<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />Disappointingly,
our waiter’s shift ended around the time when the "rock and roll band" (if they can even be called that after refusing my coworker's behest for them to play Led Zeppelin), started to play. He did say, before he left though, that all the tip he wanted from us was our phone numbers. The man was smooth!<br /><br />We of course obliged him, each scribbling our
phone numbers on the receipt when we go the check (but still leaving a generous tip as well), so despite the lack of meat, I think my coworker was still satisfied with her evening and I know I was! Which is why, I would definitely recommend to anyone that they should come check out the Menlo Hub and see what all the hub bub's about! <br /><br />*Apparently my drunkenness and smitteness deafened me when the waiter later recanted his claim to be vegetarian, telling my coworker the he actually loved meat...sigh...perhaps my quest for the perfect male specimen is not over.</span>Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0El Camino Real & Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA37.4535 -122.1830115999999912.070643999999998 -163.49160559999999 62.836355999999995 -80.874417599999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-60657096475593131682013-03-12T22:40:00.000-07:002013-03-12T22:40:39.789-07:00Finding Sanctuary in Marina CA<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">THE SPOT:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
Last weekend a friend and I took a mini vacation to Sanctuary Beach Resort, a
secluded beachfront hotel near Monterey, CA. As its name implied, the resort
was a delightfully peaceful and luxurious place to relax and get away. When we
arrived, the friendly girl at the front desk checked us in (even though we were
an hour early) and showed us on a map where our room would be. “A porter will meet
you in the parking lot to take you to your room and give you the keys to your
golf cart.” The front desk girl explained. <br />
“We get a golf cart?!” My friend and I both echoed back in delighted amazement.
<br />
“That’s right” The girl confirmed. I’d had no idea when I’d booked our trip
that we would be provided with our own personal motor-cart to transport us from
our beach view room to the pool, spa or restaurant in style. SCORE! <br />
<br />
As soon as we parked my car and began to unload our luggage, a gorgeous young
man (who looked like he couldn’t have been more than 22) with impeccably clear
olive skin and warm brown eyes pulled up next to us in a pristine white golf
cart. “Are you… Jillian?” he asked, reading my name off of a card as he got out
of his cart. “I sure am!” I said. He introduced himself and started loading our
luggage onto the back of his cart and then we zipped up a hill to our room. <br />
<br />
The porter unlocked the door and ushered us into our little slice of paradise
for the night. “You can help yourselves to that complimentary bottle of wine if
you like” he said gesturing to a small bottle sitting enticingly on a table betwixt
two glasses that glimmered in the sunshine streaming through our ocean view
window. “Wow, you really know how to impress a lady.” I said to the porter as I
took in the scene. He lingered awkwardly
for a moment before my friend took our room key from him with one hand and
slyly slipped him a five with the other. “Super classy execution on the tip
hand off!” I commended her after the porter had backed out of the room. <br />
<br />
As soon as he left, my friend and I adorned ourselves in the bathrobes that had
been hanging in our closet, curled up on the plush easy chairs that sat in
front of our ocean view window and sunbathed like cats while we sipped the
deliciously smooth cabernet sauvignon that had been bequeathed to us by the
hotel. The girl at the check in desk had mentioned that they put on a nightly bonfire down at the beach at 5:00, but that
conflicted with the happy hour in the hotel’s restaurant, which was from 3:30 –
6:30, so as we (mostly I) finished our bottle of wine, we decided we’d rather
have s’more to drink at the restaurant than chocolaty s’mores by the beach, so we
hopped in our golf cart and zoomed over to the resort’s restaurant and bar where
we each enjoyed a $4.00 cocktail and $2.00 appetizer before dinner. <br />
<br />
The restaurant had the usual steak house options and some sushi as well, but
seemed a bit pricey for what it was… even the climax of our dining experience,
the chocolate eruption cake, was not all that mind blowing. <br />
<br />
All in all, Sanctuary Beach Resort in Marina, CA was a delightful place to
spend the weekend and I definitely wouldn’t mind returning at some point, but
it’s a bit pricey and it’s on the coast near Monterey, so it’s the kind of
place you go with someone – not to meet someone. Singles just don’t usually
drop a couple of Benjamin’s to go on the prowl.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE LINE:<br />
I would like to tell you that while I was at this sandy vacation resort, Pick-up
lines rolled off my tongue like waves onto the beach… and it was high tide all
weekend long! I would like to tell you that, but the reality is, though there
was a vast ocean of material at my disposal at this coastal sanctuary, there were
really no fish in the sea. I honestly wasn’t too bothered by it though. My
friend and I had come to relax and catch up since it’d been ages since we’d
seen each other, so man hunting was not high on my agenda last weekend. That
being said, the pick up line generating machine that is my brain was still in
action so, if you happen to find yourself at a luxy beach resort here are some
lines I didn’t get a chance to cast out:<br />
<br />
Next time you’re cruising around your resort in a pimpin’ golf cart and you
happen upon some young sex panther of a man who’s walking down the road, why
not pull up alongside him and casually call to him: “Hey there. Can I pick you
up? ‘cause If you come with me, it would be an enjoyable ride for both of us.”
I can’t see any way that would fail. Especially if it was cold out or there was
a hill. Any dude would be jumping in your cart like a flea on a dog. <br />
<br />
A line I’d considered using if there had been any enticing prospects down by
the bonfire was: <br />
“Wow, these s’mores are good. But chocolate and marshmallows aren’t what I really
want s’more of in my mouth… I bet you can guess what I’m really after!” and
then when they get all awkward and blush or whatever, be like “Graham crackers!”
Boys like to be teased like that. It makes them think you’re just kind of easy at
first but then they’re like: “oh you’re easy, but you’re also kinda funny!” and
then they know they’ve hit the jack pot.<br />
<br />
Or if a sexy AAA guy shows up to jump your car after you’ve accidentally left
the lights on all day long ‘cause you drove in on a road that instructed you to
turn your headlights on even during the day, it’s the perfect opportunity to pull
out the dialogue that you’ve been keeping in your back pocket for just such an
occasion: when a sexy mechanic shows up to service your vehicle. Mine goes a
little something like this:<br />
“Oh my! You’re just who I was hoping would show up to give me a jump tonight. I
can’t wait for you to get out your equipment and start revving your engine, ‘cause
I know it’s going to really get me going!” <br />
and no. I did not steal any of that from a bad porno… but I definitely think I
could qualify for an award at the adult entertainment Oscars if I ever decided
to knuckle down and put out a full script. I have no immediate plans to do so
though.<br />
<br />
And if you are ever in a restaurant with a cute waiter and they offer chocolate
eruption cake on their menu… just order that… he’ll know what you’re after. <br />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0Marina, CA, USA36.684402899999988 -121.8021729999999836.582539899999986 -121.96353449999998 36.786265899999989 -121.64081149999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-82453276299627420742013-03-02T11:57:00.004-08:002013-03-07T21:30:36.469-08:00Gotta be a little Boulder to get Belayed at City Beach Fremont, CA <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;">THE LURE:</span><br />
Going behind a rock to get boulder … maybe even get belayed</b> <br />
When I first heard about City Beach in Fremont, a wonderland that boast both a
bar AND a rock climbing gym, it seemed too good to be true! Drinking and
Climbing? A place to pick up a tall lean rock climber after having a tall cold beer? NICE! <br />
<br />
There’d been a short
phase in my life where I fancied myself a bit of a climber, that is to say
after months of trying, I managed (one time) to completed a V1 bouldering
course (and if that means nothing to you, don’t worry because knowing what a V1
bouldering course is just means you know what a “mole hill” the “mountain” I conquered was). Though I did climb around on some boulders back in the day, I’ve never done much climbing where ropes were required, however, I was optimistic
that when I hit City Beach I could make up for my lack of experience in hooking lines to rocks, with
my skill at hooking in climbers with lines. I didn't think it would be physically possible for one of those lanky rock climbing guys to
resist me after I posed the adorable question: “Wanna go behind a rock and get
a little bolder?” But if I felt like something a little sexier was in order, I’d figured I'd just go up to a sporty looking guy at the bar and ask: “Do you rock climb? ‘cause I’m
really lookin’ to get belayed tonight?”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With those irresistible lines to hang on,
I figured any climber in that bar-gym would love to hoist me up<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and tell me what to grab a hold of. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: purple;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE CAST:</b> </span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">You know how people don’t really go to
the beach at night …</b><br />
As it turns out if, (like I was), you were thinking of going to City Beach one
of these nights to hook up with a hot single climber in the prime of his life,
you’re probably going to be disappointed (like I was). It’s not that kind of
place. I had an inkling that it might not be the best joint to find a mountaineer
to mount when I read on their website that: “Saturday night is family fun
night”, but I told myself,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> that’s fine
Saturday is for Families so Friday must be for crazy sexy singles. </i>It wasn’t.
I guess I’d just been so dazzled by the climbing related pickup line gems that I wanted
rock at this bar that I couldn't bring myself to choose another spot last night. <br />
<br />
My co-worker and I rolled into city Beach around 9:30PM yesterday and the bar was pretty much empty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a
group of older gentlemen speaking in an Asian dialect that I couldn’t identify
at a tall table in one corner of the room, two couples sitting at the bar … and us. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hmm not a good sign</i> I thought to myself
as my friend and I ordered a couple of beers and a bite to eat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured maybe after we’d finished our beers
we could hit up the climbing area to see what the climbers in there were up
to. <br />
<br />
There was a sign in the bar that said: “Don’t Drink Then Rock Climb” which seemed
like some rock solid advice for novices, but I figured with my weeks of
experience from years ago I could handle some beer and some bouldering. Unfortunately
though, I didn’t have a chance to ignore their don’t drink and climb rule because
the Rock Climbing area closed at 10:00. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bummer!
</i>My coworker and I lingered in the Bar area until around 10:30. Waiting for
the climbers to come in for a beer after their rocky night, but none did. I was
disappointed that I didn’t get to climb up the rock wall that night, but they I was quite satisfied with the mountain of fries I conquered. They may not offer
a heapin’ helpin’ of happnin’ hotties at City Beach, but believe me, they certainly serve up ample
supplies when it comes to french fries. <br />
<br />
City Beach has more to offer than just the bar and rock climbing gym though. They
also have quite a few pool and ping pong tables as well as bocce ball, a
basketball court and a few other various activities. My coworker and I decided
to play pool and check out the inhabitants of the game table area. Other than an
elderly guy and his young grandson quite skillfully batting around a ping pong ball, the folks
that were playing pool and ping pong seemed to mostly be couples who were out
on a date. Since minors and seniors are not really in the demographic I’m looking to rope in with my lines, I did not going to even get to cast a single line out.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Disappointing</i>. I did enjoy playing
pool with my friend though… BTW, a
fun thing to say to a friend that you’re playing pool with after she sinks two or
more shots in a row is: “oh crap, did you just get some butter on your pants? …
‘cause you are on a roll right now!”<br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;">THE SPOT:</span><br />
City Beach, Fremont, CA</b><br />
They have more dining options than a typical bar, even offering a pretty tasty
veggie burger, adorably named the tree hugger : ) <br />
<br />
They have a full bar with good prices on drinks. Plus there are a multitude of
activities to participate in: pool, ping pong, basketball bocce ball, and giant
chess set, rock climbing and even inflatable slides. No music or dancing
though. Also there was a pretty gross stain on the pool table my friend and I
used + my cue kept getting stuck in the net separating our pool table from the
B-ball court.<br />
<br />
Another element that makes the bar less appealing for young singles is that they allow minors. I love cute inquisitive kids as much as the next chick, but when they are running around asking you about each shot you take when playing pool …in a bar at 11:00PM… it’s less adorable than normal. Plus who wants to worry about accidentally throwing out a C U Next Tuesdays or dropping an F bomb when they are out drinking with their friends. If I had kids I might think it was awesome that I could have them hang with me at a bar until 1:00AM… oh wait… no that just seems like bad parenting.<br />
<br />
The pool equipment was old and the tables were packed pretty
close together which meant we had to keep waiting for our neighbors to move out
of the way for a lot of shot, so if you’re looking to play pool I recommend South
1<sup>st</sup> St Billiards in San Jose. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ping
pong stuff looked to be in better shape at City Beach though. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, I’d say it’s a good spot to hang out
with a group of friends or take a date, but unless you are actually talking
about rock climbing you probably aren’t going to get belayed or get a little
bolder behind any rocks there. </div>
Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com04020 Technology Place, Fremont, CA 94538, USA37.5107519 -121.9510880000000311.988717400000002 -163.25968200000003 63.032786400000006 -80.642494000000028tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-64160973965926367842013-02-25T12:59:00.001-08:002013-03-03T17:21:55.426-08:00Saddling up and Racking 'em in at The Saddle Rack: Fremont, CA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;">THE LURE:</span><br />
steering away from some lame lines<br />
</b>After my sojourn last weekend, I decided to stay close to home on Friday
night and hoe it down at The Saddle Rack, a Country Western Bar tucked away in
a business park in my home town, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fremont. In honor of the cowboy theme of the bar,
I’d decided that I wanted to use a line that played on the cowboyish term, “giddy-up”
because yup and giddy are both words that I am particularly fond of. When I ran
the giddy yup thing by my friends though, that started to seem like not such a
good idea…<br />
<br />
“wanna hear a pick up line?” I coaxed one of my companions. <br />
“Sure” She amiable replied. <br />
“Ask me if I’m giddy” I instructed her. <br />
“What?” She asked, confused and not sure she’d heard me right. <br />
“It’s part of my line, just ask me if I’m giddy?”<br />
“So wait, how are you going to find a guy that is going to ask you if your
giddy… the odds of that are so small” <br />
“No no no. I will say to them what I’m saying to you now. I will say: Ask me if
I’m giddy”<br />
“Oh…ok.”<br />
“Are you giddy?”<br />
“Giddy-…yup!”<br />
“Haha. Oh ok. I see what you did.”<br />
<br />
At that point I figured that the line was 1- not going to go over well in the
wild , 2- pretty stupid, which I’d already known, but before I’d said it out
loud, I’d told myself it was just endearingly lame… now I was like nope… just
stupid… so I went back to the drawing board. <br />
<br />
The Saddle Rack was actually riddled with bespectacled folks last Friday night,
and I had come up with <br />
a better response for the impromptu “you know what they say about people with
glasses?” line that I’d botched the previous week, “quite magnificent
spectacles to behold.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I considered trying
that again, but decided it was best not to recycle a losing line, so I was
still trying to think of an even better pick up that I could use to rack in the
cowboys when my friends and I moseyed on back to the bull pen to give the
mechanical bull a whirl. By the time I’d finished rocking that robotic steer’s
world, I figured all I’d need to do to rope in any guy in that water hole,
would be to just ask them if they’d seen me up there on the bull. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE CAST:</b> </span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Riding my bull.</b><br />
Dragging my friend along with me, I galloped full speed, in my snazzy cowgirl
boots, through the parking lot of the Saddle Rack at 8:59 PM on Friday night,
hell bent on avoiding the 9:00 PM cover hike from $10.00 to $15.00 and was
elated when we made it in just in time. (On Saturday night, there is even more
incentive for financially savvy (cheap) ladies like me to be early birds since the
cover goes from $10.00 before 9:00 to $20.00 after). Once inside, my friend and
I met up with 3 of our other friends who’d snagged a table near the dance floor
with a good view of the stage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that
point, the house band, Diablo Road, was beltin’ out really “country western” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>style country music covers (none of which I was
familiar with) to a room full of mostly 40 something cowboys who like to come
early on Friday nights for the line dancing lesson they give from 7:30-9:00 PM.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My friends and I took advantage of the
low-ish noise level and short lines at the bar stations to catch up with each
other over $2.00 Jello shots and $5.00- $7.00 beer and cocktails. While we
waited for things to liven up, one of my friends, taking note of the fact that the
front woman from the band was giving shout outs to people who were celebrating special
occasions, decided to request a song and a shout out of her own. We all laughed
when my friend took her seat as the singer was reading her napkin note,
declaring, “We have a single lady here with us tonight, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who is celebrating being free from the jerk
wad who broke up with her on Valentines day!” Around that time, towards 10:00 or
so, the band started to diversify the style of music they were playing,
sneaking in some Rock or pop along with more mainstream country like Taylor
Swift and Carrie Underwood. </div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As the music got younger and more diverse, so
did the crowd, a colorful mix of 20-30 year olds had started to fill up the
spaces around the “barber chair”, where you can have a bartender mix a cocktail
in your mouth, which is something I appreciate, because it’s such an
eco-friendly and efficient way to get drunk. Why waste resources on washing cups
or using disposable plastic when you can cut out the middleman and just have
your libation of choice delivered directly to its ultimate destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
By 10:30, as folks were getting more loose and daring, the giant cage next to
the band’s stage was packed full of girls dancing and undulating inside it’s
cast iron bars like they were trying to bust out of stripper jail<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">. </b>It was around that time that one of
my friends and I decided to giddy on up to the mechanical bull at the back of
the bar. One at a time, we each threw down the $4.00 ridding fee, and saddled
up. My friend went first, showing that bull -and the crowd her stuff for about
twenty or thirty seconds before tumbling off onto the rubber mats in the bull
pen. Then it was my turn. In my mind, sportin’ my gold and silver sequin top, I
imagined I looked like a sexy cowgirl disco ball for the 45 seconds or so that I
was up there. However, when my friend showed me the video she’d recorded of me,
it seemed that I just looked more like a shinier than average flailing chick on
a mechanical bull, but I was still pleased enough with my performance that I’d
decided to work it into my pick up that evening. <br />
<br />
I didn’t immediately see anyone I wanted to rope in with my line, so about
twenty minutes had passed before I spotted a handsome stud with jet black hair,
a stylishly groomed beard and black twinkling eyes seated at a table by
himself. I waited a second to see if he might have a girlfriend nearby. Didn’t
seem to, so I strode over, leaned towards him and asked: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Did you see me ride the bull earlier?”<br />
“yeah I think so” He replied. <br />
“You know, bulls aren’t even what I ride best!” I said, arching my brow
suggestively.<br />
“Really?”, my bearded companion inquired with a laugh.<br />
“Yup… I can ride a bike like nobody’s business… I actually bike to work every
day.” I said <br />
My new acquaintance was laughing even harder as he asked: “Oh really, How far
away is your office from your home?”<br />
When I told him it was 11 miles each way, I could tell he was impressed.
Especially when he said:<br />
“Wow I’m impressed”<br />
“yeah, it’s pretty impressive.” I conceded. <br />
Then we reverted to the usual small talk: Do you live around here? Come here
often? What do you do for a living? There was some banter about the bull and
how much like a disco ball I’d looked. I felt like I really was bringing a
pretty good game that night, but this guy didn’t seem to be moving it forward. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, I look over and 4 guys are standing around my newly jerk wad free
friend. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Damn, I need to take a page from her
book,</i> I thought to myself. She was DEFINITELY on her game! The bearded guy
and I had pretty much run out of momentum in our conversation so I told him I
had to get back to my friends. <br />
<br />
As soon as I walked over to them though, a girl appeared by his side and then
hopped in his lap… either she was much more on top of her game than I as well,
or that was his girlfriend and would explain why he wasn’t trying to get any
friendlier than just having a cordial conversation with me. Either way, I
didn’t let it ruin my night. <br />
<br />
My one friend went and made out with one of her men from the harem she’d just
assembled and I hung back with our other friends and watched a few more people
get tossed off the bull before calling it a night. I’ve been to the saddle rack
at least a half dozen times before and I’ve never had a bad time there, this
weekend was no exception to that either. You’d have to try pretty hard to have
a bad time at a place with so much to do and such a lively crowd. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE SPOT:</b></span>The Saddle Rack, Fremont, CA<br />
The saddle rack is a good bar for pretty much any occasion from dancing with
your girlfriends, to taking a date or going to pick up guys. I am not a
particular fan of country music, but it’s still fun to go hoe it down on the
dance floor there or just people watch since there are plenty of interesting diversions
at the bar: mechanical bull, line dancing, gogo cage, live music. There are 4
separate bar areas, (besides the barber chair), and two dance floors: an upper
floor for line dancing and a larger floor right in front of the stage for more
freestyle dancing. Plus they have a wait staff that is very attentive to groups
that are seated at any of the dozens of tables around the main dance floor and bull
pen and 2 dance floors. Drinks are average price $5.00 -10.00 and they have
some snacks available for a few bucks ( popcorn, hot dogs nachos etc) if you need
to fuel up so you can keep dancing and riding all night long. In my mind The
Saddle Rack has just about everything you could want in a bar, so do I think
going there will make you giddy – yup!</span>Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0Boscell Road, Fremont, CA 94538, USA37.5062884 -121.9788343000000237.4936919 -121.99900430000001 37.5188849 -121.95866430000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-5778973319465254432013-02-17T10:03:00.003-08:002013-02-17T12:33:58.177-08:00Venturing out in Ventura, CA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mGkEuauOy9E/USEbDd9_2YI/AAAAAAAACco/UeQ0DeiQ_B4/s1600/IMAG0439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mGkEuauOy9E/USEbDd9_2YI/AAAAAAAACco/UeQ0DeiQ_B4/s320/IMAG0439.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="background-color: purple;">THE LURE:</span><br />
Brainstorming over Martinis and Chocolate at The WaterMark</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> <br />
<br />
Yesterday I went for a night out in my old high school stomping ground,
Ventura County. I’d come to town for my friend’s bridal shower (on Sunday), so on
Saturday night me and another friend decided to take the bride to be out for a ladies
night/ mini bachelorette on Main St in Ventura, CA. After dinner we went to an
upscale bar that my friends, who are locals, had always wanted to go to, but
never had occasion to, The Watermark. It was Gorgeous! The perfect place for a
special occasion date. Romantic mood lighting, polished wood paneling on the
bar and walls, gleaming marble floors. Downstairs there was 50s era big band
and Sinatra style music playing. If you took the stairs or the elevator up to
the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor you were at the W20 lounge there was a live band
playing up tempo jazz a few loungey areas with sofas and some tables scattered
around. It was a cougar den<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>up there
though: mostly mid 30s to mid 40s ladies with a few gentlemen around the same
age range… not really my scene so my friends and I opted to have some drinks
and dessert at the deserted bar downstairs. While we were enjoying our drinks a
two couples took seats at the bar next to us, but it didn’t seem like the kind
of bar where a single lady can pick up something to go. The chocolate Indulgence
and Meyer Limoncello Zabaglione desserts we had were fantastic though. SO good
in fact that in my eagerness to get a spoonful of the gooey chocolatey goodness
of the chocolate one I spilled half of my $12.00 martini in my lap.<br />
<br />
The tall dark and handsome, tuxedo vest clad bartender who’d been attending to
another customer saw my friends and I pilfering napkins from behind the bar and
asked if we were ok. I told him: “I spilled my drink on myself, but it’s ok, my
clothes are going to taste much better now.” <br />
He laughed politely flashing a gorgeous smile at us before getting back to the
other bar patrons.<br />
I was trying to think of how I could work that into a pick up line and toying
with the idea of trying t pick up the bar tender, but he seemed like he had his
hands full and the lines I kept coming up with were all pretty raunchy and overly
direct along the lines of: “I spilled a drink on my lap earlier… it was pretty
good, want to taste it.” My friends agreed that was pretty vulgar and not
likely to appeal to the type of guy I was after… so we put our heads together
and came up with something better…My one friend suggested that I should just go
up to a guy and tell him he looks like Robert Pattenson… I figured there were
only two possible responses that would elicit though: a confused “who’s Robert
Patterson” or offense at being compared to the pale spindly star of Twighlight.
Either way I figured it’d be hard to segway into a conversation from there…
after all, my pick up line really isn’t the thing that I’d like a guy to be
holding against me at the end of the night. I did like the concept of a
celebrity comparison though. Stroking a mans ego usually goes over pretty well,
so I decided I would <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just taylor the
celebrity comparison to fit the particular guy I was hitting on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
“what if they say they don’t get your comparison?”my other friend asked<br />
then my first friend giggled saying “you should just be like –eeh me neither.”
I thought that was a brilliant idea.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: purple;">The CAST</span><br />
Getting tangled in my line at Dargan’s and good looking catch at The Its All
Good Bar</b> <br />
<br />
Around 10:30PM, my two friends and I crossed the street from The Watermark,
flashed our IDs at the bouncer of Dargan’s Irish Pub , who didn’t ask us to pay
a cover – YAY!- and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>found a place along
a wall near the bar to scope out our fellow patrons. There were a lot of men…
but they all seemed to be huddled together in a most un-approachable way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">I did a lap of
the bar and didn’t really see many promising prospects, the guys that I would
have liked to be uninvitingly huddled shoulder to shoulder with friends and
guys that weren’t so hard to single out were not really my type . After
re-uniting with my friends I did one last scan of the bar and spotted a pretty
cute Latino guy wearing thick rimmed glasses standing at the opposite side of
the bar from where we were. <br />
<br />
As soon as I saw him, I immediately strode directly over to him, trying to
think of a celebrity he looked like as I walked, after failing to conger up a
celebrity comparison by the time I reached him, I decided to improvise:<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ those glasses look good on you.” I
said following immediately with “...and you know what they say about people
with glasses...”<br />
“No what?” Hmm I’d been trying to bate him into conversation with that rhetorical
question… giving him an opportunity to say something clever, but he was clearly
going to make me do all the work here. <br />
“ i dont know… they look smart... At least i get that a lot...” I said with what
I hoped was endearing exaggerated lameness. <br />
He didn’t laugh… clearly my awkward humor was lost on him, but he introduced
himself anyway.<br />
He asked if I was from Ventura.<br />
“Nope. Bay area” I said… he didn’t have much to say about that, but the look on
his face said that being a non Venturan was a strike against me. <br />
“Why aren’t you drinking tonight?” he asked <br />
“I am. I had a couple drinks at the pricey bar across the street.” He didn’t
really respond, so I tried to think of something witty to say and instead came
up with:<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“My stomach is like totally spoiled now
from the snooty drinks I had over there. It feels like it’s too good for the
stuff they serve in here now.” I’d been going for sarcastic self deprecating humor,
but I could see that this guy took me literally, and therefore I came off like
kind of an uppity douche. Thus I wasn’t too surprised when the next thing he
said was: “Well it WAS nice to meet you” and extended his hand as a consolatory
thanks-for-playing-but-please-go-away-now gesture. I shook his hand, then
immediately regretted having done so… because he was after all snubbing and
rejecting me, I should have just turned and left without offering an appeasing
handshake, but I guess sometimes it’s hard to repress the polite propriety my
parents instilled in me. He hadn’t given me much to work with and clearly my
humor was above his head, so I wasn’t too heartbroken as I returned to my
friends saying: <br />
<br />
“Not sure about the crowd here, shall we go to another bar?” <br />
<br />
The were up for it, so</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> we walked a few doors down to the “ it’s all good bar and grill” and
were drawn in by the funk-rock live music being played by a live band inside.
Once again, I was delighted that there was no cover, but once again, once
inside, it looked like the 90s had just never stopped for the folks there. It
was a sea of plaid flannel, trucker hats and hoodies. I was really regretting
not saving some of my own plaid flannels and timber boots from high school, it
probably would have upped my game with the Ventura crowd.<br />
<br />
The guys in this bar were much cuter and seemed more approachable. My soon to
be wed friend immediately spotted an attractive lad standing directly behind me
and told me that it was her Bachlorette wish to vicariously hit on through me. Since
I am after all the fairy of Bachlorette wishes, I had no choice but to oblige. <br />
<br />
I decided he looked a bit like Heath ledger, so I swiveled around and casually
asked:<br />
“Hey do people tell you al the time th at you look like heath ledger?”<br />
“No.” he replied with a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>chuckle.<br />
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense ‘cause you really don’t look THAT much like him.”
I said playfully.<br />
he laughed heartily at that then asked.” So you really think I look like heath
ledger?”<br />
“ No. I just said you dont <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>didn’t I?”<br />
. His friend interjected at that point "heath ledger? More like Jesus.
" <br />
“...oh i wouldn’t know. I’ve never met Jesus.” I said.<br />
The Ledger-alike immediately shot back: “Oh have you met Heath Ledger? "<br />
He was quick. That was good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yup” I said
without missing a beat “he and i were bffs before he died. Im still not over that
though... So thanks for bringing it up.”<br />
“Well, actually you came over to me and brought up Heath Ledger, so you can’t
pin that on me.” He retorted.<br />
I laughed. “I guess you’re right.” <br />
I’m just having a cherry coke, the ledger-a-like explained to me as the
bartender handed him a beverage.<br />
“Oh. That must make you very popular with your friends who drink…at least if
you drive.”<br />
“No I don’t drive.”<br />
“oh. Bummer… you don’t drink and you can’t be a designated river…I guess you’re
pretty useless then” I teased<br />
<br />
We fell into the usual conversation at that point about what we did for a
living and where we lived. The Ledger-alike <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>introduced me to his two friends. At first I
thought maybe he was trying to pawn me off to one of them, but he lingered and
continued to engage in conversation, so I guess he just wanted to show me off.<br />
One of his friends, who apparently worked at the bar offered to get me a drink
. I took him up on the offer, asking for a water.<br />
We talked a bit more, but I didn’t get the feeling anything was going to happen
with the Ledger-alike so I told himI wanted to get back to my friend’s
bachelorette party. He asked me to find him and say goodbye before I left, but
my friends were ready to go immediately after I got back to them and I didn’t
see him as we headed out the door, so I guess it was not meant to be, so me and
my 2 lady friends ventured out of Ventura and get back to my parents house for
the night.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: purple;">THE SPOT(s):</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">THE
WATERMARK:<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The
W2O lounge on the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor and the bar on the ground floor are fun for
a ladies night out - if you’ve got some cash to burn. It’s gorgeous inside and
the drinks and desserts are delicious. Pretty much all drinks were $10.00+ and
desserts are around $8.00 or so. There is a lot of seating upstairs, but not a
lot of standing room to mingle and meet people. Most of the patrons upstairs
and downstairs seemed to be at least in their Mid 30s and upper middle to upper
class. <b><br />
<br />
DARGANS:</b><br />
The Venue itself was a typical Irish pub, with shinned wood bar and tables.
They served dinner until 11:00 and at the bar had beer wine and whisky. They also
offered late night food served until 1:00 AM which is always nice. There were a
lot of tables and bar seating though none were available when we got there. The
fact that there were so many tables left little room for standing or mingling
though and dancing seems like something that probably doesn’t happen there. The
ratio of men to women seemed at first to be skewed in favor of a single lady
such as myself looking to find a guy to connect with, however, at least the
night I was there. The, mostly early to mid 20s guys did not seemed like they
were mostly looking to hang out with their bros rather than mingle with the opposite
sex, so it seemed like its probably a good place to go hang out with friends on
a night away from your significant other, have a beer and shoot the ish, but
not the best pick up spot. <br />
<br />
<strong>THE ITS ALL GOOD BAR</strong><br />
I feel like this place lived up to the casualness implied by its name. It was
packed with a diverse mix of ladies and gents from 21- 30 years old. The fact
that it was a smallish bar with not a lot of seating made it quite conducive to
comingling with strangers. They offered a full bar selection (mixed drinks,
beer, wine etc). They had live music and the band I heard was pretty good, so
there were a lot of people dancing and folks seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I’d say this is a good bar to go to if you are on the prowl… probably not so
good if you are looking to catch up with friends over drinks. </span>Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0Ventura, CA, USA34.280752127638131 -119.2915274000000634.274192127638131 -119.30161240000007 34.287312127638131 -119.28144240000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-58571287339574471022013-02-10T13:19:00.002-08:002013-02-10T21:26:55.868-08:00Sexually harassing workers at The Office, San Carlos and trying to find someone to celebrate Read A Book In The Bathtub Day with at The Underground, Redwood City<br />
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<b><span style="color: purple;">THE LURE:</span></b><br />
A bar named “The Office” seems like an obscenely appropriate place to cast out
some tongue-in-cheek pick-up lines. As soon as I set my mind to the task, it was
almost too easy to come up innuendo laden lines that made light of the
ironically named bar: “Wow, I can’t believe you’re at the office on a Saturday.
You’re so diligent, I’d love to see what results COME of all your HARD work”, “You
look like you might be having a HARD night at the office, so I’d love to COME
with you somewhere whenever you GET OFF”. “I hope you won’t report me for sexual
harassment at the office if I tell you how sexy you’re looking tonight.” <br />
<br />
As a backup to the office specific lines, I was also prepared to make note of
the fact that, per a friend of mine, February 9<sup>th</sup> is official “read
a book in the bath day”, it's definitely not as exciting a holiday as Australia Day, but I figured another good line to cast out yesterday
night would be: “Did you know that today is official read a book in the bath day? …
Have you celebrated yet ‘cause I haven’t, but I’d love to observe this momentous
occasion with you later.” <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: purple;">THE CAST:</span></b> <br />
<b>I sank like an anchor more than I reeled in the boys hook line and sinker.</b><br />
<br />
Last night I had made tentative plans to meet some friends at The Office, a bar
in San Carlos, after they’d gone to a wine tasting yesterday. In my mind, I
was thinking we’d go there after dinner – maybe around 9:00 or 9:30PM, so when I
received a text from my friends at 5:30PM: saying “We’re heading over to the bar
now”, I was still sitting in my kitchen having arts and crafts time with my
roommate (making a greeting card for a friend who just got a great job
opportunity). <i>Hmm</i>, I thought as I
hurriedly finished up my card, <i>I hope
they are going to want to hang out for a while, ‘cause it may be pretty hard to
pick someone up at 6:30 or 7:00 PM</i>. I’m always up for a challenge though,
so I decided even if they weren’t going to stay long I’d still try and cast out
a line or two at the early crowd. <br />
<br />
By the time I got there, at 6:30, my friends had already finished their beers
and appetizers and were only planning to stay for another half hour or so. I perused
the menu of cleverly named drinks such as the “sick day” and the “pink slip” but
decided I wouldn’t partake of anything since my friends were pretty eager to
get going. <i>So much for a pick up tonight </i>I
thought as I looked around the mostly deserted bar, at the husband, wife and 3
young girls sitting around a fire pit next to us, the tables of couples
enjoying an early meal at a few of the other outdoor patio tables and fire pits. No one
was sitting at any of the long bar tables outside on the patio area or inside the
interior of the bar. The outdoor bar service area was not open yet and the only people sitting at the bar inside
were two middle aged men who were intently watching and jeering at a basketball
game that was playing on the bar’s TVs. <i>Yup.
This isn’t going to happen </i>I was thinking to myself just as the cute Latino
waiter who’d been serving my friends came over with the check. <i>hmm</i>. I figured maybe I could at least
try a line on him.<br />
<br />
Since he was actually working though, my customized “The
Office” lines wouldn’t really have the same effect… I started to psych myself
out. It felt kind of awkward and tacky to hit on someone while they were
serving a table full of my friends and I, so in the end I didn’t muster up
enough Chutzpah to verbally pick up on the cute waiter, but I did try for a pick up on the tab, writing a quick note on the receipt: “Thank you for being so serviceable to us this
evening. Let me know if you ever want me to repay the favor sometime.” And then
left my phone number. Slutty and to the point... we'll see how that works out. I definitely would like to see who comes and goes from the office during peak hours, so I probably will get to work on that one of these nights.<br />
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<br />
I had thought that was going to be the extent of my bar going that evening, but
as I was driving my friends home. I got a text from my coworker asking me if I
wanted to meet her and two of our friends at The Underground in Redwood City. I
sure did, so at around 10:30 I walked through the unassuming glass doors of the
Underground and hung by the bar while I waited for my friends to arrive. <br />
<br />
There
seemed to be plenty of things to keep a group occupied at the
Underground, a pool table and two beer pong tables downstairs and the same set up upstairs as well, plus a shelf downstairs full of board games. There were not a
lot of chairs or tables to sit at though, a cluster of 3 or 4 wine barrel tables and a total of about 8 stools between them all downstairs
and upstairs there were another 2 or 3 wine barrel tables and stoops as well as some bench seating by the beer pong
tables. Overall the bar felt a little
dingy and unclean, so my initial reaction when I went into the downstairs
bathroom and there was a ratty easy chair facing the toilet, was: <i> Of
course there is… at least I know where to find a private lounge where I can chill
in a disgusting but comfy seat and hang out with my friends while the’re peeing…
it makes total sense that there is almost as much seating in the bathroom as in
the entire rest of the bar. </i><br />
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<br />
After my initial assessment of my grody surroundings, it didn’t seem too surprising to me
that the crowd was pretty sparse even on a Saturday night. (Although my coworker, who has been to The Underground quite a few times, tells me that sometimes it can get quite busy there.) The folks that were there were
probably early to mid-20s and most were pretty attractive though, so that was a
plus. The bartender upstairs was in charge of the music and was playing a mix
of current dance hits, some 90s and of course, my coworker requested that they
play “baby got back” and the bartender was happy to oblige her. Again, per my co-worker, there is often a DJ at the stage set up in the upstairs section of the bar. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ImzJhkuigD0/URgKaHY69YI/AAAAAAAACcQ/E8qE4lYZSNM/s1600/beer+pong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ImzJhkuigD0/URgKaHY69YI/AAAAAAAACcQ/E8qE4lYZSNM/s320/beer+pong.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
A few beers helped me to loosen up, get the stick out of my ass and forget about the cold dank ambiance pretty quickly, so I had a lot of fun playing beer pong and dancing with my friends while keeping my eyes open for any hot guys I might want to
reel in. At the intermission between our first and second beer pong games, I set my sites on a cute bespectacled guy
sitting on one of the benches upstairs and I took advantage in the lull between
games to go cast my line. <o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
“Do you know what today is?” I asked him<br />
“No. What?” He asked<br />
“National read a book in the bath day…. Have you celebrated yet?"<br />"Uhm... No.”<br />
“Me neither… … … " I said. When he did not take advantage of the opportunity I’d given
him to fill in a sexy reply, and I couldn’t remember my line about having him
come celebrate with me later, I threw out an awkward: “I was going to celebrate
earlier but my roommates and I have a shared bathroom, and I didn’t want to be
the one chillin’ in the tub finishing up war and peace while someone was about
to have a potty emergency…”<br />
<br />
My new acquaintance obviously didn’t have much to say in reply to that
awesomely awkward tid bit, so I casually excused myself saying: "oh hey, look at that, my friends are done setting up for our beer pong game, I should get back to that!" Needless to say, I did not give or receive any digits that evening, but </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16px;"> despite the fact that I wasn’t able to land a catch with my line, </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I did have a good night overall. I wouldn’t say I’d never go back to the Underground, but
it probably wouldn’t be my first choice of establishments to visit on a Saturday night.<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: purple;">
THE SPOT(s):</span></b><br />
<br /><b>
THE OFFICE:</b><br />
Stylish and comfy. Lots of tvs at the inside bar to distract the men, which is
not something I personally am a fan of, but if you’re a guy who likes to watch
sports while you drink and over pay for fried food, then there you go – enjoy!<br />
<br />
I love that they have several fire pits that you can sit around outside and I
like that you have the option of indoor or outdoor seating. Plus I personally
appreciate the irony and wit that went into naming the drinks and the bar
itself. <br />
<br />
I wouldn’t recommend dining there though. The food didn’t have any particular
heightened taste or appeal to match the elevated prices they charge. <br />
<br /><b>
THE UNDERGROUND:</b><br />
A good place to go when you’ve got a
group of friends and you want to hang out, but don’t mind a dank atmosphere and
the early 20s kids that were there last night certainly didn’t seem to. They
certainly aren’t lacking for entertainment options with the beer pong and pool
tables + board games they provide as well as the danceable music. <br />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com01748 El Camino Real, San Carlos, CA 94070, USA37.494252 -122.2453120999999811.972217500000003 -163.55390609999998 63.016286500000007 -80.936718099999979tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-13393257264487805782013-02-02T22:38:00.002-08:002013-02-03T08:05:10.541-08:00The old "can I buy you a drink" at Old Pro, Palo Alto, CA<br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><b>THE LURE(s):</b> </span><b><br />
Suspended license for driving ladies crazy / a variation on “can I buy you a
drink”<br />
</b>I packed some classic bait into my tackle box before I headed off to cast
out my line last night: “I heard they suspended your license for driving all
the ladies here crazy” line. Here is how I planned to throw it out there:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Sidle up close to desired target)<br />
ME: Did you drive here?<br />
Guy: (OPTION 1… if he says): Yes <br />
ME: Damn, that’s pretty daring of you, I heard they suspended your license for
driving all the ladies crazy! <br />
OPTION 2: if he says NO<br />
ME: That’s what I figured; I heard they’d suspended your license for driving
all the ladies here crazy! <br />
<br />
Because this is kind of a wordy pick up, I did a couple dry runs with my
friends before heading out last night. I botched both of my dry runs, but
figured if I messed up on the real thing I’d just play it off as endearing. <br />
<br />
When we arrived to Old Pro around 11:30, we had to pay a cover charge.
Fortunately the cover comes with a drink ticket for 2 drinks- which must be
redeemed at once. (They start charging a $10.00 cover around 8:45 on Friday and
Saturday nights.) This unique cover charge system lent itself well to an
easier, location specific pick-up: “Hey,
I’ve got a coupon for two drinks, so what shall I get for you?” <br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="background-color: #d5a6bd; color: purple;">THE CAST:</span></b><br />
<b>Spotting one that measures up </b><br />
After doing a couple laps around old pro, no one stood out to me as a good
catch. I wanted to use my drink coupon line though, so I held onto my coupon, sipped
a soda and chatted with my friends. To bide time while I waiting to acquire a
suitable target I watched a couple of old pro’s patrons live out their rodeo
fantasies atop the Mechanical Bull in the back corner of the bar. It seemed
like the guy at the controls to the bull was going pretty easy on the riders,
but the two guys that I saw saddle up to that mechanized beast were pretty
rigid and did not last more than a few seconds before they unceremoniously shot
off. (Which, I’m sure is, not the reputation they were hoping to establish when
they’d decided to mount that steed). <br />
<br />
There was not a steady flow of activity at the bull riding area, so my friends
and I crossed over to the opposite side of the bar and claimed a spot at one of
the dozen or so long tall bar tables that lined one wall of old pro. I kept an
eye on the door to see if any interesting prospects showed up, but by 12:30 when
I still hadn't seen anyone promising, and with my free drink ticket burning a hole
in my pocket, I turned to one of my guy friends and laid it on him: “Do you
need another drink? -I've still got my drink ticket from the cover fee.” I
asked nonchalantly.<br />
<br />
He said he would indeed take me up on
the offer, so we chatted a bit as we walked over to cash in my drink coupon and,
gentleman that he is, he even took care of the annoying task of flagging down a
bartender and ordering the drinks for us, so even though I had no romantic
designs on my friend, I’m still going to call that a successful catch with my
line. I feel like the drink coupon bit really does provide a good way to break
the ice and get some one on one time with a person. <br />
<br />
I still wanted to use my driver’s license pick up though, so after I finished
my beer, I did another lap of the bar and FINALLY, I saw someone worthy of my
super-cheesy-over-rehearsed-license-line. When I saw my intended guy, I decided
to hang back and run through my lines again in my head to be sure I landed the
pick up… before I could finish my mental dress rehearsal though, the guy’s
friend walked over and started chatting me up. <i>Drat! </i><br />
<br />
The cute guy’s friend was reasonably attractive and seemed nice enough though, so I figured I
would still try to work the line in just to see how well it went over, but this
guy who’d approached me was firing questions at me like his life depended on
it. I barely had a chance to finish answering his last question before he’d
shot a new inquiry my way, so working in a complicated pick up line seemed like
it was not going to be easy. Plus, by the third time he asked me “Do you come here
often.” To which I replied “still no,” I really didn’t even want to use the
line anymore… I just wanted to stop answering this guy's same handful of questions over and over and get away, so when he finally paused for a minute, I took the opportunity to excuse myself,
explaining that I had to get back to my friends that I’d come with.<br />
<br />
We left the bar shortly after I rejoined my group… but before heading home, one of my friends
wanted to satiate her ravenous hunger for pizza, so we walked a couple blocks
down University Ave. and joined the throngs of other folks who’d just been turned
out of the various bars in the area at 2:00 AM and were now in line for a slice
at Pizza My Heart. I have never waited so eagerly or so long to get pizza as I
did last night. The line stretched well out the door of the restaurant into the
adjacent plaza. <br />
<br />
One thing I will say is that, though it was cold waiting in the line (until we
got to the part of the line that was actually inside the building), it was a
pretty interesting experience. First of all, there were waaayy more hot guys at
Pizza My Heart than there had been at Old Pro, so aesthetically that was nice.
Second of all, the homeless guy wearing a bedazzled Tony the Tiger Tshirt under
his Orange Velvet Sweat suite was amusing at least for a little while as he
sung (poorly) along to the old school 80s songs he was blasting from his boom
box. <br />
<br />
Also, because pretty much everyone in line was drunk, they were all very
friendly, so it passed some time when the guy in front of me, who was apparently
a newbie to Palo Alto, started chatting me up, asking about what people did for fun in Silicon Valley and then when his attention
waned and he moved onto talking to the person on the other side of him in line,
I got some good banter going with another guy about the fight that must have
occurred to result in the catastrophically mangled pile of lettuce and accouterments at the bottom of the salad display case in Pizza My Heart and of
course by the time my friends and I finally did get our pizza, I know for me at least, it was the most
satisfying dining experience I’ve had in recent memory… That warm foldable slice
with it’s tangy sauce and salty cheese was absolute perfection especially after
the beer I’d had earlier. So, thought it wasn’t necessarily what I’d been
looking for at the start of my outing, I definitely got some pleasant oral
stimulation at the end of the night.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: purple;">
THE SPOT(s)</span></b><br />
<b>
OLD PRO:</b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /> PROS: </span></b>Fun things to do: mechanical bull, photo booth, Shotskis/ yard of beer pitchers<br />
<br />
-Lots of seating: indoor long bar tables, + small alcove with a sofa etc inside.<br />
& outdoor seating around fire pits.<br />
<br />
-They have a late-night menu. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">
CONS: </span></b>(The night that I was there at least) Not an attractive dating pool. <br />
<br />
No Dance Floor/ DJ<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>
PIZZA MY HEART:</b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"> PROS: </span></b>-Pizza is delicious!<br />
<br />
-They are open late. <br />
<br />
-They sell by the slice ($3.25 - 4.50/ slice depending on toppings)<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">CONS:</span></b>Due to the fact that many people seem to know about the deliciousness of the
pizza coupled with the fact that not many places are open, if you show up here
at 2:00 AM, you will be waiting a good long while for your pizza. <br />
<br />
-Line to order moves very slow. <br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0Ramona Street, Palo Alto, CA, USA37.4247102 -122.1303801999999937.4121002 -122.15055019999998 37.4373202 -122.1102102tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836901733127368998.post-5270284711230638802013-02-01T15:36:00.000-08:002013-02-01T15:40:06.119-08:00Happy Australia Day at The Patio in Palo Alto, CA<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="color: purple;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THE LURE:</span></b></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <br /><b>"Happy Australia Day!"</b><br />
There are certain occasions and holidays that allow you to use a specific line
at a bar that you wouldn’t normally be able to, so when the most special of all
occasions rolled around last Saturday I think everyone appreciated that just
acknowledging the day was a pick up line in itself. I knew that “HAPPY
AUSTRALIA DAY!” was all any man would need to hear from me to get his blood
pumping enough to be instantly taken by me. After all, I know I’m far from
alone in my feelings of unbridled anticipation 364 days a year as I wait for
the arrival of those GLORIOUS 24 hours spent in celebration of everything that
makes Australia twice as cool as the US: Marsupials, stronger beer, Smiling
Jacks – home of the best veggie burger EVER, the hands-down coolest accent in
the world, fairy penguins, the unique status of being the only country that occupies
an entire continent, boomerangs, being a place where anyone will tell you “no
worries, if you can’t be bothered to have a cuppa with brekki because you’re
going bushwalking later”, and of course didgeridoos. The fact that Australia
day fell on a Saturday this year was like extra Vegemite on my crumpet though. I
had the whole day to rest up (whilst contemplating the wondrousness of
Australia of course), and the whole night to spread my Australia loving
joyousness without having to worry about work at either end of the day, so needless
to say, I rocked the hell out of “happy Australia day” when I went out with
some friends to ‘the patio” in Palo Alto on Saturday night!<br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: purple;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE CAST:</b></span></i><b><br />Reeling in an inflatable wallaby and an energetic tech guy... that I had to throw back</b><br />
We got to The Patio around 10:45PM, just in time to take advantage of the cover
free entrance for ladies before 11:00PM and by 11:30, not only did that
evening’s designated pick up line score me a sweet kiss from the large
inflatable Kangaroo that an Australian flag caped man was holding, but I also
got the digits of an Indian software engineer. As soon as I sidled up to him
and cast out my line: “Best Australia Day Ever Right?!”, this guy was hooked. It’s
not every day that I meet a vivacious tech guy that can actually bust a move
and carry on conversation, so I was happy to get down with him to the mix of
top 40 and crowd pleasing classics like “Baby Got Back” that the DJ was
playing. <br />
<br />
By midnight, the bar was packed. With the diverse crowd of middle class 20
some-thing pursuers of the night crowding out the empty space around us, it
became increasingly difficult to properly get jiggy on the dance floor, so my
new friend took advantage of our forced proximity to get to know me better,
asking about my job and hobbies. He asked me for my number and I gave it to him
and then after we’d been talking and dancing for about forty minutes or so, he
felt that we’d reached a place in our relationship, where it was appropriate to
get a little bit more intimate with our conversation, casually inquiring: “can
I ask you a personal question?” <br />
I told him he could, so he asked “how often do you masturbate?” <br />
I obviously gave the only response I could “What the f^ck?!?”<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which he responded, “Sorry, never
mind. Can you just forget I asked?”<br />
“Nope. I definitely can’t forget you asked that. I’m obviously not going to
answer you of course, but that’s such a weird question… Why the hell would you
ask me that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I implored him.<br />
“Well, my ex-girlfriend used to masturbate a lot.” He explained. <br />
<br />
At that point, I felt like <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it was time
to regroup with my friends and see what they were up to. As it turned out, a
girl had spilled beer on my coworker, a few heated words were exchanged and my coworker
and the beer spilling girl were having a colorful exchange about how little
they cared for one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
coworker’s roommates dragged her outside lest she make good on her promise to
kick the beer spilling girl’s ass. Shortly thereafter I decided it was time to
call it a night and head home. Despite the somewhat abrupt departure, it was
definitely my most memorable Australia day I’ve had to date and I would go back
to the Patio again.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;"><br />
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="color: purple;">THE SPOT:</span></i><br />
The Patio, Emerson St, Palo Alto, CA<br />
</b></span><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PROS:</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-If, like me, you are into tech guys who can rock a polo shirt, you’re in luck.
If you’re not, you can still probably find a man among the diverse crowd of
mostly 21-30 year olds to satiate your particular taste. From the energized
guys living up Australia day in style: with Aussie flags draped around their necks
like super heroes, to the bros in casual t shirt and jeans to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the guys in stylish button ups, the crowd
encompassed a broad demographic of guys from all walks of life. <br />
<br />
-There is no cover for ladies until 11:00 pm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />-DJ plays requests.<br /><br />- Folks in the crowd who know how to live it up on Australia day.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CONS:</b></span> -No matter how sugary the drink you order is, it still leaves a bitter taste in
your mouth after the $12-17.00 you just dropped for it. <br />
<br />
- “Cocky Sluts who think they’re tougher than you with their pencil skirt &
Kardashian bun-heads – even though you dressed as the ferocious lioness/
leopard mix that you are with your badass Muay Thai & kickboxing skills
that no f^cKer should <u>EVER </u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">encourage to see first
hand. Not to mention the 22 years of unadulterated pure rage pent up into two
apple sized clenched fists waiting to explode at any g*dd@m second! F^cking b^tch”
– My coworker.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
Jillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220011894828557695noreply@blogger.com0412 emerson st, palo alto, ca37.4009831 -122.1108543000000337.4007861 -122.11116930000003 37.4011801 -122.11053930000003