Downtown University

I’m still in utter shock that its late May, and I’m able to sit here out on the balcony of my new place and enjoy the sounds of the city and the breeze that I’m sure is coming off of the cars whizzing by on I4. Downtown has been good to me these past 3 weeks I’ve been living here! Not only is it a 5-minute drive to work now, but I can have Pom Poms whenever I’d like! Their grits have finally become a staple in my diet, and not just at 3:30a after Jamesson and I shut down Midnight Mass at Backbooth. I can proudly say that I’ve taken a half a dozen Pom Poms virginities in the past 2 months. And I’d better stop thinking about it because I’m starting to crave a Fu Manchu like its nobody’s business.

The other great thing about living in the downtown area is that, oddly enough, it feels very familiar to me. My friend Elisa asked me the other day if I ever still thought about our times back at Stetson University, and the good ol’ days living in Conrad Hall. How could I not? The new condo reminds me of just that- dorm living. I have some person that lives above me that stomps around at all hours of the day. I see the girls walking out to their cars wearing clothes from the night before and their heels in their hands. We even have the same washers and dryers in the community laundry rooms! But its even more than the walks of shame and the slightly stale air that fills the under-ventilated corridors of the building. There is a pretty strong sense of community here. Not that I was ridiculously cool in college (not that I am ridiculously cool now, just sayin’), but it was pretty hard to go anywhere on campus or in the downtown DeLand area in general without running in to someone that you knew. By the time sophomore year came around, my parents had given up trying to have a conversation with me on my way to class because every 3 seconds in to a new sentence I was being greeted by a fellow co-ed. Even before I moved downtown, I already had a decent network of people in this area. Now when my friends ask me for a place to grab a bite to eat or a drink, I generally start out the reply with, “Well, I know one of the (servers/bartenders/barbacks/owners) of…”

The high rises are the dorms of downtown. You hear someone say that they live in the Paramount, View, Solaire, or Waverly and you instantly know that they must be an upperclassman or a very lucky freshman who’s dad was able to pull a few strings with Housing. You ask your friend if they lofted their bed and put the desk under it, or about the odd smells, when they tell you they live in the St. Regis. I even caught myself responding to my friends with, “I have a single,” when they asked if I had a roommate or not.

And what is the full college experience without the fraternities and sororities? The bars themselves do a pretty damn good job at filling that void. I hear girls walking by on the street saying in their bubble gum voices, “I’m a Bliss!” Wall Street is a random mixture of everyone, because they carpet bid. And, of course, the Animal House of Downtown Orlando: BBQ Bar, for sure, is the equivalent. But picking out which bar you’re going to rush is a pretty big decision- those letters are going to follow you and shape your social habits for the next few years until you move on to the next phase of your life. Choose wisely, and enjoy the next four years here (or however long it takes you to graduate).

What happens in the DJ booth, stays in the DJ booth?

Yet another great weekend down in the books. The Magic beat the Celtics. My high school friends came in to Orlando to hit downtown. My good friend Lauren D. came in a week early from FSU and we hit our one-night tradition Big Belly Brewery for 3-4-1’s. Couldn’t have asked for more fun!

…Except last weekend. See photos below.

Ricky Diamond and I hit up Midnight Mass at Back Booth last weekend to spice things up a bit. We were going to give Sky60 a shot, but we got the good word that friends were elsewhere. Needless to say things got pretty crazy in the DJ booth!

This last Friday night was good. I caught the Magic game at Buffalo Wild Wings with my friend Scott Harris (think 740 The Game), which consisted of me ordering boneless wings with a side of all of Scott’s French fries LOL Luckily he says that he has dined out enough times with girls that he knows that we all eat the French fries of someone else. I-Bar was the typical, but the past 2 or 3 weeks I’ve been seeing more and more ‘suits’ there… What happened? Did all of the kids start switching from flannel to J. Crew? I ended up closing down Friday night at Stardust Lounge- I never knew that they had drinks there for $2.50…

Lauren and I shook things up for me this weekend by her calling me to say she was in town earlier than anticipated. Rather than attempting to get to Sky60 since last weekend it didn’t happen, we opted to climb the stairs and take in the night air at Latitudes. My friend Chris joined us, and we had a grand time debating philosophy (aka me sipping on Sweet Tea vodka while listening to Chris and Lauren talk about the bar being real because we think its real).

Chris has taken a fancy to busting my balls about my blogging. I know he’s only half-serious (he says he’s joking, but I always read into things far more than I should LOL). He asks if I can blog from my phone, and I say yes although I don’t have internet access on it. I say that I still tweet from it via text. I one-upped him in the form of microblogging.

Cross that one off of the to-do list!

New Digs!

Thank God for Twitter!! The past few weeks have been non-stop craziness and if it wasn’t for my ability to update the world on my antics through 140-character blurbs then I would be denying everyone of awesome cheap things to do around Orlando. And that’s just selfish!

So anyways, I’m sitting here on the couch in my brand new apartment with a fresh cup of coffee. Yes, its almost 2:30p but I’m still enjoying breakfast (eaten long after noon…). Last night was great and I’m sure I’ll see photos of me all over SmileForCamera.com in a day or two. Independent Bar was great last night- can’t beat free cover till 1 and $3 mixed drinks till midnight, and the DJ that plays all my favorite indie rock songs!

Yes, I did say new apartment, and its positively bad ass! I have a new game plan for Year 2 of living in the real world. Last year I lived with Eric, my boyfriend at the time. We had our shabby-chic apartment in Casselberry, complete with roof leaks and all! Not sure if I posted it or not, but Eric lost his job at Circuit City. Add that with the fact that he never really grew to like living in Orlando, so he decided when our lease was up in mid-June he would move back to Ormond Beach with his family. Totally understandable J However, it left me in a predicament because I couldn’t exactly afford living on my own on top of paying things like student loans and not have a cozy corner on South OBT… So, around April I crafted the new plan of action:

All the cool kids seem to be doing it- Going back to school to defer their student loans! Whether you’re going for your Masters, a second bachelors, or just screwing around on the community college level, taking part-time classes (usually 6 credit hours a semester) will qualify your loans for an education deferment. For me, since I’d like to put my 4 years of French in high school to good use (and because one day working for Conde Nast would be pretty cool, so this might be a requisite), I’m studying French at Valencia Community College. I chose the 2^nd level beginning class since its been a little while since I’ve used vocabulary outside of a gastronomical context (i.e. fois gras, crème brulée, etc…). So far, I’m having fun with it! I’m also making A’s on pretty much anything, so even when I’m having a bad week at work I can still say that I have something boosting my ego. My second class is Abnormal Psych- something that I wanted to take in college but I never got the chance to after I completed my required Intro class. I just had my first class the other day, and I really think I’m going to like it. Only problem is that the class is over in 6 weeks, so I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was spread out over a full semester and not condensed over the summer, and also its going to make things pretty stressful. It’ll be fun, none the less!

So with an extra $600-something dollars in my bank account every month due to not having to make the loans payments, I can finally start to chip away at my credit card debt. Granted, putting your loans into deferment is going to make the payments go up significantly since you’re just earning more and more interest rather than paying things off, but for right now its what I have to do. Besides, the credit card carries something like 30% interest where as none of my loans are over 10%... Which would you pay of first??

Secondly, I moved! I met up with a really fantastic UCF student name Chris and we really hit it off. He was looking for someone mid-June, which was right when I needed to move out. The new place is ten times nicer than my last place, and still about $200 cheaper to live here than to stay in my old place. I do live all the way out by UCF now, so I have about an extra 20 minutes tacked on to anywhere I drive. It really doesn’t bother me, though, except on Fridays when I just want to get home but I have to deal with the brake-slamming traffic on Aloma between Semoran and Chapman. That gets old quick!

But aside from saving lots of money by living with another person (other than a significant other), I’m also making a new friend and meeting new people. We have a lot in common and one of those things is hitting the various parties around town. Chris and I went to the Good Look party held at The Beacon in Thornton Park a week or two ago- It sadly might be the last Good Look party, since The Beacon is slated to close soon. We got our photos taken by SmileForCamera.com, and hung out with Ricky Diamond (who I’m hoping is reading this right now and smiling, since he was supposed to look this blog up because he loved the name!) Last night, a group of us went to IBar for College Indie Night, which is always a blast! They also played a good bit of Michael Jackson in honor of the King of Pop’s passing. Tonight I think it will be Back Booth for Midnight Mass- No cover till for those of us who are 21 and up, and there is free beer till the keg floats! I’m not a beer drinker myself, so I’ll be sure to pregame it at Big Belly Brewery with Lauren from French class. BBB has a great deal from 10:30p-11:30p, so get there early!! Its 3-4-1’s on your basic mixed drinks. However, I took out my friend Eric M. for his 21^st the other week and taught him how to order at the bar. Tips I gave him included sticking to 1 bartender if at all possible, tipping well to establish report and a heavy hand, and letting them know, ‘Hey! I just turned 21!’ Although Eric M. was reluctant at first, it served him well and he got 7 Jaeger-amaretto-cokes (tastes like Dr. Pepper!!) all for the low, low price of 2 drinks J Yes, count them- 7 DRINKS! And Jaeger is usually not on that list of liquors that you can do 3-4-1 with.

Got any bar tips?? Post them!! Happy weekending!!!