A New Year's Eve to Remember

What a night, what a night.

Well actually, it began at 1pm at Cat's boyfriend's house with them and Jaydee. No matter what people tell you, vodka and spas DO mix.

But the NIGHT. The night was eventful.

Clara oh so kindly decided not to drink and instead to ferry us around in her parents' car all night. For this kind service, I compensated her with a dexy. The crew consisted of her, Sam, Charlie, another regular, Katie-Grey (yes, we have very similar names in real life too) and myself. We all met at Castle to have a few drinks before hitting a themed party (CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE). Of course, none of us dressed up. I have found over the years that Castle are not really theme kind of people. Unless of course they choose the theme and/or it's Halloween. Anything to do with fake blood and zombies gets them going.

The party, in Sam's words, was "bangin'". Clara, Katie-Grey and I had a bit of a dance to some nigga beatzzzz (yes, you do have to be ironic about it) on a makeshift dance-floor and had a bit of a chat to Dunk, who showed up with his girlfriend a bit later. Pity we didn't know too many other people! Sam did though, and when the rest of us went and sat out on the pavement in front of the house to drink and talk, he insisted that we stay for a while longer.

This is why we ended up having our countdown not at a party, but out front of a party. Quite nice really, especially considering that when Katie-Grey gets drunk, she gets mouthy, and I love it. "SKAAAAAAAAANKS" was yelled loudly at a few party-goers just before midnight.

This is the point at which she decides to inform me that she knows some very intimate details of my odd relationship with Sam. To put it frankly, she knows everything. Great.

Awwwwwwwwesome.

And she wont tell me anything!

Please note that all of us are well on our way to being shitfaced here, I had already drunk a quarter of a bottle of rum (gross). Katie-Grey disappeared off home with her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Hopefully they're on again for good!
Then the rest of us piled into Clara's car in order to get to a warehouse party called Concreto. We decided that the warehouse/space used to be an concrete factory, hence the name. I kind of doubt it though, this was drunken logic.
The drive there was epic, considering it should have taken us 15 minutes, but instead lasted for half an hour (at least). We were all drinking in the car (illegal) and Sam was trying to navigate from his iPhone, which I decided was ridiculous, so I co-opted the road map. What resulted was a very drunken Charlie and I trying to navigate from the backseat, yelling about freeways being in the wrong place and THOSE DARN ONE WAY ROADS.
During an attempted u-turn (very illegal) we managed to find a cop car. Greeeeeaaaaat. Thank god Clara hadn't been drinking. Well, I freaked out because she'd had a quarter of one of my rum & cokes about 2 hours earlier, but HEY I was illegally taking shots out of a bottle in the back of a car on new years with drugs in my bag. I think it's kind of fair enough that I was a bit worried.
Thankfully, Clara blew under the limit on the breath test and we finally made it to the party.

Concreto was as you'd expect, big, loud, amazingly lit, with good music and plenty of great people. Immediately upon entering, Sam sidled up to a beautiful girl and started dancing with her. While I am getting over this I'm still not ready to watch this, especially when I'm drunk. I try to ignore it. I talk to Clara and Charlie and some of our other friends. And then some guy drops a glowstick (why were there glowsticks? was this a rave?) at my feet and I start flirting outrageously with him. We dance. He takes me by the waist and kisses me. He takes my hand and leads me out into the party, away from Sam and his doomed attempts to bag this far too good looking girl. This party has suddenly gotten a hell of a lot better.
Turns out this guy's name is Tom and we were in the same political theory unit last semester. Turns out he's very cute. Turns out we have a lot to talk about. This is good.
At around 4am I got too cold to function properly (yeah it was probably mid-20s, but the summer has made me weak), and told Tom that I had to leave. He tried to get me to stay a little longer, let him walk me home, but I declined. No more of this "sure I'll go home with you" bunk. I'm over it. He got my number and I stumbled drunkenly out the door.

In the car, Sam was disgruntled, having failed at bagging the girl, and in my state I thought maybe also because I succeeded while he didn't. Who knows if that's true, or if he sincerely doesn't care what I do and never really did. Clara invited us all back to her empty house, but Sam declined the offer, citing "why would I go to someone else's house when mine's right here?" as a reason. Angryyyyyy Sam. Charlie decided to stay on for the journey and the three of us ended up chatting and drinking until 7am, while the sun slowly rose in the background. Looking back on this, I recognise how ridiculous it was that I was still taking shots out of a rum bottle in Clara's kitchen in the middle of the morning.

When I woke up that afternoon I was still very drunk. What a great New Years.

GUESS WHO'S BACK

Charlie's back!

He arrived completely unexpectedly on Christmas Day after being in Europe for these past 6 months. Best Christmas surprise ever. And McFly is definitely coming back on January 12th. The summer/life is starting to look a whole lot brighter, these two are my absolute favourites.

Yesterday I went over to Castle to hang out with Andy. However, we both ended up getting roped into cleaning and moving Sam's stuff into the front room with him and Dunk. Yep, that's right, Sam's a bonafide Castle resident now. Still unsure how I feel about this, because now I really can't get away from him. And given his recent mixed messages (Grey, come and get dinner with me, come and get breakfast with me, let's watch old 90210 together, I'm just going to fall asleep on your shoulder with my hand wrapped around your arm at a party. But um, I'm going to spend the whole of Saturday night hitting on another girl, whatevs), I think I might want to get away from him. Oh well.

But onto more exciting things. After the clean up, Charlie came over to Castle and talked up a storm about his European adventures mostly featuring 1) Drugs, 2) Girls, and 3) Drugs. Classic Charlie. The whole crew dropped over after that and it was pretty great watching everyone's faces as each of them realised our recent returnee was there. As per usual, we then drank far too much, took some dexies and went out. Although we left Charlie on a mattress in the back room, drunk as fuck. Ohhhhh C. Nothing changes.

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I hurt right now.

My ex sort-of-girlfriend is visiting this little city for 9 days. The reason that was never a real relationship was because she moved interstate a few months after I met her and fell completely head over heels for her. Also, the fact that she was "coming to terms with falling in love with a girl" apparently drove her to make out with men in front of me, WHATEVS. I forgave her for that whole thang though. I haven't seen her since March, so I thought I'd be over it and be able to hang out with her without getting emotionally attached all over again.

How wrong I was.

The moment I saw her I realised just how much I'd missed her and her enthusiasm for life. She's changed a bit, but it's all for the better. She's more punctual, she's less flighty, she's less of a "loose woman". In fact, she's become more like the person I always wished she would be.
She met me after I finished work and we got coffee, which was perfectly civilised. Within 15 minutes of walking around after coffee though, it degenerated into us walking arm-around-waist and arm-around-shoulder like old, loving times.

Fuck, I've missed her.

She bought a bottle of champagne and we took it back to my house. We made a toast over an Edith Piaf record in my room, and then she dressed me for the Friday night ahead.

I'd forgotten how beautiful she was.

We walked into the Io (latenighthipster) Cafe like a golden couple. I couldn't stop smiling. She bought me a rose from a vendor and we shared a vegetarian pizza while holding hands under the table. A friend later told me I was glowing.

I'd forgotten how happy she makes me.

We went to a string of bars with a string of people and I just couldn't stop touching her. Pity that Sam was there. I've been sleeping with him on and off for awhile now, but I'd resolved that it was just fucking, with no strings attached. He'd seen another girl for few weeks while we were at the height of our liason and it seemed like he really liked her, so obviously he doesn't like me. Right? Otherwise he surely would never have gone home with her over me. However, he and my ex go way back and he really doesn't like her, so naturally he is a little protective of me around her.

Whatever.

We all ended up at Slew and danced the night away on a couple of dexies. It was probably the best time I've had there in months. Everyone was out to see her and we all just danced and danced and danced.

Here comes the tricky part.

She told me that she doesn't want to "stir shit" while she's here, because she's moved on from doing stuff like that now. She's moved away, grown up a bit and wants to salvage her sullied reputation in this town. Fair enough right? But she thinks that getting involved with me will "stir shit" with Sam. I told her that was highly doubtful, as we are just friends who enjoy certain benefits and he doesn't want me in that way.
AU CONTRAIRE, she said, apparently he had told his ex (remember Joanie?) that he regretted ever getting involved with the other girl, really liked me, and was resolving to ask me out in the next couple of weeks.
My only response was: WHAT THE FUCK?!
He was the one who rejected me, this makes no sense!
I told her that I didn't give a shit about his feelings anymore and that she was only here for 9 days and he could suck it up for that long and then could have me back afterwards.

You see, I'm fucking crazy for her, all over again.

However, as we were walking out of Slew, Sam pulled her aside and they had a chat. Then she came to me and informed me that he had whispered to her, "Don't you dare go home with Grey tonight, I want her."
What a fucking presumptuous, manipulative, underhanded, hypocritical bastard.
I wouldn't have told the other girl he went home with to back off because I was sleeping with him! And since when is it his prerogative to decide who I do and do not go home with?! I can fucking well do what I please, thankyou, I'm a big girl.

I was so, so angry.

Needless to say I was even more angry when all I could do was watch powerlessly as she got into a cab and it drove off into the night, taking her further and further away from my bed.
And, my life being what it is, Sam, not knowing that she'd told me exactly what he said, decided he was going to walk me home, right to my door like old times. And of course, he has to drop this little gem, "You're the only girl I've ever been attracted to who isn't mentally unstable ... no, attracted isn't the right word ... I mean ... not that I'm not attracted to you! Just .... oh forget it, I don't know what I'm saying."
What he was saying was that he fucking likes me, wants to date me, and can't wait until the 9 days that she is bringing a light into my life are over. I mean, sure. I like him well enough. I've grown really quite fond of him. But he doesn't make me smile like my life couldn't possibly get any better. He doesn't make me feel like we're the only ones in the room. He doesn't make me want to gloat over how happy I am.

That's all her.

So I refused to respond to his leading statement, because I knew that the moment I acknowledged his romantic advances I would have to discuss the idea of dating him. And maybe I do want to date him, but he just pales into insignificance when she's around. So he can have me when she's gone, but right now, I just want to be "blissfully unaware" of his feelings for me so I can have her.

Next weekend, fuck him, fuck her sensibilities, I'm taking her home with me and I'm going to wake up with my arm around her and smile like my life couldn't possibly get any better.

Getting to Know You

Evening, Morning, Afternoon.

This is your blogger Gray, posting for the very first time. We decided to start this blog in order to keep a bit of a record of our adventures & to give anyone who may read about them an interesting few minutes (we hope!). So please, dig in and enjoy. I'd like to start this off with a bang, so here's the story of my weekend:

Friday Night
WHAT A DOOZY kids. Really.
Friday started off horrible, cold and rainy. I was quite prepared not to go out at all (but when has that ever happened, right?).

To kick things off, Blondie J came to my house for some chats & shops - also to avoid uni study, seems like a normal Friday already. She talked me into going with her to Jaydee's house to watch a few movies with them & Cat. A grrrly night in. I was meant to go to a party with the Castle kids (necessary backstory: 3 of them live in a house together, known as "Castle" & they have an extended group of friends who all hang out together all the time, also known as Castle. Total scene queens and fun as. I have come to be not one of them, but a Castle acquaintance at least. And I have never known any of them to do anything by half measures). However, the Castle party got cancelled & so they were all just going to go hang out at Castle instead, I decided I might go over there later if I wasn't too tired. SO Jaydee's it was.

We got out Sleepless in Seattle (which I had never seen! How that's possible at the age of 18, I don't know either, cats). Sooooooooooooo mooshy & ridiculous. But fun.
Then I got Blondie to drive me home so I could decide from there (nb. Castle is a mere 5 minutes walk from my house, how convenient, right?). I arrived home to a slightly drunken step mother who had been out on the town with an artist friend of hers. I was still vacillating between calling friends and staying home, so she pounced on the opportunity and convinced me to go out for a drink with her. I suggested that we hit the best oldies bar in town, College (so ironic, love it), at which a good friend of mine, Shark, works. She is beautiful & so always complains about the fact that her tips get pooled at the end of the night (HA).

So off stepmum & I go for a couple of vodkacranberries (the poor man's cosmo) with a little extra vods from Shark (thanks ma cherie). SM complains about the lack of any "men she finds cute - AT ALL" and all I can do is reply, "Well what did you expect, it's a 40+ cruising ground, seriously??". As I started to get a bit liquored (thank you SM for not finishing your drink, thank you Shark for giving me a nearly-full beer that would otherwise have been doomed as "spillage") I of course decided that the night was yet young and ready for the taking so I messaged the adorable Sam. The S man has recently been adopted by Castle after breaking up with his long term girlfriend, as most of their mutual friends still hang out with her *awkward*, and Castle love him for his style & his allnightlongparty(butquietly) attitude. In short, he is lovely, and by far the most reliable of everyone who hangs out at Castle, far more than the beautiful but impossible McFly who I had been talking to about hangouts earlier.

A hop, skip & a jump later and there I was, bottle of red in hand, at Castle. All the crew were there, about 10 in all. I said hi & took a seat out on the back porch in one of their nice, unsteady plastic chairs (I was really gunning for the wheelchair they have, but it had been rained on). Pleasantries & chitchat about snuggies & pug dogs out of the way, it was decided that everyone would stay in (given the awful weather) and drop a pill. Thankfully there was a spare so I could have one (oh, how lucky I was). Just as it started to kick in, Charlie, everyone's favourite Brit, suggested that we go out & hit the town. I agreed, not wanting to waste a good high. I mean, I enjoy staying in & having a gab with friends, but this shit was proving itself to be STRONG and I just wanted to dance! Something that would be ohso against the rules at Castle (they're a little too hip to do something like that). I found myself thanking my lucky stars for Charlie & his initiative because I was in the happiest, loved-up place of my life. I kept giggling at C while he was changing the music in his car. Just before we arrived it occurred to me that if I felt like that, he too felt like that and ... WAIT A SECOND HOW ARE YOU DRIVING???? "Oh don't worry Gray, I'm not as bad as you ... this is like a Friday night ritual anyway, I pretty much go on autopilot."
Right you are Charlie. We do go to the same place every week.

So I've gotta tell ya, our favourite club/bar Slew is a bit of a blur. Although we were there from at least 1:30 to 4am.
A few highlights for you all:

• DANCEDANCEDANCE
• Smokesmokesmoke (horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible)
• Seeing my friend Bella who is SUCH a smouldering beauty wearing furs & running with her to find some gum.
• Hugging Charlie on the dance floor approximately 5 times throughout the night
• Kissing a girl who was an ex of Charlie's while he smoked yet another rolly outside in the rain
• Introducing myself to the girl Charlie hooked up with not only this night, but ALSO the week before, in order to find out for him what her name was
• Being photographed yet again by the scene photographer who pulls off a Buddy Holly haircut & glasses combo very well; reminding me that I spend wayyyy too much time here
• Receiving a message from Sam informing me that Charlie & I were "missing out on some loving vibes" back at Castle

At close (4am) Charlie & I headed back to his car, with the girl I kissed/his ex who begged a lift home. Was this awkward you ask? Surprisingly not my friends. But that might just have been all the serotonin bouncing around in my synapses switching off my capacity for awkwardness.

So Charlie dropped me back at Castle in the pouring rain where I knocked on the door a good 3 times (!) before considering calling Sam to come let me in. For some weird reason I decided this would be presumptuous. What is up with my brain kids??? Whatever, I was pretty wet as well & didn't like the thought of sitting outside in the freezing cold for another 3 hours. So I just walked back to my house & my warm, comfy bed.

Ok, lies. I sat on facebook/blogs/email for another hour at least before bed. But then bed!

Saturday
So on Saturday afternoon I woke up FEELING AMAZING. Really kids, this was a great flip. I was actually still a little high. Shortly after picking up some lunch I get an odd text from McFly (who is my closest friend among the Castle kids, and the one with whom I have the most complicated relationship) saying "Msg her."

What the hell this was about I have no idea.

The girl I kissed last night???? Maaaaybe. But he never told me why.
MCFLY WHY ARE YOU SO CONFUSING
I'll do some digging & get back to you readers.

Anyway, I messaged back querying what the hell he was talking about & suggested he come over for some lunch if he was still in the area. The boy never eats, it's necessary. Half an hour later my doorbell rings.
"Oh, it's McFly!", I exclaim.
Oh but no. I open the door to a whole bevvy of boys (my favourite kind, pity I'm good friends with them all hehe).

Let's have a list, shall we?

• McFly (American, beautiful, tempting, unattainable)
• Sam (lovely)
• Andy (the reddest of heads, gay, quiet but intriguing, one of the 3 who actually lives at Castle)
• Ivan (Andy's boyf, a new addition to the set)
• Max Dunkeld, often referred to as "Dunkeld" (a photographer & the most enigmatic inhabitant of Castle Street. He once told me that I had "a look about me that made it seem like I knew the answers to all questions - like a sage or an oracle". See what I mean? Best compliment I've ever gotten though.)

So the boys & I had a nice chat on my back veranda with Turkish bread, salami, dip & chocolate biscuits. What a pleasant surprise it was. Pity I hadn't had the presence of mind to change out of my velvet leggings WITH A HOLE IN THE CROTCH. Don't be surprised when I tell you I kept my legs crossed the entire time until I could contrive a reason to go to my room & change into some jeans. Thank goodness for oversized men's t-shirts!

After they left I had finally come down from Friday night's recreation aid & had located a joint. One that was far, far stronger than I had expected, because I was a slowwwwwwwwwwwww mess for the next 4 hours.
A special sorry must go to Shark who came to visit me in this state, my memory of our conversations is a giggly blur. Also apologies to my cousin, who called our house to tell us she just got engaged to her long-term boyf (congratulations!!); I totally couldn't appreciate it.
Just as I was beginning to come out of it Andy invited me to come over to Castle to help him with an essay he was writing. He was home alone and HATES that, and I love essay writing, so really it was a match made in heaven. Right here is where you can pinpoint where I went wrong:

1. Spending time outside on the Castle porch for copious smokebreaks (Andy smoking, not me!) in the chilling cold
2. Happily taking the half a dexie Andy offered me to stay awake/get out of stonerville
3. Staying at Castle until Andy was 3/4 of the way through the essay, at which time it was around 3am

Add 1, 2 and 3 together in a human mixing bowl, marinate until Sunday morning and VOILA, we have severe, bed-confining, tonsillitis.
Not. Alright.

So dear readers, this is tonsillitis-y Gray signing off her very first post on All Our Weekends.
I hope you have enjoyed & learnt something from my escapades: Take many substances, sit out in the cold, don't sleep, don't eat well & you WILL become ill.

Chat to you later cats,

Gray.