Abbendonza!!

So Friday Rex (my boss) came into my office and offered me a ticket to this event, Abbendonza. I has seen some advertisements about it and knew it was food and music, but wasn't sure about it. It was a charity event in town to raise money for Junior Achievement and the United Way. The ticket was $55 and it was held at The Ohio Building, which is this cool old building in Terre Haute where they have a lot of event and stuff. I had never been there, but a friend of mine from undergrad is an event planner there.

I asked him who else was going and he sent me a list. It looked like a fun group but I was hesitant to commit so I told him I'd think about it. We went to lunch and Heather M was there. She works for our Center for Public Service and Community Engagement and was the campus contact for the event. She pulled me aside and asked me if I was going. I've been to charity events with Heather before and she's a lot of fun and she is also one of those people that says just about everything she is thinking, which I find amusing. So I decided to go. I then texted a couple of my other friends in town, Jaime and Heather (Heather is the one who works at The Ohio Building) to see if they were going to be there. Jaime wasn't but Heather was. Yay! Funny thing about both Jaime and Heather. I've been back in Terre Haute for two years now and I've seen them both twice... am making promises to myself to make more of an effort to see them both more.

Anyway, so the event is "dress casual" which works for me. I was excited because I don't get much of a chance anymore to get all dressed up to go out. We usually hang out at my house or sports bars.. with the same group of people, so there is no one to impress which means there is no reason to wear anything but tshirt and jeans.

Sigh -- I miss going out out...

So, I get to the event and right away know it's going to be two things:
1. An event that I'm pretty much going to need to drink a fair amount of alcohol in order to feel comfortable.
2. PRIME people watching. Ahh Terre Haute-- how I love you!! People were dressed in anything from tiny tiny micro mini skirts to prom dresses to ripped jeans and a tshirt. I love how unpretentious this town is...

So I get me a drink and sit down at our table and trade chit chat with Elonda, our new Director of the Career Center and watch people. We were on the 2nd floor and the band playing was amazing. They played a bunch of 80's and 90's pop and rock. They had me when they rocked out with Billy Joel's "You May Be Right." Anyway there was this old couple out there dancing it up -- it was adorable. This this other gentleman joined them. He had to be 90 and was dressed to the 9's. He had on white dress slacks, a white dress shirt and a white fedora. his tie was black, white and gold striped, and the band on his hat matched. He also had on white patent leather shoes... it was HOT. This guy was deaf as a door nail, but he danced like a 21 year hold.. he got low and was hip bumping. then he started grinding with a lady -- WOW it was interesting. He sat down at our table and asked Heather to dance and she did. It was entertaining -- then he followed her around the rest of the night.

After a few drinks, Elonda bailed and Amber (Heather's friend) and her husband and Heather's husband decided to leave for a while. So Heather and I decided to get up and check the rest of the place out. We ended up on the roof where they were playing Caribbean music. We danced and started being silly. We noticed that whenever a new woman would join us on the dance floor they all made the same funny face... so we started doing it to make each other laugh. She introduced me to some new folks and we had a great time. But it was hot so we soon headed back down to our table. the band down there was called Switchback and we had a lot of fun. Several of the girls we were dancing with on the roof came down with us and we were rockin out. So much fun!! I can't remember the last time I got to dance like that. I miss dancing. I think it may have been the one night at pub when i wanted to dance and no one was in Club Divine so all the guys went with me and Erica and we all danced for like a half hour in an empty bar... that was fun too. Anyway -- we had a great time. then the band took a break and Heather and I hung out with the guitar player -- Brian or Dave maybe?? and his wife Amy. then we danced some more. Amber and the husbands came back and stood and watched us dance then they decided it was time to go so we left around 10:30.

What a fun fun night!! I really really miss going out like that and listening and dancing to live music. AWESOME!!