T. G. I. Effing Friday

Man, do I appreciate Fridays lately. For the past couple of weeks, I have been living for the weekend, y'all.

Let me explain. I graduated college last May with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. I didn't get much experience outside of the classroom, so I felt a little confused with where to turn next. What kind of job could I even get? Did I need a doctorate to do anything worthwhile? Why, oh why, did I get this degree? Who would want to hire me based on my random knowledge of Freud?

I didn't worry about it too much. Stressing wouldn't improve my future plans. I figured I could take some time to look into all my options. After all, I had a steady job bookkeeping at a small grocery store and they offered me a full time position after I graduated. I worked there all throughout college in addition to having a hefty academic scholarship, so I had no student loans. It wasn't exactly my dream job, but I began to save a lot of money since I continued living at home and tuition payments were out of the equation. No matter what my future was going to bring, a nice savings account couldn’t hurt.

I was still dating Mike and we spent a lot of time together over the summer. Mike was a year older than me but didn’t exactly follow the four-year college plan, so he had another year of school left. Even though I was working full time and he had two summer jobs, we still had a lot of free time. Maybe all that time together hurt us in the end. We had some problems earlier in our relationship but they rarely came up that summer. In hindsight, our relationship started to grow stale. Sometimes I would drive to his house to hang out with him and end up taking a nap while he went out with his friends. He would invite me, of course, but I would tell him to have a guy’s night. We both knew the reality was that I’d rather snooze than hang out with his friends.

I would occasionally spend weeknights looking into graduate programs or jobs in psychology with growth potential, but I didn’t take it all that serious. I was content with my life, even though I did want to move on from the grocery store.

When Mike broke up with me, I threw myself into looking for new life paths. I'm glad I did, because I made the deadline for the graduate program at the university where I received my undergraduate degree. I made my schedule for the spring semester. I decided to continue working full-time while adding three night classes. I have finished two weeks and while I’m glad to be back in school, it’s difficult with a full-time job. However, I’m rationalizing that a hectic week means an even sweeter weekend.

So last Friday, after my week consisted of three syllabuses demonstrating just how difficult my semester would really be, I anxiously sent a group text to Anna, Darlene, and Jessica insisting on a girl’s night and enhancing the offer by volunteering to drive. After that, it didn’t take much convincing before they all agreed to go bar hopping in a town twenty minutes away. I rushed out of work so I could get home and begin my girl outing preparation. Sometimes I preferred being the designated driver, because I didn’t have to worry that my make-up and hair would fall victim to my sloppy antics. By eight o’clock, I was out the door with an energy drink in hand.

That night we ended up at three different bars. The first one was dead, but we loitered there for a while based on Anna insisting that her New Year’s Eve man was going to stop by. Eventually, she texted him to let him know we were leaving. She didn’t even get a response. Guys can be the worst.

The second bar was much better. Guys with flannel shirts and beards lined the walls. “Hubba, hubba,” muttered Darlene.

It didn’t take long before a guy near us started talking to Jessica. His friends quickly followed suit. Our two groups merged into one. I was particularly attracted to a particular guy, so I performed my trademarked flirting technique of shyly looking at him and playing with my hair until he got the hint. I know, I’m so slick. Fortunately, it worked. His name was Evan and he had the most defined jaw line I have ever seen. It wasn’t long before the guy talking to Jessica turned to the rest of us and asked if we’d go to another bar.

“We know the bartender and promised we’d head over there,” he told us. I looked at Jessica who feverishly nodded to let me know she was into him.

“Sounds fun!” I replied. Anna and Darlene, who had been talking to the other four or five guys, also nodded at Jessica’s new man friend.

“Okay then,” he said with a smile. He turned and grabbed Jessica’s hand before leading the group out of the bar. I could always tell when Jessica was really into a guy, because she would let him make physical contact with her in public.

Evan continued to stay close to me the whole walk over to the other bar and began asking me a lot of questions about myself. It felt so effortless to just talk to him. Once in the dimly lit bar, he still didn’t make any creepy moves. He looked me in the eyes while we conversed about our families and education. Where has this hidden gem been hiding? He was a complete gentleman and they were all cool in general. We couldn’t have asked for a better night.

Jessica texted me and told me her guy wants us all to go out with them in New York City tomorrow night. Now I just need to figure out what to wear.