Plans Change (A Helpful Guide Towards Enjoying a Rather Unintentional Night)

Walking into the party scene, we were welcomed with a nearly empty room. Hold on, let me make sure y’all heard me correctly, NEARLY EMPTY! I mean we purposely showed up an hour late to avoid this situation. The setup itself was decent, but not how I pictured it to be at all. Numerous round tables with chairs were placed in front of a stage, a photoshoot backdrop lined the right side of the entrance, and the buffet area consisted of five tin pans with cases of water. Where was the dance floor? I did not pull out this hourglass fitting dress just to be sitting in a low tinted room all night. 

My friends were just as displeased as I was, yet we continued to make the best out of it by taking countless photos, eating what looked like a sample-sized portion of food, and viewing the formal outfit choices of others. More people, not a lot,  started to pour in as the minutes went by. The event “supposedly” kicked off 45 minutes later with two comedic hosts doing their own set of jokes and comedic routines, along with introducing a few performers. The jokes were a hit and miss, mainly a miss, which left my friends and I looking at each other in disappointment. We were not going to continue to sit there and think about what we could have done this night. Our next actions turned that “could have” into “going to.” So, best believe we were going to have a great night! 

The following section contains the steps my friends and I took to enjoy a rather unintentional night out. 

If you’re confident as heck, just walk out of the event and don’t look back. However, if you’re like my friends and me, then you might create a plan to not draw attention to yourself and make it seem like you are not intentionally leaving the social event. 

• Friend 1: Asks where the bathroom was located as he headed towards the exit.
• Me: Grabs my two water bottles and actively looks for a recycling bin as I make my way towards the exit.
• Friend 2: Nonchalantly grabs her coat and heads towards the exit. (She didn’t care at all!)

Since we only ate a sample-sized portion of food, the three of us decided to go somewhere to pig out, but in a classy manner. We went over the list of restaurants around campus, however, none fit the aura and attire we were currently serving. In the end, we selected The Grand Lux Cafe as our location of interest. 

Our location was a bit far, so taking an Uber seemed to be the most efficient transportation method. I, for one, am not familiar with taking an Uber, so whenever I take one with my friends, it’s almost like a “guess how this is going to go” type of game. Will the Uber driver be nice? Talkative? Sightly creepy? Will the car be junky? Smell weird? The world may never know! Our Uber driver was a bit on the talkative side. The fragrance in his car was so strong, I thought I was entering a trance. Friend 1 mainly communicated with the Uber driver, while Friend 2 texted in the group chat for Friend 1 to stop talking out of his a@@.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were able to show off our formal wear and strut towards our designated table. The overall aura in the restaurant was lovely. The food we ordered was delicious, even though I should have ordered more chicken with my Fettuccine Alfredo (I promise you I only bit into four slices of chicken). The restaurant’s playlist was playing bops. My friends and I were able to converse about the previous event with numerous jokes. Our bellies were full afterward, but our night out was far from being over.

If you are ever attending an event that is less than what you considered it to be, don’t be afraid to be like Friend 2 and walk out of the event and change your plans. Don’t be goofy like me and Friend 1 who had to actually plan an exit strategy. There was LITERALLY no time gap between the three of us leaving!