(Warning: Very Sex & the City post below. Read with a cosmopolitan in hand)

There is a certain time in a newly single girl's life where she suddenly realizes that perhaps this wasn't the worst thing that could happen and that maybe shaving your legs regularly isn't such a burden after all. After recovering from The Great Existential Crisis of 2007 (sometimes awful things happening in rapid succession are similar to ripping off a band aid), I decided that I'd been focusing on only the negative things of the crisis: the three-inch layers in my hair, keeping my apartment cleaner in anticipation of more entertaining, and the fact that I am now going to return to my drunk dialing ways of 2005 for my entertainment.

But there are some great things about being unexpectedly single, not having a dog and your roommate also being recently single. First and foremost: We can leave town whenever we damn well please.

Since this is the first time in the history of the M&MR Roommate Franchise where we have been single concurrently, we decided that it was necessary for us to GTFOA (get the f-outta Austin). A phone call to Natalie, who goes to med school in Houston, and we were set.

I'd never had the opportunity to go to Houston and actually enjoy myself. My trips were limited to the Greater Katy area for horse shows. The only remotely exciting thing I ever did on my many weeks in Katy over the years was go to the Alamo Drafthouse that they built along Mason Dr. and buy a ticket for one for the next showing. This was a good plan except for that the movie was that terrible box-office bomb with David Spade, The Benchwarmers. Yes, I bought a ticket for The Benchwarmers and sat down by myself and proceeded to get tipsy off of three beers.

So you can understand how I might have been looking forward to seeing the actual metropolitan of Houston and spending some time there somewhere other than riding around in circles on a horse or in a hotel room watching Seinfeld.

We drove up to the H on Saturday afternoon. M wanted to stop at the mall, so we met up with Natalie. We went to their somewhat impressive two-story Forever 21, but apparently this is not the place you want to go when you are Temporarily 23 and sporting a haircut that makes you cringe.

(I don't think that I mentioned to my readers that last Saturday I got the world's worst haircut, due to a miscommunication between my hair stylist and me. I think I might have to break up with her too. But just imagine a mullet.)

After announcing that my terrible haircut didn't deserve any new clothes, we gave up and headed to a restaurant called Taco Milagro for dinner. This place was actually pretty cool and I wished only later that I'd gotten some queso for BlogConQueso reviews. At any rate, I had some great chicken tacos. The place itself was like an upscale Taco Cabana. Me gusta.

We then headed back to Natalie's apartment, where M also used to live, in a different unit. We then plotted the night out. I take for granted Austin's wonderful 4th/5th/6th/7th districts, where a bar to suit your fancy is just one stumbling step away. Natalie's friend had recommended we go to Midtown to a club called Hue. So we caught a cab and off we went to Midtown.

When we drove up to Hue (at about 10:30 PM), I felt like I was in some bad movie. We had our cab drive by slowly and realized that there was basically no one there. Men were standing in the parking lot as if they were supposed to be valeting/directing traffic, but there were no cars! Crickets. Our cabbie suggested The Red Door which was around the corner, so he dropped us off there instead.

The Red Door reminded me a lot of a mix between Union Park and Foundation (which I think might have shut down?). The coolest part was definitely that there was no sign, just a red door hidden in the corner of a building behind a (surprise) Mexican food restaurant. We wandered inside and basically looked around and said "Yup. It's a bar."

After standing inside for a while, we decided we were going to walk outside and go down the street to where the cabbie had pointed out another bar a few blocks away. We weren't sure how far we would have to walk. So out we went, and then - aha! - there were about seven men standing, waiting for the valet. Perfect.

I marched up and tapped the blonde one on the shoulder. This led to us being invited to go with them to Escobar. They said it was six blocks away -- definitely not within walking distance. Apparently I tapped the right group of people on the shoulder, since they had a giant Tahoe. Off we went.


We pulled up in a strip mall. And when I say a strip mall, I mean a strip mall. With valet parking, and then a line of people standing waiting to get in. I can now check "See people waiting in line to get into a bar in a strip mall next to a Korean sandwich shop" off my life list.

The clown car emptied, somehow the velvet ropes parted and we were inside. It was all very SATC meets Knocked Up. The place inside was pretty weird -- everything seemed to be made out of plastic and had lights shining through it, including the tables, dance floor, bar top, and bathroom doors. The ceiling was mirrored. The people we befriended had bottle service (it turned out to be one of the dude's birthdays) and this provided a night of free drinks, which I can always get behind.

We managed to take a decent picture where you almost can't see my mullet, so that was also great news.

This is where things got a little insane but the following may or may not have happened:

M & MR had to share a bathroom.
MR dropped her glass.
M, MR & N decided to guess everyone's occupations and the losers took shots.
It required 3 different vehicles to transport us across Houston, but we were all together in each one (that's a little riddle for you).
MR tried to convince a tour bus to take us from the Houston newspaper building to wherever N lives, and failed.
MR & N were propositioned in a parking lot.
N dropped the entire contents of her purse after fleeing said propositioners.
MR had to be back in Austin at 1 PM to go look at a horse with Chrisy.

All in all, it was a good time. I am now officially exhausted. This week work is going to be pretty busy for me too. And I believe there is a run test tomorrow morning. So I am going to sleep.

Oh and because this would not be a SATC post without a question at the end: Are we the new bachelors?