<<<Long Post
Alert>>> In my last post I briefly touched on my work in
the promotional industry and how I apply to work gigs for various companies.
One of the biggest gigs that us promotional people vie for each year is the
Auto Show circuit.
If you haven't been to an
auto show at some point in time in your life it can really be a treat. There
are futuristic/concept cars (like the flying car I saw at the NY auto show this
April), vintage cars from the 50’s, really pretty shiny chrome blinding your
eyes and new car smell wafting through the air. And let’s not forget the people
dressed to impress: normally ghetto fabulous teenagers wearing stilettos and
skimpy neon clothes and minority youth with spray painted Letterman jackets.
Why dress up to walk around all day? Oh, because you might meet your boo at the
auto show this year! What a great story to tell your grandchildren when you
turn 32! O_o
The auto shows are in
major cities all over the US and internationally. The biggest ones are in
Detroit (where the major car companies are), New York and Chicago, but there
are ones in Podunk towns like Kansas City too.
If you want to be apart of
the circuit, you have to audition by looking cute, reading a script and smiling
until your face hurts. If you are a stunningly attractive specimen that wet
dreams are made of you’re in! Winning a job on the circuit is great because not
only do you get paid a ridiculous amount to talk about cars all day with hot
strangers (more often it’s creepy old guys who try to take pictures up your
skirt) but you also get new clothes custom picked by the car companies
themselves and an all expense paid trip to various cities to boot.
The perks of the job are
great but the after parties are even greater! On the last night of the Auto
Show if you haven’t been a bitch or alienated yourself from your co-workers due
to sheer exhaustion, chances are some serious celebrating is in order. I mean
you just worked 12-hour days for 10 days straight! Time to get loose, drunk and
curse someone out that shorted you on a lunch break during the show.
At the end of the Chicago
Auto Show last year my co-workers and I decided to go out a bar in
Wrigleyville. My good friend, we’ll call her Lil (because she’s 5’3) and I
met up with the rest of the Jeep crew at a bar called Rebel. We paid $20 for
unlimited drinks and we danced, giggled and drank to our hearts content. I
watched white guys attempt to do the Dougie (I honestly think they like that
dance more than black folk do), got my legs massaged under a table and later on
was offered to become a ‘kept woman’ by my boss.
At one point I was sitting
with *Liam, a cute nerdy guy who delegated the crew's lunch breaks when he told
me that he thought I was a “very pretty girl” and that I “shouldn’t second
guess myself.” Well I don’t know where that last part came from but I was glad
that he thought I was pretty! Maybe he was hinting that I should’ve tried to
jump him and he wouldn’t have rebuffed my advances.
I’m pretty sure we were
rowdy and as a result the bar kicked us out at 1:30am instead of the normal
2am. Half of the crew wanted to go home so after hugging and kissing goodbye to
half the team one of my co-workers, we'll call him *Red Head, suggested that we
go to the bar Trace which stayed open until 5 and was only down the street. At
this point I had consumed 3 Tequila sunrises, 2 Vodka lemonades and a Rum and
Diet Coke. As my friends know, I’m not a drinker so basically I was
wasted.
F trying to avoid having a
hangover the next day. It's a celebration bitches! It wasn’t like I had
anywhere to be the next morning so what the heck, to Trace we go! Lil Candy, Alfi, Red Head's cousin (whose name I can not remember for the life of
me) and I all climbed into Candy’s Mercedes SUV and drove the 45 seconds down
the street to Trace, while Red Head and Brad walked. We all grabbed a booth
near the back of the bar and ordered more drinks and talked about things that
drunk people talk about.
"Would you get your
boyfriend a threesome for Christmas?...Should I get my boobs done? Nooo you
should get your butt done though..... No no no listen, what if we all had x-ray
vision?"
Brad fell asleep sitting
straight up and the bouncer came over and told us that ‘he can NOT sleep in
here” so I picked him up as best I could and dragged him outside so he could
get some cold Chicago air on him and wake up a bit. Finally we went back inside
and Lil proceeded to play with his hair as if he was a puppy looking for
attention. Alfi and I wanted Corona’s so we went to the bar to get some and
ended up kissing. There were two guys at the bar who were hitting on us, so I
lied and said she was my girlfriend and we weren’t interested. Of course to
drive the point home we had to kiss. I’m not proud of it, but it happened. I
mean, I am not that girl and I actually despise that type of girl – the girl
that gets drunk and makes out with her friends for the sole amusement of guys –
but you have to do what you have to do to keep the creepers at bay. DON'T JUDGE
ME lol.
Finally it was nearing 5am
– where did the last 3.5 hours go? - and everyone was a bit hungry so we went
across the street to a Vienna Hot Dog place to grab a bite to eat. Lil looked
like she was hurting from alcohol so I ordered us two spinach pies so that she
could get some food in her to soak up the booze. I vaguely remember her walking
outside (I think she was going to be sick) and I had to go out there and help
her not fall on the concrete. She fell anyway. A Cabby asked us if I needed
help to which I said, “No, we’re fine thank you,” and I dragged Lil back in
the restaurant as best I could. I sat next to Brad and Red Head and we talked
about who knows what for some time when I noticed Lil was missing. Thinking
she had gotten sick again, I looked outside and around the back of the
restaurant but didn’t see her. Everyone was ready to go but I had no clue
where Lil could be could be. After 5 minutes or so of searching for her, Brad
and Redhead got in a taxi and headed home, and then Candi and Alfi got in their
car to go home as well. Redhead’s Italian cousin, whose name I still can’t
remember – walked me to my car and told me he would drive me home since
obviously I was in no condition to drive anywhere. I wouldn’t have even
attempted to drive in that state, but I’m sure if I had, I would have turned on
the car and immediately driven into a tree.
My phone was pretty much
dead so I put it on the car charger while Redhead's cousin and I rode around
looking for Lil and talking about music. I turned the radio to a rock station
and he said, “I never hung out with a black girl that liked Nirvana” and I
replied, “well maybe you’ve been hanging out with the wrong black girls.”
For the record I wasn't trying to flirt. I'm a natural flirt and can't help if
things I say unintentionally sound as though I want the D. Plus Redhead's
cousin was not my idea of cute. He was maybe 5'8 or 5'9 and stocky. He had a
barrel chest, pointy nose like a rodent and he wore Ed Hardy. He seems nice
though, you know, personality wise.
It was 6 in the morning
and I had pretty much given up hope on finding Lil, so Redhead's cousin
said he would drive me home, park my car and then take a cab back home, to
which I agreed. On the way home, once my phone was charged enough to actually
make a phone call I thought it couldn’t hurt to call Lil and when I did a man
answered her phone.
“Hello? Is this TK? It
says TK on the caller ID.”
“Yea!!!,” I said, getting
a little hysterical that a strange man had answered Lil’s phone,” Where
is Lil?!”
“She’s right here in my
truck. I’m the bouncer from Trace. I found her outside”
Lil gets on the phone
and tries her version of communicating intelligently, also known as slurring
her words and hiccuping uncontrollably.
“Hey," hiccup hiccup.
"I’m okay." Jussss come and gets me”. Hiccup
“Oh my gosh, where are
you?”
“At the, hiccup, "hot
dog place, in a truck.”
So Redhead’s cousin and I
head back to the hot dog place. When we get there I thank the bouncer for
finding and helping my friend (but really I’m thanking him for not raping and
leaving her for dead in a back alley of a Wrigleyville bar) and then I carry
her to my car and put her in the backseat. I’m feeling very sober at this
time (even though I’m probably not) so I tell Redhead’s cousin that he can
drive to his place and I’ll just hang out for a while until I’m sober enough to
drive and take Lil and I home. That way he won’t have to shell out for a cab,
especially since he’s been so helpful and gentlemanly thus far. Lil then
proceeds to get sick in the back seat, so I roll down the window and let her go
to town on the side walk, but most of the spinach pie from earlier ends up on
my passenger side back car door. When we get to Redhead's cousin place I
realize that him, Redhead and a guy I worked at the auto show with all live
together. Good thing Lil is 5'3 and 120 to my 5'9 and (none of your damn
business) so I'm able to carry/drag her to the elevator (I’ve been doing a lot
of manual labor tonight) and place her on the couch. Brad is there and Redhead
is rolling. We sit and talk about herbal tea, what political parties we belong
to and other nonsense. When Lil comes to, for some reason her shirt is
unbuttoned and she jumps into the conversation bright eyed and bushy tailed and
gets loud in only a way that a drunk Lil can. I, on the other hand am so
exhausted from the night’s events (namely carrying around 120lbs of Lil's dead weight) that I wobble into Redhead's bedroom and curl up in his bed
escaping Redhead's cousin's oogling eyes. I vaguely remember Lil coming in
and putting the covers over me and telling me I’ll be all right. However, it
could have all been a dream, I mean I was drinking for hours on end.
I wake up in the morning
afternoon all groggy but surprisingly not hung-over. I stumble into the
bathroom and then into the living-room, curl up on the abnormally large,
corduroy brown beanbag chair where Brad is sleeping and get under the covers
next to him. Redhead realizes he has an interview in an hour or so he rushes to
get dressed. Soon everyone starts to stir and we discuss what transpired last
night.
Redhead to Lil: “I have
never seen someone talk so much about nothing in my life. At one point you got
on your knees and were like ‘No no no no no, you’ve got to understand’ but you
weren’t explaining anything.”
Everyone laughs
Red Head: “Oh, and I hope
you don’t have to take a drug test any time soon because last night you...”
Lil: “What?”
Red Head: “At first you
said you don't do that, then you took it from me.” He looks over at me while
finishing up the buttons on his shirt.
Red Head to me: “Didn’t we
make out last night? Twice?"
Me: I look at him wide eyed
Red Head: “This isn’t
going to effect our working relationship is it?”
Me: "Nah, I will
continue to work with you like nothing happened."
Red Head: "Good. Since you feel that way, I should tell you we
hooked up too. I won't tell your boyfriend if you don't"
Hooked up?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteWell you know, things happen lol
ReplyDeleteI've read all of your blogs in the past 2 days.
ReplyDeleteI can't laugh any more. 😂