I was living in the colonial park condos with my roommate Shalini. We had moved in in August of 2005 and we were both out on our own for the first time. I had lived in the dorms for awhile but this was my first time having to juggle school, work, and an apartment.
During the day I was working at Liberty Elementary school as a teachers aide, but at night I was partying my hiney off. We were great friends with the two single guys that lived next door to us. Kenny and Jay were the only "single" owners along with us that lived in the complex, and we soon became their little sisters as they became our big brothers. We weren't the favorite on the block for the obvious reasons that we partied pretty hard. What else do you expect when you are that young and you are invincible. The world was at my feet and I was living life to the fullest.
We would frequent the NCO club on Fort Stewart a lot. Sometimes we would head out to Savannah but for the most part we stayed local. I had this ritual every Friday night. It went like this......Get home at 4PM, say hey to the roomie, chill out for awhile, you know watch TV, stare into space, then 8 pm would roll around and I would start to get ready. I would spend about an hour picking out just the perfect outfit. It usually consisted of Jeans, a blouse, or a jersey depending on what look I wanted to go with. My K-Swiss sneakers were a must if I was wearing a jersey. They were all the rage back then and you had to keep them as white as you could. My hair used to be down to my hiney and it was thick, healthy, and the shiniest shade of black that you could see. By 9PM I would hop in the shower and start on my hair. Blow drying it took quite awhile to do. I would spend about 45 minutes on my hair and about 15 on my make up. Then came ironing the clothes, you had to have just the perfect crease in your jeans. By 11PM I was ready. We would hop into either my car or Kennys car and head out for the club. We would then spend the next 4 hours dancing our hearts out and getting hammered. Now we did ALWAYS have a designated Driver so there were nights where I would just dance, dance until I couldn't anymore, until I had muscle failure. For a while we would head out to the Hardees for a 4 AM breakfast but there were always so many fights and the drama there was no fun at all so we started coming back to the house and cooking breakfast. We would stay up eat, drink and play cards until the sun came up. Finally at about 6AM would would all go our separate ways and I would crash until about noon the next day.
Well one Friday I came home in a foul mood to say the least. I remember just feeling like I needed a break from it all. Time for myself....but wait.....Shanez not going to the club?.....that just wasn't right. When Kenny found out he was at the door in an instant to find out if everything was OK. I explained that I was just in a bad mood and thought that maybe a little extra sleep would do me some good. This answer wasn't sitting well with him and he kept pushing to make sure that nothing was wrong. By this time I felt like I was being interrogated, no I am not mad, No no one hurt my feelings, but YES YOU ARE GETTING ON MY NERVES!!! This is how the conversation went.
ME: No, Not only do I not feel like the club tonight, I don't have the money for it.
KENNY: That's OK I gotcha, I'll pay for you to get in.
ME: Well that's really sweet but it's no fun going to the club in this mood and not have a few
drinks.
KENNY: I said I gotcha. The whole nights on me.....but only if you bake your corn bread muffins in the morning.
ME: I have nothing to wear.
KENNY: I will let you borrow my jersey, you know the one that you always want to borrow and I always say no.
ME: It's already almost 10 and I will never be ready on time.
KENNY: We can wait.
Now my roommate is sitting back snickering because she knows that I am about to cave. I finally do and run up to get ready. I jumped in the shower. Dried my hair a little, pulled it all back in a tight ponytail, applied some lipstick and nothing else in the form of makeup, threw on the jersey and K-Swiss and was like OK lets go. We get to the club and its in full effect. Kenny brings us all a round of drinks...my favorite Rum and Coke, and the PARTY begins. I can feel my bad mood slipping away and I am grateful for being dragged out of the house for a fun filled Friday night. Since I had lived in Hinesville since I was 12 I knew most of the people at the club. I went to middle school and high school with them. Every weekend was like a mini reunion. We would all spread out and mingle, dance a little bit, mingle a little bit, and so on and so on. We would always find our way back to each other though and never let too much time slip by. Kenny kept the drinks coming and it was time for a refill so we all danced our way back to the bar. This was also the place that you would introduce anyone that the others didn't know. That night Kenny says "Hey, this is my boy Slade". I remember those words so clearly still today because Kenny knew how I felt about dating soldiers......I didn't. He was also very protective of me and knew how most young soldiers were. I said hello and we all started talking. This Slade guy was hilarious. He had me in stitches. Some guy came over and asked me to dance so off I went into the abyss that they called a dance floor. I am getting my groove on and I see Slade dancing. We make eye contact and he gives me the look of help me. The girl he is dancing with has her back turned to me and I for the life of me can't imagine why he would give me that look. A few seconds later she turns around with a big grin on her face and lo and behold now I see why. Homegirl was missing some teeth. I couldn't help myself I busted out laughing, right there on the dance floor. The poor guy that I was dancing with didn't get it and I sure wasn't about to explain so I just said I was done dancing for awhile. I was almost in tears as I filled Kenny and Shalini in on the situation. We sat at the bar and had a good laugh watching Slade having to get his groove on with the toothless lady. After the song he just about ran over to us and we of course we had to tease him. He said "she came up to me and asked me to dance, I didn't want to be rude, and by the time I got out there it was too late to run". As he is trying to get out of the jabbing, and we are laying it on him full force, my song came on. I jumped up and before I knew it Slade was asking me to dance. I think I said something like "sure" then I smiled and said "See, I have all my teeth". We both cracked up and headed to the dance floor. He was a great dancer and we had some great conversation on the dance floor as well. Then a slow song came on and the conversation got even better. Kenny's "Boy Slade" and I danced together for the rest of the night. After the club closed we went to Kenny's for breakfast and a game of spades. He invited Slade to come over too. We got there and I had to bake the corn bread muffins so I ran home and got everything. Kenny was a great cook and I couldn't wait. I was starving. We started a game of spades that soon turned into a drinking game. Slade was trying to take me on in the drinking game. Kenny even warned him that I could hold my own, he said so could he. Really we will see. Before I knew it I had taken quite a few shots and knew that I needed to slow down. By this time Jay had returned with his hoochie mama. Even though we loved Jay he had a knack for liking some scanky girls. We ended the party at Kenny's and headed back over to our condo. We sat around in the living room for awhile, until we all started getting tired. Kenny and Shalini fell asleep on the floor and I crashed on one side of my couch and Slade on the other.
to be continued.....
Colonial Park Condos in Hinesville GA.
My condo would have been on the right and Kenny and Jay's was on the left.
