Valentine's Weekend (part 1) 2010

Went for a couple of events last night.

Both of them duds.

I don't know why I even bothered. According to the bartender at the second place, "this is the slow season" it picks up right after February. Okay, I will take your word for it. It took everything in me to go out too. One because I was broke and I said I would try to save up for my vacation and two, because it was freaking cold and the snow was coming. Valentine's Day weekend is never a good time to go out. 3 years of going out on this weekend, I should compile the statistics by now.

The first place was at Palomar Hotel (which I have heard so much about by the way) for the Queen of Hearts Social Club Cocktail party. We were met by Blane Bachelor, which I had never heard about, apparently she's the local Atlanta columnist, sort of our own version of Carrie Bradshaw and then, a palm reader psychic who will tell you your fortune. They promised to have drink specials, along with my personal favorite, food samples from Pacci restaurant. By the time I decided what to wear I was an hour late, which shouldn't make a difference except that this was supposed to be a 2 hour event. There was a drawing of fabulous prizes for some. I didn't win anything in the raffle draw but I got my palm read to me, something along the lines of stating the obvious. It was a dud. There were people to talk to except they didn't want to be bothered, they didn't even look up to say hi. Some pregnant lady felt the need to always cut in front of me without saying excuse me or Hi. And there were some other singletons a-browsing but they were not in the mood to socialize. On my way out, as I stopped to take in the supposedly marvelous Palomar Hotel I bumped into another Singleton and a soloist who provided me with the same update that I had so painfully observed.

Her words:

It was filled with people chatting with their friends and couples who came along to win prizes (and they did!) She couldn't break into the groups of people chatting because that would be rude and they didn't seem to want to stop their conversation to make a new friend.

She echoed my thoughts exactly as if she read my mind. We exchanged numbers and I promised to call her next time I need someone to accompany me to one of these things.

The second place (you would think I would have learnt my lesson by now and called it an evening) was an even bigger dud. It was Aja's restaurant's Chinese New Year celebration, culled by the event promoter as "one of the biggest traditions of the year". You don't say?! It was empty and it stayed empty. I saw the event promoter pacing frantically in frustration. I bet he was frustrated, so am I? I don't even think the staff knew what was going on. I ordered dinner and went home by 11.