Friday night my friend Alex (one of many friends named Alex) asked me if I would like to go with him and Mr. A (as he wants his license plate to read once he is a millionaire agent, but with more A’s) to the Tripdavon album release party in Santa Barbara.  Mr. A manages Tripdavon, you may also know Mr. A (from previous blogs) as ICM.  I agreed, not already having plans and wanting to get out and have some fun, plus I love to check out new bands and Santa Barbara is absolutely beautiful, so who could pass that up? 

Saturday comes around and I head out to meet up with the rest of the group at Mr. A’s house.  I get there and find out I am the only female going out of our group, okay, I think I can handle that.  All together there are five guys and myself heading down for Tripdavon’s show, only Alex and Mr. A (who I only met once) do I know.  They introduce me to Nick, Jonathan and John (also Mr. A’s and Jonathan’s parents, who are very sweet, btw- Mr. A and Jonathan are brothers) and we head towards Santa Barbara.  The guys are kind and let me ride up front with Mr. A, while Alex, Nick and Jonathan sit in the back and John drives his motorcycle (which all of the guys are obsessed with… what is it with guys and motorcycles?). 

We get to Santa Barbara around 7:30ish and the show does not start until 10:30, so we find a place to eat.  Nick chose The Natural Café (I think that is what it was called), which had healthier type foods.  I ordered a kids burrito (I always have to order off the kids menu, otherwise the portions are too big), not too bad, except the black beans were spilling out EVERYWHERE.  As we eat our dinner I am still getting used to and getting to know the guys better.  On the car ride to Santa Barbara, I honestly thought Jonathan was a dumbass and annoying as hell, but then I learned that really, he is a pretty funny guy.  I started to laugh at most of his jokes the rest of the night, understanding his humor and we became good friends quick.  Same with Nick, I think I bonded the most with Nick and Jonathan, they were my “buddies” for the night (besides Alex who I felt close with as well).

Mr. A and I decided to do accents all night long, that was a blast, except I really need to practice more, because I would slide out occasionally.  I went for the trashy southern accent (they said I sounded like Britney Spears), Adam went for the South African accent (right?!) and then John joined in with some Irish, which kept throwing me off because I also do Irish. 

Mr. A had to leave us to make sure the band was taken care of, so while he  and John were gone the four of us, Alex, Nick, Jonathan and myself decided to go for some frozen yogurt – YUM!  I got peanut butter, my fav, with a little bit of another flavor, which I am forgetting the name of and of course some random toppings, and the best part is, unlike my old favorite, Red Mango, this place only cost $2.  Whenever I go to Red Mango, my minimum cost is $4.25, AND at the yogurt place we went to, I had more frozen yogurt and more toppings, for only $2… crazy!

As we were walking back to the bar where Tripdavon (Trip to Von’s – grocery store, that’s how they got their name, always taking a ‘trip to von’s’ after practice) was playing, we saw this awesome game shop and stopped in to take a peak.  We all reminisced about board games we used to play when we were kids, fun times.  When we got back to the Bar, they were clearing everyone out getting ready for Tripdavon to play, so we head across the street to sit on a bench.  We didn’t realize the bench we were sitting on was for the bus, so the bus would constantly stop and we would have to wave the bus driver on.  Meanwhile at the bench the guys were quoting movies (HILARIOUS!) and playing games on our iPhones.  

Bored and still waiting, we decide to walk around, this time Mr. A and John join us. As we stop in a record store, Mr. A heads to get some frozen yogurt and we check out their music, while still using our accents.  Jonathan spots a kitten in the back of the store and goes into the back room to get the kitten (although he hates cats).  Nick starts to play with the kitten, it is too cute.  We take some photos, play with the kitten a little more and head out and back to the bar.

The band is finally ready and the line starts to move.  Adam talks to the security guard to get us all comp’d – thank you!   After about five minutes of us all standing there, I convinced the security guard to let us all cut in line, since we were “with the band” – thank you.   We all went in, but poor Nick had to get X’s on his hands (in permanent marker) since he was under 21.

We grabbed a table and hung out for about ten minutes.  Jonathan was wearing a white and orange/red striped shirt, so we started to call him Waldo.  He had planned to use his new Waldo line on some ladies, but there were no attractive, single females, so that didn’t happen (and I was so ready to laugh my ass off).  Once the band actually started to play, Jonathan and I went up front to watch the band up close while Alex and Nick stayed back at the table.  We were rocking out to Tripdavon – Jonathan was in love with the guitarist (not in a gay way, but in an I LOVE your freakin’ music and the way you jam on your guitar, way).  About five minutes later, John joined us, standing a little too close to me, his hand was rubbing against my ass, so I kept scooting over, and so did he… urgh.  Doesn’t he know (like the rest of the guys I was with) that I am practically engaged and VERY happy?  Then Nick joined us and not too long after so did Alex.  Mr. A wasn’t too far away either; he was recording the show for the band.  Nick wasn’t sure how to dance to their music, I was just bopping to the beat (like a white girl does) and John started to dance and tried to get me to dance.  I was frustrated again, and this time I had to walk away.  Does he seriously not know???  It is all over my phone, my blogs and I have been talking about how proud of him I am with being a soon to be Seal… Mr. A and I had been talking about it quite a bit, I mean, they ALL knew.

I need to get away and off my feet anyway, so Nick and I head upstairs to sit down (since they wont let him sit downstairs, due to the whole not being 21 thing and even though he scrubbed the X’s off of his hands).  We chat about what just happened, about my boyfriend, about his ex-girlfriend that he cares about and misses and relationships in general.  Alex and Jonathan join us and within another 15 minutes we all are ready to leave. 

We decided to head out of the bar and over to a restaurant so we can sit down and relax without the loud music.  We stop in this Mexican restaurant (one of the only restaurants open) and the guys order some food.  Jonathan starts to ask weird questions such as what is a “douche bag” (literally) and what exactly is a “yeast infection”.  There was a guy sitting close to us and Nick and Alex were asking him if he could hear our convo and if it was bothering him.  He was from Sweden.  Jonathan started to ask him questions about what the girls are like and what the food is like and what are the craziest things they do over there compared to America, etc.  

Not wanting to leave Mr. A too long, we head back over to the bar to finish up with the band.  They finish up their set and we congratulate them and wait for Mr. A outside.  We head back to the car, it is sometime after midnight, I think closer to 1am.  As I am getting ready to get in the car, John asks if I have any single girlfriends… Not sure how to respond, I say no (because honestly I do not think any of my LA girlfriend are single – I ALWAYS get asked that question too).  I take the front seat again and we head off back towards LA.

As soon as we get on the 101, the first thing out of the guy’s mouths –BOOBS!  I just wanted so badly to record what they were talking about… everything a girl would imagine a guy would be talking about, they were… although I never really thought they were so blunt when talking to their guy friends about it (although I don’t see why they wouldn’t be).  I loved how they did not try to censor themselves because I was there, it was as if I wasn’t there – I was laughing my ass off, not believe what I was really hearing. Boobs, blow job, boobs, girls, boobs, hot, boobs, etc.  Then once they did stop to include me, stating they thought I was the prettiest girl there tonight (although, I think they were just being nice), I mean it’s LA, I am totally not the hottest girl in LA (we even had a convo about me being the ‘girl next door type’), although I guess we weren’t technically in LA, we were in a bar in Santa Barbara, but whatev.

As we were driving down the 101, guys chatting away, John was riding his motorcycle beside us, freaking us all out with his weaving back and fourth, staying in Mr. A’s blind spot and pacing us, although he had mentioned he was going to do that (staying beside us).  I also learned a little of his background and some of the stuff that had happened and things that were mentioned all started to make sense and I realized that you can never judge people unless you really know them or where they came from.  Mr. A’s gas light came on, so we had to exit off, losing John. 

We made it to the gas station, arrived back at Mr. A’s and Jonathan’s place; we all said our goodbyes and headed home.  I took the wrong turn for the 101 and Alex was kind enough to call and let me know, but by then I had figured it out.  I didn’t get home until about 3am and passed out on my bed, exhausted.

 I am glad I went out!