Knoxville520.com

Location: Myabi's, my car, the Strip

Drink of Choice: ...

Event: Black Out V-Day...AKA Valentine's Day!

Friends: Alisa, Colby, Michelle, E...who now prefers to be called Fergalicious in my blog, and assorted others

Happy belated V-Day!!!! I thought it would be important to get the ever-essential discussion of Valentine's Day out of the way, and it is better to do this late then never at all. A lot of people love Valentine's Day and one of my roommates claims it to be her favorite holiday. She even refers to it as some sort of a sacred holiday. At the age of 22 she still buys and hands out valentine's to all of her friends (and by friends I mean everyone she knows). She loves to be loved, as do I, but I have never felt this odd propensity toward Valentine's Day.

And yes, I have had plenty of boyfriends on the big day but even years that I've had a boyfriend I still haven't enjoyed it! Oddly enough, the best Valentine's that I had was during the last two years of college, toting my "single" status on this fateful lovers' day, and hence been forced to spend the evening with my closest girlfriends. Forced is the wrong word. Forced is the word that you generally use to describe something you don't want to do. I was more or less, well, blessed--for lack of a better word, to spend this holiday with my other single girlfriends. Of course, if any of us had boyfriends, we would have been forced (cursed) to spend the day with them. But, thankfully my friends and I were lucky enough to spend this time together. After the second year of this tradition, we dubbed the holiday "Black Out V-Day." We all wear black and go out to dinner somewhere in K-town to see what shenanigans might ensue after the meal. These nights have honestly been a thousand times better than any Valentine's Day that I ever shared with a boy. No offense guys, I am sure that one of you out there could wow me, I just haven't dated you yet! This blog is a tribute to Black Out V-Days, past and present.

The Best Black Out V-Day happened last year. Most of my friends and I were twenty, one year shy of that beloved legal age that we all longed for, and decided to eat at Myabi's, Japanese Steakhouse. There were 12 of us girls dressed up in our black, and after taking pictures, and then more pictures (with 12 girls and God only knows how many cameras you can imagine how long this took), we drove to Myabi's. I can't speak for the rest of the group, but the girls in my car had a blast on the way to the restaurant. We listened (and rapped) to, Kanye West's "Gold Digger." Our ridiculous behavior in the car ranks high in my top 10 college memories. Eventually we arrived at Myabi's which is the perfect place to have a Black Out Day. If you have ever eaten at a Japanese steakhouse, you are familiar with having the food cooked at your table. The waiter was a handsome bloke, and I could see him quickly calculating his odds of making an impression on at least one of the girls in our group. After, he realized that our "all in black" group wasn't a cult, he became even more interested, and I guess I can't blame him, seeing as how our all being out together on V-Day shouted our available status. He helped us have a great time by being incredibly entertaining, to say the least. The food was amazing and I highly recommend Myabi's to anyone who hasn't been. The soup, salad, shrimp, chicken, fried rice (my fave!), and filet mignon cannot be beat!

After dinner, we decided that the night could not stop at Myabi's but we were too hyped up to go to a movie and too dressed up to go to a club. We heard on the radio that the Red Iguana, a R & B driven dance club, in the Old City, was having a V-Day celebration and was giving all of the ladies roses. We talked this one over, but since I HATE Red Iguana, I kind of single handedly nixed that idea. I have nothing against the Red Iguana, or people who enjoy going there, but for my tastes, the dance floor is to small, cramped, hot, etc. and that makes it hard for me to have a good time (even if I am the Dancing Queen).

We decided the best plan would be to head back to campus and drink until we forgot that it was V-Day (those of us who were underage just went back to our dorm at this point and so the rest of this story is narrated through an older friend). The next task came in the form of obtaining alcohol and after an hour of searching, calling, and checking every refrigerator and closet that they had access to in a5 mile vicinity, they finally found luck with one of my friends from high school. They picked her up from her apartment and she rode with us to pick her boyfriend up from his dorm. He went to a popular liquor store on the strip with $150 they had handed him and a "surprise us!" Why they sent him in to pick up random liquor I'll never know, I think they said something about not wanting to be seen by church members. Apparently they go to church with a lot of "closet drinkers".

Anyways, Ten minutes later, he came out of this liquor store with two, huge, brown paper bags and the contents held within were the most ridiculous items that my friends had ever seen. The largest containers of Smirnoff Vanilla, Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, Smirnoff Triple Distilled, Bacardi Coconut, and Bacardi Razz. I find all of these disgusting to this day because of the quantities that I have since consumed with the exception of Smirnoff XXX.

After the dinner, the pick up, the drop off, the ransom note (just kidding), and the forty five minute drive back to campus occurred, my friends were actually too tired to drink. All of the trouble that they went to purchase alcohol for the evening had not served them well. That liquor lived in a suite-mate's closet until its consumption later, which believe me, didn't take nearly as long as you think it might. Between random drunk nights, Thursday nights to Tonic, Friday nights to Barley's, and Saturday night's to the Downtown, it didn't take long at all for them to need another trip to the liquor store.

I realize that this is not your typical "party story," nor does it involve dancing, which is my namesake. I hope you're not disappointed. I thought this would be an enjoyable story that does, in fact, highlight some wonderful places to go in good ole' Knoxville. Feel free to leave a comment or two!