A Speakeasy Tiki Bar, Our First Reader Meetup In Ages, & Becoming THAT Couple

The other week we did SO MANY things - like, out of the house! - and I'm back with a full report.
By which I mean random cellphone pics and rambling commentary. ;)

First we had our first reader meetup in nearly 2 years(!), and it went... something like this:

Ahhh, it's good to see things getting back to normal. ;)

Yep, 'twas a night of laughter and hugs and comfortable, meandering conversations.

In fact, remember my tribute post last year for Torii? Well this is Gina, Valinda, and Cissie from that post! It was my first time meeting Valinda and Cissie in real life, but we immediately hit it off like old friends. I couldn't have picked a better group to start meetups again.

We met for a meal at one of our favorite restaurants:

Gimmie all that chocolate almond bread. NOMZ.

Although the star of our meal was this avocado bruschetta:

Crispy creamy goodness, HIGHLY recommend.

We ate on the patio at Toothsome's for the first time, and there was a cool breeze and the sound of happy people all around. Food for my soul AND my belly.

Next we all wandered the CityWalk shops together, and I think it's important you know that these double-sided monster bags exist:

SO CUUUUTE.

I was especially delighted because I was wearing my Lisa Frankenstein t-shirt at the time, ha.

(It's from Threadless and goes GREAT with rainbow shoes, just so you know.)

In other New Merch News, THESE:

Absolutely love these new House mascot designs, they have an old illustrated manuscript feel, right? I want a set to hang in the Harry Potter kitchen we did for our friend Dana.

Then there's a whole dishware set of them in gold:

The finish is a dreamy pearlescent gilding, suuuuper shiny and hard to photograph. Also I can assure you it would bankrupt any of us to set an entire table with these things, yowza.


A few days after that, John and I did something unusual for us: we went to a bar!

A kinda sketchy looking bar, if I'm honest:

It was HUGE (this is only about a third of it) and sporting a "graffiti'd warehouse" aesthetic.

Ahhh, but for those in the know - and happily we had friends with us who did - there's something special behind this unmarked wooden door by the back fire extinguisher:

BIG REVEAL:

It's a tiny tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room!

Well, more specifically a tiki bar:



The pendant lights are all skulls:



There's only space for the bar and 4 or 5 booths alongside it, but it is PACKED with incredible details:






You can follow them on Instagram, btw, for much better photos.

I love their use of light; every lamp is a different color. This one is my favorite:

The last booth is in its own tiki hut:



Then there's this little seating area at the end of the bar by the door to the kitchen:



Our friend Tim (artist Tim, not lawyer Tim) loooooves all things tiki, so really the best part about this visit was getting dressed up for it. John was just going to wear a t-shirt, but Tim was all, "No way, bro. I GOT YOU," and whipped out the most glorious lime green skull-covered tiki shirt, haha.


I wish you could see our whole outfits here: Bianca is in a retro mod dress and Tim is wearing neon yellow Chucks with lime Darth Vader tiki knee socks.

Have I mentioned how much I love my friends, and how much I've missed these two? ::happy sob::

As for me, I think I fit right in with all the tiki colors:


I got to wear my new stripey dress (IT HAS POCKETSES), plus a vintage metal flower pin and an octopus-in-a-bottle necklace:


I even put on lip gloss for the first time in forever. 

Obligatory pretty drinks shot:



So it turns out almost all booze is Low Fodmap EXCEPT rum, which is in 90% of tiki drinks. So I got a gin drink (Saturn something?) with grapefruit juice that was surprisingly tasty. John got a honey bourbon something that tasted like straight tequila and neither of us could stand, blech. Both were VERY strong, though I say that as someone with the tolerance of a dizzy ferret.


I found this on my phone later when I got home - no edits, just like this! - and it made me laugh. I promise I didn't drink THAT much.


Oh hey, and did you spot the biggest draw of this particular tiki bar, at least for me? Go back to the bar closeup and look closely, I'll wait.




Did you see it?




Or are you waiting for me to tell you so you don't have to scroll up again?


Fair.


It's THIS:

It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man... TIKI MUG.

They only sell these at Halloween, sadly, so this one was just there to taunt me.

Anyhoo if you're ever in the Orlando area and love Tiki bars, definitely check this place out!

[Update: HOLD THE PHONE, JANINE, I've just been informed we can get the Stay Puft mug online through Mondo! It's possible this one's a color variant, but it's definitely the same sculpt. Woohoo!]

Now one last giggle from our week of Activities:

I originally said in my Story that this officially makes us THAT COUPLE, but plenty of you were quick to point out John & I've been that couple for years. Touché.

That's another Threadless shirt, btw, but I don't remember the name. And it ALSO goes great with rainbow shoes.

*****

The week we did all this was a blur of happy busyness, but then this past week I've been down a lot with GI pain, which makes me exhausted, which makes me sleep at all hours, which makes me grumpy, and soon I'm too overwhelmed to tackle anything. After 5 or 6 days of watching the housework pile up and my online work go undone, but still feeling too achey and fuzzy-headed to do much about it, I start feeling pretty worthless. Like I'm too far behind and I'll never get it right, because there's too much and it's too dang hard. 

I mention this because I want you to know what a great job you're doing right this very minute - and I know you're doing a great job, because you're still here reading this.

Survival is tough, active, soul-sucking work some weeks, some months, some years. If you've survived this long and also manage to have a few belly laughs, a few happy tears, maybe even some squishy hugs or texted "I love you"s thrown in, well heck, gang. That's you doing an amazing job. That's you showing how much you deserve to rest and heal up from time to time.

I've been stressing a bit to get this post finished - I'm past my self-imposed deadline, ug - but even as I rushed to find the right photos and edit this or upload that, I got to relive all the laughs and hugs and relationships. It's reminded me how it's the people, not the posts, that matter most.

I remembered how Torii, Gina, Valinda, and Cissie all met each other through Epbot, so indirectly, they met because of me. Me. The lazy lump on the couch over here. The one who's a day late on a post!

And I once featured Bianca's art, which got us to talking, and then making dinner plans, and now she and her hubby Tim are some of our dearest friends. I have so many stories like that. Stories about connection, community. People I photographed, people who asked for a meetup, people who DM'd me a painting question on Instagram - so many of you who've become part of my daily life and joy. So many of you who remind me I matter, because we're connected, and we're both the better for it.

Thanks for that reminder, bots, I needed it. I love you all.

Now go have a fantabulous weekend, whatever that looks like. For me, it's gonna be a little more sleep. ;)

****

P.S. Since I keep plugging Threadless t-shirts in this post, how about a few more?

Check out our Epbot Threadless shop for all our designs, which you can customize to be any color and on any shirt style you like!