Out Last Night


My drives home from the gym can make my mind act anywhere from a squirrel on espresso to getting lost in a song or plopping me right back to a night out with my friends that should really be in the Kiki Hall of Fame.

I did not have the best night at the gym this evening. No big deal. Just a chaotic class flow and a broken pinky toe just left me feeling “off”. I flew to the Jeep like it was my Batmobile and started the trek home. “No Shoes Radio” – the Kenny Chesney channel was on as usual. His live version of a song called “Out Last Night” was on. I turned it up. It’s all about going out with your friends and just letting loose.

I smiled. My mind turned the pages back. Man. There were some incredible nights out. But there was this one night. Oooof. My buddy…oooh we should change the name to protect the innocent here…my friend “Mary” and I decided to take a ride into Queens. It’s about 20 minutes from us. This “Mary” was a New York City Police officer. She was outrageously fun. We decided on a bar called Donovan’s. The bar this one night was packed. New York packed. Wall to wall people. Fun people. Getting to the bar was a challenge. After a while we had guys buying us drinks. We bought back. We wanted no part of any guys or relationships so we kept it moving. After a while – everyone looked the same. Mary said – we need a system to remember who is who. After looking in my pocketbook I came up with the perfect solution. I had been arranging my files all day at work and had a sheet of color coded stickers.

I gave them to Mary. I said let’s put a sticker on the back of every guy who bought us a drink already. That will save us some time.

Well.

Time passed. Drinks were given. Stickers were placed. That’s when we realized it was time to go when the guys started noticing the stickers on each other’s backs.

We slipped out the door before our highly sophisticated identification system turned into an official police investigation.

To this day, I still laugh at the fact that after spending all day color-coding files in an office, my brain naturally decided the best way to manage a crowded bar was…office supplies. Somewhere in Queens there may still be a handful of men wondering why they were suddenly walking around with green, yellow, and orange dots stuck to their backs.

It’s moments like these that remind me why I treasure those nights with friends. We weren’t out looking for trouble. We certainly weren’t looking for romance. We were just looking for a good laugh. Somehow, with a sheet of Avery color-coding stickers and two women who clearly shouldn’t have been put in charge of quality control, we managed to create one of those stories that still has me laughing years later.

Every now and then that Kenny Chesney song comes on, and I’m instantly transported back to that packed Queens bar. The music fades, the laughter returns, and I can’t help but think…some memories deserve to stay filed away forever.

Just maybe…not color-coded.

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Author: KikiFikar

Kiki Fikar is a native New Yorker who is passionate about taking the day to day life we all experience and sharing it in her tales from Suburbia. She will often be found at the gym, writing snippets each day for future story lines, listening to her two children create their lives, and building the perfect beachfront home and writing retreat in her mind.

24 thoughts on “Out Last Night”

  1. The Avery folks probably would have been thrilled to hear their color coding labels had “out of office” applications like this. Perhaps they could have publicized this back in the day as a convenient way to not organize a night out, but actually organize THE night out. Drinks are on us…stickers are on us. A colorful memory to be sure!

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  2. Twinnie, love this! All kinds of visuals about you and “Mary” 😆 in a cool bar back in the day putting stickers on guys 😂👏 Must have been so cool growing up near such a famous place with so much to do (the opening scene of the sitcom “Taxi” comes to mind). Great story 😎👍

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  5. as Kramer would say “the pinky toe is a valuable appendage “

    me and my buddies did a similar thing at the beach with a rating system for girls. In this case it was fun for everyone including the girls. That would probably get us in trouble today, but 40 years ago it was great.

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  12. Uh-oh, let’s hope that some of the younger readers of this blog don’t get any ideas. On second thought, it might’ve been fun to stick around long enough to do a compare and contrast of the male brain and find out how many thought they had been eliminated from contention and how many believed they were tagged for future consideration. 😎

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  13. OMG I never thought of that. Elimination shows were not even a thing then. Well maybe Star Search but still….Hey that would have been groundbreaking stuff. I could have called it “Dots” and created a movement in bars everywhere.

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  18. Lmfao. Sounds like you had quite the adventure. Some days be like that. Thank you for sharing this “on the edge of you seat listening for more story”. Hope you having a lovely weekend.

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  21. This made me laugh. The color-coded sticker system is absolutely brilliant in the worst possible way. 😂 I love how an ordinary drive home can suddenly bring back a memory that has you laughing all over again. Some nights really do deserve a permanent spot in the Hall of Fame!

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