Welcome Week, Day 2: Our Story
Dena and I became best friends on January 31, 2010. We had both started at the University of St. Thomas in the fall of 2009 and lived diagonally from each other in the residence hall. In our first semester, we hung out occasionally. During the first few weeks of school, I invited Dena and her roommate to a study date at Empire Cafe. Shortly after that, Dena gave me a henna tattoo during a mini party in her dorm room, complete with karaoke. One of the first times we hung out alone, we went to a salsa dance celebration at school together where we learned how to salsa. We then entered a salsa dance contest and made it to the final round! Clearly, we were meant to be.
We didn’t become BEST FRIENDS until January of 2010, our second semester. I invited Dena to a Sideshow Tramps show at Mango’s. This makes me sound way cool, but Dena is way cooler. We had the time of our lives dancing and singing and Dena was “killed” when they played Lady Vodka, a Sideshow Tramps tradition. We hung out every night that week, and we’ve been hanging out ever since. That spring, we went to so many shows and hung out in Menil park every afternoon. We made a lot of strange friends and went on all kinds of adventures.
One of our favorite things to do is country dance. We used to go to see Robert Ellis play every Wednesday at Mango’s, and later, at Fitz’s. Robert Ellis is the best local Houston musician, hands down. He used to cover old country songs like Willie Nelson, George Jones, and Waylon Jennings. We were the best dancers there. We would drag ourselves to class every Thursday, after staying up all night. Robert Ellis is getting famous now and doesn’t do his Wednesday night gig anymore, so now we go to Wild West, because Wednesday is free for ladies!
We’ve gone on some great adventures over the past two years. The rodeo. Winnie, Tx to see George Jones. Almost every Critical Mass. We’ve worked spoiled 3-year-old’s birthday parties. We’ve scrounged change for taco bell when our meal plans run out. That one time when Dena re-enacted the broadway musical “Rent” in my dorm room. We’ve gone on horrible double dates (don’t even ask us about that one time at La Tapatia) and gone on wonderful double dates. But most of all, we’ve stayed best friends.