I’ve said it here before, and I’ll probably be saying it until I’m all old and gray and sitting on my porch like it’s my full-time job: there’s so much shit to do in this town it’s unbelievable. Any given night of the week, there’s something going on, and chances are very high there’s something free going on, which of course is even better.
I’ve said it here before, and I’ll probably be saying it until I’m all old and gray and sitting on my porch like it’s my full-time job: there’s so much shit to do in this town it’s unbelievable. Any given night of the week, there’s something going on, and chances are very high there’s something free going on, which of course is even better. Since I’ve been here and made some friends, I usually know what my evenings are going to look like; sometimes it’s having a beer at Bandito’s (thank god for smoker-friendly Richmond bars!), other times it’s catching a show or just walking around The Fan. There are plenty of nights you can catch me in a cardigan and knit cap, camped out under my electric blanket reading or writing with a whiskey neat on my bedside table.
But there are those nights when you’ve got no plans, but you’re itching for something to happen. You know what I’m talking about; you come home from work, strangely energetic even though you were dragging ass for the last two hours, and loudly declaring how babies have it easy, getting a guaranteed nap everyday. You drop your bags by the front door, then pace around your apartment, not quite ready to take off your shoes or brush your teeth or admit defeat because you’re in the mood to DO SOMETHING. Anything. Whatever. Let’s just fucking go already.
But what do you do? Chances are if your friends had something going on you’d know by that point, and if you had any fucking clue what was happening you would have already made plans on your commute home. Times like this are when the tireless writers and editors of RVA are on your side, babies, in the form of the RVA Events Calendar. Found right on the website and constantly updated, the events calendar has the best of the best going on in this great city of ours for any night of the week. It was, in fact, my gateway drug to the magazine; when contemplating moving from the dreary dregs of upstate New York, I stumbled upon RVAmag.com and looked to the Events Calendar to see what was happening around the city. From that point I not only moved here, but now I write for them and you people get to listen to my two cents on the regular! Direct all complaints to WeDontCare@RVAmag.com.
As a new girl-about-town, the events calendar has saved my ass from dying of that juvenile, foot-stamping boredom on more than one occasion. The best thing to do, I’ve found, is to choose something you otherwise probably wouldn’t have gotten into; at this point in your night, you’ve got nothing to lose, right? If you decide to stay home, you’re just going to be a little grumpy asshole who falls asleep watching reruns of The Office in a pile of pretzels crumbs, so why not choose something out of your comfort zone? Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, my roommate/partner-in-crime and I pulled up the Events Calendar while eating dinner and pre-gaming it with a vodka soda. It was on one of those stupidly frigid nights we’ve been having, so our only rule was that the venue needed to be quickly walkable. We decided on a comedy event called Ha Ha Hump Day at Emilio’s, and after downing another vodka soda for good measure, we headed out there with little expectation except that there would obviously be comedians there, and the night did not disappoint. We unexpectedly ended up at the front table in the relatively small, relatively uncrowded bar, and the night (as you can imagine) got ridiculous from there. After joining forces with the comic in heckling the guy who was dumb (and nice) enough to buy my friend and I shots, then getting totally made fun of by every comic that graced the stage, I ended the night losing a jump rope contest and looking like a dork in front of the entire bar.
It was pretty fucking great; certainly better than staying home with ants in my pants.
Running my finger down the list of RVA events and just picking and committing to one has led me to a few pretty awesome things. Some of those punk and metal shows I’ve been going to I learned about via the Events Calendar, for example. One of the single most awesome things I’ve done in Richmond, seeing the Krampus Walk in Carytown, I learned about from our calendar. Relatively last minute, a group of friends and I walked a mile to Carytown, braving the cold to congregate on the terrace at Portrait House, where we were in awe of the Krampus costumes and laughed at how annoyed some of the people waiting in line at the Byrd were by the “anti-Christian” Krampians. Letting myself fall into the spirit of the affair by being childishly thrilled and then talking with everyone after, even trying on a few Krampus masks myself, remains one of my best experiences yet in Richmond.
The main thing is, kids, even if you try out some new place or some new thing and you hate it, you’ll at least have a good story to laugh about later with your friends. It’s just like a blind date: it’ll be either fun or funny, man, so what do you have to lose? The next time you’re in danger of rewatching Friends, because God knows you definitely need to do that, check out the Events Calendar and go get into something fucking stupid fun.
A recent transplant to Richmond from Alabama via upstate New York, Laura Confer is primed and ready to experience the city everyone is so happy to show off. As she navigates this new terrain, she’ll be writing about her adventures. Tell her where she should go! Tell her what she should do! Tell her to stop talking about food so much!
