By the time I got to the 3rd guy on my list, I had learned my lesson. None of this "let's just meet for a drink..." or "let's be friends". I wasn't interested and that was end of the story. I sent him a quick email, thanked him for his interest, but made it very clear I wasn't interested.

He wrote back to say he appreciated my honesty, I was the first woman to take the time to let him know that and said it was better than hanging on wondering "what if".

I was immensely relieved by his response.

With no boys in sight and no plans to look for one, I instead made plans to meet up with the girlz for a much needed night out. The following Friday we set out for Mantra with no other goal than to catch up and have a good time. It had been weeks since we all were able to go out together and I was looking forward to some quality time with my friends.

I'll spare you most of the details about Mantra, mostly because it was not one of my favorite places to go in Boston. By day, it's a French-Indian fusion restaurant and by night, it's a Euro-club favorite, both of which are far over-priced for what you get. Nonetheless, I wasn't the one picking our spot out for the night, and was along for the ride.

So on to Mantra. We arrived early to avoid paying the ridiculous cover charge - for what it costs to get in, you can by a cocktail and if I have a choice as to what I'd rather spend my money on, booze will always win over cover - I don't care how unfashionable it is to be there early.

But I digress.

The downside to being in a restaurant/bar/club early, is that you're there with all the other losers frugal folks and as such, are an easy target. With little place to hide and few crowds to blend in or mingle with, if you get stuck luck out talking to somebody you don't wanna be talking to, you're kinda screwed.

This is exactly what happened to me and the girlz that night - we got screwed. And not in the way we were usually accustomed (ha ha ha). In a way, we were an easy target for the group of underage Euroboys. There were 5 of us, and 5 of them - evenly matched so as to spread out the torture. These boys, and they were boys, looked like they were fresh outta highschool - no way they were of age, but given money talks and international IDs reign supreme in Boston's nightlife scene, they were large and in charge, or at least pretending to be for the night.

These guys were relentless. Despite our numerous "relocations" throughout the bar, trips to the bathroom and outright rudeness and ignoring them, there was no getting rid of them. They were like flies in our honey. I refused to accept drinks from them, not wanting to encourage them, give them the wrong idea or in anyway be obligated to spend time with them.

But it mattered not - they had latched on like ticks and wouldn't let go. After about 2 hours in Mantra, they decided to check out Aria, another club around the corner. They tried to convince us we should come, offering to give us a ride in their BMWs (yes plural. The way they talked, you could easily envision the scene from Swingers where the guys all went to the same party, each in their own car. These guys made it sound like they each had their very own BMW... important to note this detail for later...)

Again, I digress.

Once we were rid of the boys, we could finally could have some fun. We danced, danced, danced, and danced some more. 2 a.m. came quickly and Sam wanted to head over to Chau Chow City for some late night eats. Since I was such a cheapskate and didn't want to pay the $30 it would cost to take a cab back to my apartment in Brighton (assuming I'd even be able to catch one, given all the bars had just closed), I passed to catch the Night Owl home, instead.

And ladies and gentleman, if you ever had the pleasure of taking the Night Owl when the MBTA provided this service, you will know and appreciate the insanity that was riding the Night Owl... For those of you who were smarter less fortunate and never had the chance, let me briefly explain what a ride home was like.

See, in Boston, the world class city that it is, shuts its public transportation system down just before 1am on weekends. Bars and nightlife of course, shut down sometime after 2am. Club and Bar-goers out number cabs 5-1 and so good luck catching one between 2 and 3 am.

For a few years, Boston's MBTA provided a late night bus service from 1-2:30 am or so along the city's most traveled transportation routes. Living along the B-line, (where approximately 8 million college students and people between the ages of 21-24 reside), it was safe to say my route was popular, which made for a cheap and convenient way home for me on the weekends.

However...

Seeing as how the route provided service home for about 7.5 million of those people, most of which were usually drunkity drunk drunk, the ride home was far from pleasant. And so it was, on one of these less than pleasant rides home that I had the pleasure to meet "Spiderman" and a guy named Brandon...