Everyone remembers their first time at a bar. Whether they were 17 with a fake ID, or they actually waited until they turned 21, it’s a relatively exciting experience. It’s like when you don’t have to sit at the children’s table for holiday dinners anymore — you finally get to play with the big kids.

That being said, it can sometimes be pretty obvious when someone is at a bar for the first time. No matter how hard you might be trying to fit in, that’s probably exactly what’s making you stand out. And trust me, you don’t want to be that girl. Sometimes, no matter how much everyone drinks, there are some things people just don’t forget.

Here are a few handy little tips on how to handle yourself the first time you make an appearance at a bar — from one bar veteran to a bar virgin, trust me on these.

Dress appropriately. I can’t stress this enough. You might think you’ve finally found a place to wear that skin-tight, super-short, leopard print dress you got at Too Cute, but consider your surroundings first. Most bars are relatively casual, especially local ones. I can’t tell you how many bars I’ve been to where everyone is in jeans and a cute top, and in walks an 18-year-old girl in a tiny dress and sky-high heels looking completely out of place and completely 18. Those outfits are usually better suited for a club. Not that you can’t look cute at a bar — you should. But I would say it’s definitely more of a casual environment.

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L-E-G-A-L.

No more slipping your older, cooler friends a twenty in line at the liquor store for getting you your goods. No more getting completely annihilated before the bars because your drinking has to end the second you leave the security of your own home. And best of all, no more trying to scrub off those despised black X’s in the bathroom sink of the bar.

Ladies, you’re about to enter a magical time in your life where paper wristbands are your new favorite accessories and Tylenol is your new best friend. So toss that fake I.D. aside and get ready for a ride.  You’re turning 21.  Now how do you survive it?

Pre-Drinking Preparation. It’s all about getting your room ready for your future drunken self.  Before you go out for the night, make sure your room is ready for your return because you might not even know who you are, let alone how to get into a bed, by the end of the night.

1. Pull the covers back on your bed to make it easier to pass out in.
2. Put the garbage can next to your bed. Obvious reasons.
3. Set a container of bottled water next to you. When you wake up, you’ll be thirsty…but there’s a good chance won’t feel like moving.

It may seem pointless now, but you’ll thank yourself later.

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Your hair is done, your makeup is on and your outfit is perfect. All you have to do is pack that wristlet and you’re ready to head out with your friends. Money? Check. ID? Check. Camera? Check.

Before you leave, you mix a few drinks and have a mini-dance party with the girls. Two rum and Diets and a few old school Britney songs later, it’s time to head out. But not without a “SELFIE!!”

You gather the girls around, make your sexy face, stick that arm out and capture the moment.

“Let me see!” your friends shriek.
“Ew. I have a double chin. One more!” So you take one more.
“Cuuuute!” everyone agrees. You put the camera back in your bag and head off to the bars.

Once there, you whip that camera out, strap it to your wrist and settle in for a night of partying. You beeline to the bar and order a round of shots. You snap a picture of them sitting on the bar, then you snap another of you and your friends cheers-ing. Then you ask the random dude standing next to you to get a picture of you taking them.

You chase the shot with a round of vodka sodas. Before you take the first sip, you ask a girl standing nearby to take a picture of you guys holding your drinks. Then, remembering how good you look, you ask your friend to get a shot of you and your drink alone.

“FACEBOOK!” you scream. Read More »

We’re well into another new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back the fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like procrastinating or using the not-so-private bathrooms. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

It might be your roommate’s birthday, or your birthday, or just another Saturday night on campus. Either way, you are currently standing in front of your over-stuffed closet in a towel with wet hair dripping down your back. You’ve got your pre-party mix blasting from your laptop as you scan your closet for something to wear.

To the left is a pile of jeans. 13 pairs of jeans to be exact. Dark wash, light wash, skinnies, trousers, wide leg, bootcut. To the right hangs your shirts: long sleeve, short sleeve, camis, halters, all in every shade of the rainbow.

You put on some underwear and your sexy black going-out bra, pull out a pair of jeans and squeeze/lunge your booty into them. “No late night pizza,” you think to yourself as you suck in your belly to button them.

You pull a low-cut black shirt from the closet and put it on. You check yourself in the mirror. No good.

You grab a different shirt. Nope.

You pull a blue cami off the hanger and put it on. The bra doesn’t work with it, so you slip out of the cami, swap on a strapless bra and put it back on.  Now the jeans don’t work, so you kick them off and grab a lighter pair from the stack. Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, TFLN…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Unhear It, ReQall, and Regretsy) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

College football season is officially under way, and whether or not you actually know anything about the sport, the fact is watching the games and rooting for your school is part of the college experience and a great way to socialize. Plus, what else is there to do on a Saturday?

But what about you recent grads out there?  Unless you still live in your college town (jealous!), you probably won’t get a chance to go to any games.  You could always head to a sports bar to watch the game, but that could get really awkward and/or dangerous if you’re the only one in the bar rooting for your team. (Editor’s Note: True story – poured a beer on a rival’s head once…then was swiftly escorted out.)

Unless you know which bar to go to.

College Bar Finder will help you find a bar that’s friendly to your team in any city, regardless of how far away it is from your college town.

Simply choose your city from a drop-down menu and type in the name of your school in the search bar located on the top of the page, and voila, College Bar Finder will find any and all bars in the selected city that cater to your college team.

There are currently over 1,000 bars in College Bar Finder‘s database, and you can help add more by suggesting any bars you know about that are affiliated with a specific team.

Seriously, how awesome is this site? Now, fans everywhere can come together to root for their favorite team….over drinks….. no matter where they are!

I’ve done it all. I’ve been to clubs, bars, frat parties, porches…you name it, I’ve been drunk there. And my favorite of all party scenes? The infamous house party.  Maybe it has something to do with being a freshman last year, or maybe because I befriended these guys who threw major parties that were the talk of campus come Monday?  I’m not sure, but in my opinion nothing quite beats a house party and its laid-back atmosphere.

And as a seasoned house partier, here are some tips to help you survive the first big house party of the year:

Do show up fashionably late.  Nothing in the college party scene starts before 10:30pm.  And nothing says freshman more than showing up at the party at 9pm eager for the festivities to start.  You are not in high school anymore!  So please, if you want to look like you know what’s going on, pre-drink in your room don’t show up until after 11pm.  Trust me, you won’t miss a thing. In fact, you’ll get there just as the party gets pumpin’.

Don’t wear heels! If you’re going to a house party, you will be way overdressed.  House parties attract all types of people and there will most likely be hundreds of them there.  Large amounts of grinding people means hot temperatures.  You will be sweating…profusely! So for those back-to-school bashes, leave your new skinny jeans at home and wear shorts, a cute flowy tank top or even a sundress, and sandals. You’ll thank me later, when the floor is filled with mud (or questionable bodily fluids) and your favorite suede pumps are ruined!

Do get your creative juices flowing. Theme parties are super popular in college.  Whether you’re attending a Toga party, ABC party, the Beer Olympics (the list goes on and on…), get creative with your costume.  I’ll guarantee you’ll be the talk of the night (and for the right reasons).   That’s not such a bad thing, eh? Read More »

Every week, I write a list. Not a to-do list (I feel like they’re always mocking me) or a grocery list (because “Jimmy John’s” isn’t really a list) or even that list (lord knows I wish I was updating that thing weekly….). No, my list is on whatever hard-hitting issue I find relevant at 11p.m. on Sunday night. And you know it doesn’t get more hard-hitting than Back to School season or why I’m hating everything, right? Today’s big topic: people I want to dump my beer on at the bar. Alright, ladies – stay with me.

So it’s Friday. (Or Thursday, Saturday, or Tuesday morning….) You’ve got your favorite skinny jeans on, you stuffed your feet into a pair of  heels that start rubbing on your baby toes before you even leave the house, and you’re sipping on a little vodka/Crystal Light to get the night going. Once you’re feeling buzzed enough to handle the crowds at the campus bar, you throw that purse over your shoulder, loop arms with your besties and do a little run/walk into the night.

Only when you arrive, you realize pretty quickly that perhaps a few more drinks would have been a good idea before running into these annoying bar-goers.

10. Sloppy in Line:
We’ve all had that night. Whether it’s our 21st birthday or our “I just got dumped and need a night to get over it,” we’ve had the wasted-before-I-even-left-the-shower kind of an evening. But when I’m not having that night and someone else is tripping and falling into me, slurring his/her words and spewing chunks very close to my heels before we even get inside (true story), it’s not OK.

9. Martini Drinkers:
Repeat after me: there is no way to get this overpriced and probably watered-down martini from the bar to my table without spilling it everywhere. Even if I walk incredibly slowly and piss off everyone who is trying to get by me and to the bar.

8. Creepers:
I mean, do I really even need to say why?

7. Woo Hoo Girls:
(At least that’s what the How I Met Your Mother crew calls them.) These girls love to scream. When their boot of beer arrives, they scream. When their other Woo Hoo girl arrives, they scream. When Journey/Miley Cyrus comes on, they scream. When one of the Woo Hoo girls comes back from the bathroom with bloodshoot eyes and a little splash of puke on her cheek, they scream. And with each successive drink, the screams get louder and more shrill.

6. Bitter, Angry Bartenders:
All I’m asking you to do is crack open an Amstel Light and pass it over to me. What’s with the ‘tude?

5. Random Couple Trying to be Romantic:
Of all the quiet, coupley places you could go on campus to have a nice night, you chose this sweaty basement bar? Nevermind the fact that you can’t hear one another over the Usher songs blaring from the DJ booth, but there is nothing romantic about a bunch of really drunk, really sweaty kids grinding against the walls.

4. Bathroom Girls:
Hey you by the mirror – adding more powder isn’t going to make you look less shiny. Just thank god for the low lighting and get a move on. And you three in the handicap stall – can you stop crying about the boy that totally blew you off and let someone else use the toilet? And the rest of the girls in the world who just happen to take a long time to do their business, HURRY UP. I broke the seal/need to get back out there before ‘Like a Prayer’ comes on.

3. The Bar Loiterer
I know that at Cheers and The After Dark (behind the Peach Pit) people grab seats and order at the bar. But we’re in college, people, and there are hundreds of wanna-be-drunk patrons behind you trying to get their paws on a shark bowl. Can you be a doll, stop trying to look all sexy leaning up against the bar with that Miller Lite and walk. away? Kthanxbye.

2. The Big Dancer:
If you bump into me one more time, I swear to god…..

1. Ms. Perfect:
Seriously, how? How do you keep your hair straight, your makeup fresh and your pits dry while, by 1am, my sweaty hair is in a ponytail, my eyeliner is on a journey down my cheek and I have very obvious under-boob sweat stains on my cami? HOW?!

Giving up my nights out was not something I was especially prepared to do when I started scouring my college town for a job; who wants to be folding clothes amidst an asthma-inducing Abercrombie cologne cloud late into the evening when your girls are out at $1 pitcher night? Nobody.

That’s why I became a cocktail waitress.

Well, that and I heard Tiger Woods George Clooney was fond of them.

Naturally, I see a lot of…er… interesting, for lack of a better word, things during the late night shifts. Things that I know I’ve been guilty of doing, and that all you CC ladies are probably guilty of as well. Believe me, your signature twist+bend and snap combo dance moves do not look as sexy as you think, even if that drunk frat boy tells you they are. And as good as Journey is, “Don’t Stop Believing” is not “the best song of all effing time!!”

Because our thoughts tend to be a little muddled when we’re a few sheets to the stale bar air wind, I thought I’d help everyone see just what a typical drunken night is from a more honest (read: sober) perspective. So join me as we analyze things (hey, we’re all friends here!) from both sides of the crowded bar. Read More »

There comes a time in every young woman’s life when she looks at her roommate laying on the bathroom floor at the bar and says to herself “it’s time to take her to the hospital home.” Of course there were signs all night that it wasn’t going to end well. Such as when she went outside to boot and rally. Or when she wrestled some stranger’s phone out of his hands (she dropped hers into a pitcher of beer) so she can call her high school ex. And of course there was that moment when she was standing on top of a wobbly table singing some song that sounds like a mix between Journey and Piano Man.

Does none of this sound familiar to a night at your school? Well just check out the photos below and try to remember that if you ever see anything like that in real life, it’s time to take your friend home…and put a garbage can next to her bed.

[Click on the photos for even MORE drunkeness] Read More »

[Everyone’s got a morning after story (though I can say with absolute certainty that not everyone's includes a private plane and handcuffs) and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

Last weekend I went to my friend’s birthday at one of those exclusive NYC clubs where you can’t get in if you’re not on a list. My friends and I got decked out for a big night on the town, which meant I put on a really short dress, slipped on my big practically-unwalkable heels, and shaved my legs. At first everything at the club was really fun and really trendy and really vodka-y. I was dancing on the tables and shamelessly hitting on guys. But that’s what happens when you’re drinking for free.

You know what also happens when you’re drinking for free? People lose their inhibitions as well as their dignity. One couple went from grinding on the dancing floor to humping on a booth. And while they were humping another couple edged into our corner and started getting busy. It didn’t take long before both girls were straddling the guys with their dresses pulled up and their underwear pushed down. While I can’t say that I saw actual intercourse (hard to see things when you’re shielding your eyes), I did see fingers going places fingers do not belong when those fingers are in public. One of the tables began shaking so hard that a waiter came over.  However I wrongly assumed that the waiter would stop the couple. Instead he just removed the glasses off the table so that there would be not broken glass when they started going at it on the floor. It’s at this point I started asking myself what was going on and what was I doing there. Read More »