Oct 07 - Oct 10 - Cloudy and cool, but still Fun and Friendly

The house was quiet and I dug into my pick up dinner of a fried half-chicken over fried rice. The meal was good since I had not had the same in a long while. I watched some TV and DVRd the 20/20 episode about house buying so Russ could see it on another day and I set about with the regular Friday ritual of cleaning up and making sure the hair was done before showering and dressing up to step out into the night. Because of the rain I decided that Car Service would be the easiest way to get into the city. I walked down the street despite the light rain and made my way into Castle Car service. There was a driver right outside and I was able to state my destination and head across the city and up Hudson Street to arrive on 8th Avenue without too much stress. The driver listened to my suggestions and did not cross all the way to the West side just to come back over to 8th Ave. I got out of the Taxi and walked over to
Gym, showed my ID to the doorman and headed in. I didn't see anyone that I knew, kind of strange for a long weekend but I picked up my drink (A Rockstar and Stoli Orange) and headed to the back to see DJ Smoky play the tunes. The pool game was funny to watch, the low-talent vs. the inebriated but everyone was definitely having fun and the crowd was enjoying the 80's crossed with today, with Level 42 "Something About You" as well as remixes of Madonna and I hung out for a bit, having another Rockstar over ice before heading out and making my way over to 6th Avenue and then on to Splash. The DJ for the eve was Max Rodriguez and the place seemed busy with plenty of people in town for the holiday weekend. A lot of people visiting (doing the tourist thing) and the music kept the crowd in the mood with classics from a few years ago to present day hits such as Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott and the Pussycat Dolls. I danced on the stage some and even lit my hands and danced on the box in front of the stage but I did not have the energy to stay with it for too long as the music wasn't moving me as much as I would have liked. I had fun but not as much as I wanted so I left around 3am and caught myself a taxi outside and headed back home. I still had plenty of weekend to go and figured the sooner I went to bed the sooner I would get on with the rest of the nights.

Saturday I awoke and watched some Billy and Mandy on Cartoon Network before heading out and up the street, umbrella overhead, to get to the gym. The workout was good, I picked a good time of day and I have devised a workout for the gym in BK that gets me in and out nice and easy. It all seemed to work out and it had even stopped raining mostly by the time I was finished and I was back in the house and eating Lasagna for lunch (homemade of course, leftovers are so gooood). I watched some DVR programming, caught up on a short nap and made sure the rest of my DVR shows were set to record. I also actually broke out the Rowenta iron and made sure my shirts were ready for primetime with the addition of some spray sizing that made the wrinkles just fall out. I had more lasagna for dinner (it was that good) and passed the last few hours getting ready for the evening by playing video games before it was finally late enough to prepare seriously to head out by showering, scenting, and dressing. I tried to determine the best time to head out and finally called for a car around 11:20.

The car took 10 minutes to arrive and then once the driver did come he decided that if he could not go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel he was too much of a B*tch to take me where I had called the car service to go. He cited some desperate housewife crap about traffic and that it would take him like 2 hours travel time and I was not in the mood to argue with his older, obese, mustachioed self and decided that he could let me off. He took me to a competing car service that seemed packed with all of the neighborhood old people going on their various midnight errands. I walked the 3 blocks back to Castle Car service and told the dispatcher about the b*tch driver that refused to drive me into the city. I stepped outside of the place and flagged down another driver for me who had no problem with following my direction and heading into the city as if it were any other night. In fact there was NO ONE on the BQE and NO ONE on the Brooklyn Bridge and even the lone car sitting mid-span did not slow down the traffic too much (even though they were forcing all the cars into one lane at one point) and I was still into the city and up the west side with no stress. My New driver (not really new as he had driving me into the city before and even picked us up from the airport before but he was new tonight) was surprised with the low amount of traffic and we felt that maybe the first driver was just unfamiliar with Manhattan and was scared about stories about the backups on the Bklyn Bridge. I suggested he head back home over the Manhattan bridge and I made the rest of the trip without any further delay. I was dropped off at 18th street at just after midnight and at exactly 12:05 I received the call from Candi that she had just come out of the Holland Tunnel and was on her way up. I told her to just take the West Side Highway and she would be here in like 10 minutes. I then proceeded to wait outside for 20 minutes before calling her back and finding out that she had made a wrong turn and had actually headed downtown and crosstown heading for the Brooklyn Bridge before realizing she was going the wrong way and had turned around. I waited outside for another 25 minutes before the called to say they were around the corner and a minute later they were turning the corner and heading into the lot and parking. They left the car and turned around to see me waiting at the lot entrance to take them into the club. We waited on the line for a brief instant before saying hi to Doorman Derek and heading inside. We were stamped, wristbanded and past the cashiers without any trouble and then it was on and into the party at Roxy. I brought the girls over to my barman Barker and we said hello and picked up our first drinks, my Stoli Orange and Red Bull, A Cosmo, and Sex on the Beach. After a quick tour of the Crystal Lounge and the back bar it was onto to the dancefloor and of course I had my second drink before we headed over and I introduced the girls to Michelé and Dave before we stepped down onto the dancefloor and truly began our evening. We had a great time dancing in three different spots on the dancefloor, hung out in the lounge at the back of the dancfloor and the seating area in the asian section and said hi to Russ and the Jimmy when they arrived later on in the evening as well as Dwayne and the regular cast of friends when I hang out on a Saturday night who were all so friendly and nice. The evening progressed with the hot tunes thrown out by DJ Tony Moran and I even commented to Candi that she might enjoy some of the tunes even more than I did with so much of the dance tracks with spanish lyrics. We continued dancing into late in the evening before the girls called it a night at 5am and I gave them both a gift CD to take away before saying g'nite. I went back inside and hung out with Russ for another half hour of dancing before I threw in the towel myself and we made our way outside to pick up the flyers, magazines and a taxi at 5:30am.

Sunday was a much slower day with the slight cold I had picked up from my extended stay outdoors the night before but with a few strategic applications of Zicam that was pretty much cleared up by Tuesday Morning but in the meantime I stayed in, watched football, enjoyed delivery breakfast and spent the afternoon just chilling as Russ slept off his whirlwind weekend, (trip to Baltimore on Friday, Trip back from Baltimore Saturday, Hanging with the boys and girls on Saturday Night into Sunday). Unfortunately our weekend of of fun was put on pause as I looked for the camera that we had only owned for all of 3 days. Of course everyone at work loved my new Samsung (exact model hidden for my own selfish reasons) camera but that was not enough to save its small size from becoming lost between Manhattan and Bklyn, probably in the taxi ride so now I guess I will have to take all of those pictures all over again. I consoled myself by shopping for and re-buying my camera at a lower price and awaiting its arrival all over again. I was starving after all of that hard work on line shopping so it was then time to go and pick up a nice Sunday dinner at Mickey D's (Number 1 please and a diet coke with no ice). We listened to more of the Lil Kim CD going to and fro and upon return to the domicile I chowed down on the burger while watching DVR programming of SNL from the night before. I decided with my still slight cold that I needed rest rather than raucousness to heal myself so I stayed in for my holiday Sunday night and just watched DVR cartoons and played video games. I ended up going to bed around 2:30am and called my Sunday successful just because it was still plenty of fun and no one lost an eye.

Monday I awoke in the afternoon for some reason and was very happy I had the day off as I appeared to have saved all of my fatigue for the one night of sleep. I spent the rest of the day looking up news and watching TV before Russ convinced me to take advantage of the conveniently located White Castle down on 4th Avenue. We headed over and I got myself 2 cheeseburgers, 2 bacon cheeseburgers, and a chicken with honey sauce (why? i dunno, it looked good in the picture). The chicken sandwich was kind of hard, as the bun could not be steamed like a regular white castle and the chicken was kind of heavy on the stomach compared to the light and airy white castles. Thank goodness I only inflicted myself with just the one. The rest of the burgers went down nice and easy and I was happy for a little while just relaxing and waiting for the rest of the eve to pass. Russ decided later in the eve around 9pm that it was time for dinner but I decided that while I had just eaten a few hours before I could probably dive into to the din after 10pm. The delivery arrived but I let it cool while I played some more Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube and I took only a short break around 11pm to re-heat and eat. That wax paper sure comes in handy doing the microwave thing and so the dinner was excellent before returning and using all of my new weapons in game and having a grand old time before calling it a night.

A short week ahead and then another weekend. My next big party will probably be Halloween weekend but until then bring on the parties and all of the random acts of fun and kindness. I'm sure we will find something entertaining to do.

9/31-10/2 - All That and Then Some, Ready for my new ones

Friday
First Day of Russ B'Day Weekend. I arrived at home, fixed the sound on the telly and ate my dinner of steak and greens. Ernesto had arrived to hang so we chatted some and I looked at peeps that he pulled up on the net before moving on to the bathroom and cutting my hair and then crossing to the other side of the house and doing the shower and wardrobe change. The Jimmy and Stephen arrived and we all hung out a bit while fielding phone calls from Kevin before heading across BK to drive to the aforementioned and wave him over to the Land Rover. There were four of us across the backseat, sitting like bad school kids but we arrived in the isle of Manhat alive and even drove the two boys up to midtown and dropped them off on the west side and 34th street. After that we headed back downtown and looked for parking. We passed all of the one way streets and ended up parking on 17th street in a nice space that had a knocked down sign in the space. After I got out and moved the metal signpost with sign attached, Stephen finished parking the Land Rover and everyone disembarked. After some heady decision I decided to stay on 17th street while the other guys headed up to Krash (Club Deep). I was intrigued but eventually decided to stay with the guarantee of some level of enjoyment at Splash. I walked in, headed downstairs and after not recognizing any bartenders I headed back upstairs and found my bartender of the past 2 weeks upstairs at the back bar. I started off with a Mandarin and cranberry and watched the crowd for a bit. The place wasn't fully packed yet but still plenty of people packing the floor and even dancing on stage. I finished the first drink and headed downstairs for a helping of Smirnoff Ice over ice with a splash of Grenadine. Back upstairs I said hello to Robbie manning his box in front of the stage and danced next to a skinny girl and her out of shape and clingy so-called "agent". Robbie of course wanted me to introduce but after a brief chat and changing sides of the stage I decided it was too much trouble and he could do his own matchmaking. After hearing the Chus and Ceballos mix of "Dirtyfilthy" I headed outside to pick up a bottle of water and was intrigued by the flyer guy handing out business cards touting the after-hours but dressed as if it was the middle of December (hoodie pulled up and a coat over that). All he was missing was the gloves and earmuffs. Anyway after crossing and recrossing the street with my water and heading back inside I hung out with the crowd some more before heading downstairs and taking a trip to the mens room. on my way out I decided to walk out of the opposite side of the space than I came in and ran into J and his main man. We chatted briefly before we parted ways and they headed back upstairs to the dancefloor while I stayed downstairs to get another drink. I walked back up the front stairs and on my way to the dancefloor I looked over the guys once again and noticed all of the interesting touristy types populating the different areas but none holding my attention too long before I was back up on the stage and dancing to Mariah Carey "We belong Together". It was strange how DJ Alex kept segueing back and forth between out-there new music and what was definitely familiar and still all danceable. I enjoyed myself of course but reached my true epiphany as I took to the speaker around 3am myself and danced on the box in front of the stage. I danced to some song with a pretty good beat and contemplated getting down but then I heard the DJ throw on one of my favorite club tunes and re-furled the lights and danced with my hands still aglow to "Solid Textures". That song is so minty fresh each and every time I hear it in the club. I stopped myself from overindulging in the drinks and proceeded to just dance for the last hour and 15 min but finally was over it all and headed outside at 4:15. Lacking in some sort of telephonic contact with the rest of my crew I wandered in the street for a bit ostensibly to go to the store before finally receiving a call from Pais and meeting him on a convenient street corner as he drove up in his taxi and we headed back to BK. I was pretty well recovered from my earlier bingeing and headed home with a well danced out self and was happy to fall into my bed for a well worked for rest.

Saturday
I woke up around noon, showered and dressed and prepared myself to head out to the gym. While still messing around in the house the tone rang from the lobby and i ran downstairs (buzzer broken) to get whoever it was and see them downstairs. Ernesto had arrived to pick up his vehicle and had to use the facilities before his long trip back to LI. He had hung out at Roxy and skated for a bit with Kevin before heading over to Krash and the boys and dancing for a bit but was not able to muster up as much fun at his second venue as I had enjoyed at my first (and only). We wished each other a good day and he headed back out on his way back to LI and I greeted the newly awakened Russ as he started watching baseball on the HD. After seeing the Yankees take an early lead I was ready to head out and make my way to the gym. I let the breakfast delivery guy and a couple of building denizens into the building on my way out and headed out into the 70 degree day. For some reason I misplaced my ipod shuffle and so I was forced to listen to the full size ipod while at the gym. It still worked out OK as my ipod has its own level of intelligence and played the appropriate songs while I went through my Saturday workout. Unfortunately I headed back home without eating any lunch as I usually would and arrived back home to no food and sustained myself on an orange before we finally received delivery dinner and I had a meal of chicken caesar salad. I cleaned up the place a bit, vacuumed under the bed and over the lampshades next to the bed before vacuuming the living room as we prepared for the rest of the evening watching DVR programming and Fox block of Cops. After showering and cleaning up a bit I watched a bit of Surface on NBC since I had def not watched any episodes in its regular time slot. The show showed some promise but the end of the episode floored me with the giant sea monster eating first half of a shark that was being fished out of the ocean and then coming up from underneath the boat and eating the whole boat. The shot was filmed most scarily and I scared Russ from the other room as my incredulity was loudly broadcast throughout the demesne. Shortly afterwards our first set of evening visitors arrived with Bruce and Phil coming over bearing freshly picked orchard apples and we watched college football and other various programming on the HD. The Jimmy arrived shortly after and after consuming a few drinks and preparing ourselves as much as we could we headed out into the night.

We said good eve to Phil and Bruce at the cars and the rest of us piled into the Explorer and headed downhill to the highway. We got onto the BQE and merged into traffic and finally convinced the Jimmy to take the Manhattan Bridge rather than the Bklyn Bridge because of the level of congestion and he actually listened and was pleasantly surprised. The trip across town on Canal street was uneventful and we headed up the West side in a nice flow of traffic and found nice parking on 19th street when some outgoing hockey players loaded up and left two spots empty for us. We parked the car and then headed down street to the club, pausing briefly to admire a makeshift sculpture inside of a fire-station callbox on the corner of 10th and 18th. Cute. The line was moving in front of the club and the cool night air was a nice change from the heat we had enjoyed over the summer. Not cold enough for a jacket yet but that appeared to be coming up soon. We got inside, debated on asking the computer list guy on whether Russ should speak of his lost JB card but decided to save it for another week. The Jimmy had a long conversation with his cashier holding up that particular line for a bit (the lines were a little longer than usual) before we all headed inside and I walked up to barmistress Cathy to inquire on something missing but she anticipated my question and told me the two bad boys were sent to the back bar for the evening. Barman Barker and Matt were holding court in the rear of the building this eve but the change of venue was OK for me as I was able to look over the place without all the hustle and bustle of the front bar, plus it was much easier to get my barman's attention. Our Roxy night was truly started off with a round of drinks for us plus one and I pondered over the new sounding DJ Hex Hector for the eve. The music was good but lacked a certain cohesion as he appeared to be trying for a different sound than his previous club appearances. I had missed the two readily accessible Madonna mixes upon my arrival and was listening to the rest of the music for a while before the floor slowly filled and I said hi to Dave before heading onto the dancefloor myself and dancing in the still empty space near the front with drink in hand. I finished the drink off, danced some more and then headed back to the back bar to see where the boys had gotten off to. We chatted some and then I felt the need to wake myself up with a little dancing and made an appearance on the speaker in the asian section. While dancing I picked up a few new fans (of course) and met some new peoples (a girl named Stone, like Angie) and was nice and heated up before heading back to the back bar and talking some more with the boys before proceeding with the rest of the night. I will say the DJ went out of his way to keep the boys anticipating what he would do next but I was not particularly impressed and was kind of happy that my friend from work had begged off and made a rain date for two weeks away (for DJ Manny Lehman) I was still very much looking forward to my two weeks in a row of entertaining friends from work and was hoping for good music nights from both. Despite the seeming slow start the beats throughout the night progressed nicely and we stayed in the place until around 4:30am. Russ flagged down a taxi outside and we were back in Bklyn and the welcome rest I deserved without too much drama. Another night of dancing complete.

Sunday I awoke in the afternoon and enjoyed a delivery breakfast. Despite my hard partying efforts from the night before I was well recovered and after sufficient recording at the laptop I was ready to head out and go shopping; for food and other things. We stopped first at the ghetto mall on Fulton Street in downtown BK but I just could not find a priceworthy copy of Lil Kim's new album "The Naked Truth" with some out of control spots charging 15.99 for a CD (in its first week that is just plain stab and robbery). I eventually gave up on the no name stores after the last store offered the CD for 11.99 with a $40 purchase, as if I could actually find $40 worth of stuff to buy at some hole like Record Express or whatever the hell hole it was. Since I was in the neighborhood we did Wendy's for lunch, a nice Big Bacon Classic and was so happy once again. Russ and I left the downtown and headed through the traffic (street fair that day) to park next to the Baskin Robbins while I headed into the PC Richard (no longer sells CDs) and into Target (Sold out) and decided I had to pick it up at the mall in NJ the next day (Thanks FYE at $13.99 - f/ that $2 rebate). I settled on not wasting the trip and picked up a few things at the Vitamin Shoppe. After that we headed back down the street and turned over to Pathmark and picked up the necessities such as milk, juice and soda. We had decided on a dinner of Lasagna and I made sure to have all of the fixings for that (still have to remember Olive Oil for the next time tho) but after returning home and bringing the bags home in the borrowed shopping cart (from the Lobby) it was all domestic stuff from there. I cooked the dinner and watched football and other television. As most of Fox Block was repeats we ended up watching DVR programming and then Curb at 10 followed by Extras which stopped DVR recording just when it was getting good at the end. Anyway the rest of the night was just more DVR programming (Inuyasha and the like) and we wound down sufficiently so we could start the new week and prepare for the next.

Until then, I will do better and better until I am the only one, The Best.

Fri 9/23 - Sun 9/25 - Move with the weekend and watch Blacula

I finally figured out the blog thing in terms of keeping it from getting rid of my post. The stupid blog post screen sometimes keeps refreshing after I have opened the page. And lately when it finally finishes refreshing it erases everything I just wrote. I finally solved it or kinda fixed it by pressing the stop button and making the page just freeze while I post what I want. I always write the text in a text editor first and then copy and paste anyway because I like spellcheck while I type but I just took a few extra seconds to clean up the post and then it would like vanish. That was just not the move so I had to solve that little Mystere and so I did. So on with the night.

Had pizza for dinner, talked to sister on the phone for a while and then cleaned up some and got ready to go out. Watched some Billy and Mandy on Ctoon Network and then headed down the street to the subway. No rush tonight as I was just heading to one place after a brief wait I had the interminable wait on the train between stations before finally arriving at 14th Street. A brief detour across the street for water and then it was right ahead and to da club. I waited briefly outside behind the doorman before heading inside of Splash. I headed downstairs and started off the night with a Smirnoff Ice and Grenadine before heading upstairs. The music for the eve was courtesy of DJ Elliott DeHoyos and we were hearing another beat mix of the TRIBE party. The boys were in full effect and the room was definitely more comfortable than last week when the A/C was down. I headed up to the DJ booth and spoke to Light mistress Liz Ligouri as well as Jen. I handed over the gift CDs (Move Summ More and Groove Summ More) and we discussed the crowd, the music, the summer and the coming season. We hung out for a bit and then I let the girls be as I said hi to Robbie while he was dancing and later on met James as he was coming in with his friends. We hadn't hung out in a long minute but he had been away form the hangout with us in NYC and I told him the last time I had seen him was at the beginning of the summer, crossing the street at the end of June. I got myself another water outside and then headed back inside and did some dancing on stage. I had myself a european boy who was dancing right next to me and after complimenting on the dance he then told me he was watching cause he was trying to dance like me. It was fun but I didn't mind too much. Its not like the what I do is patented and its not like you can just do it by watching me once anyway. This is especially true after a few drinks. Not everyone does it with that special frosting like myself. I eventually headed back downstairs and had another drink, a Mandarin and cranberry and did some chatting with the guys over in coatcheck. We discussed the guy who caught his other half coming out of a stall with someone else and then got into a fist fight right in front of the coat check. I then did a quick trip to the bathroom myself before heading upstairs and doing my best to see if the music would get even better if I was on the dancefloor. It definitely did with a tribal mash-up of Celeda and "Let the Music use you Up" which I had heard a version of last week but not with the same rhythms underneath. It was good enough to be on the box in front of the stage with the shirt off and both hands lit and moving. I danced until I was almost tired (a lot of work keeping those lights in motion) and then shut em down, danced some more and then stepped off the stage and ended it. It wasn't too late, like around 3:20 but I was ready to go so I got the mags and then headed outside. Said goodnight to the doorguys and then stepped right into the taxi that brought me home. The ride was fine and I got home ok and got the driver around all the right turns and was upstairs all good. Another night on the town under wraps.

Saturday I awoke and took the Vitamin Shoppe vitamins and rehydrated with water, juice, and though I felt pretty good I realized that I needed to get out and exercise soon so that I wouldn't feel too attached to the couch and get to sedentary on a Saturday afternoon. I finally got out of the house after 3 and was able to get into the gym and get through a workout in Bklyn without too much drama. I stayed away from the smaller muscle machines and pretty much stressed workouts on the chest and back. The triceps and biceps got plenty of workout on the chin-up machine worked in with dips. After that was over I picked up my stuff from the locker and headed out into the street to get something to eat. Since I didn't want to wait and was ready to settle in for some comfort food (and no Wendy's without riding the train) I settled on Mickey D's and had myself a Quarter Pounder and a sit down before finishing off the meat noticing there was far too much cheese and throwing some away along with the rest of the fries (they always give you too much, unnecessary empty calories). Before heading back up the street and getting back in the house to watch some more TV. I DVRd the programming for later but happily I figured out how to connect the Gamecube to the TV so I was able to play Phantasy Star Online episode 1&2 on the new TV. The resolution wasnt HD but it was plenty good to play video games and I played through last board of episode 1 just so I could hear the ending theme of "Can Still See the Light". After that I had a shake while watching "Vampire Hunter D" but since that cartoon was kinda dark I stopped it before it was over to watch later (love that DVR) and watched an episode of Teen Titans before cleaning up and putting on the wardrobe I had laid out earlier. The South Pole top over the military cut cargos and I was ready to head out.

Instead of waiting I was in motion, spending the hour in transit moving on the train from R to F to E over to 16th street and then over the 2 blocks until I had arrived. The line was in motion as soon as I walked up to the club and the door security waved me in and I was inside through the cashiers and handing over my my ticket. for
Roxy. I was looking forward to seeing how DJ Junior Vasquez was going to move the crowd for such an early night party compared to his usual late night spinning. The music started with beat over beat with no real soul to it. The beats were hard and fast but it took until around 1am when the dancers appeared on the bar and boxes and the music shifted into second gear that the party took off. I was up on the speaker in the asian section first, moving the party slackers off the box and trying to give more life to my section. The stage setup was setup in the back made to look like a giant bed on stage where the performers were going to perform later and the traffic was cut off from the lounge in the back of the dancefloor except for across from the stage on the opposite side of the room. The place was plenty full and hopping going toward 2am and I was dancing at the front bar, over near the stage and on speakers in front of the DJ booth. There was no stage to dance on tonight but did not need one as I enjoyed hanging out with barman Barker and Matt. I also finally remembered the bar mistress Cathy and also finally got a name for Dave and gave him a gift CD as well (Skyline Driveby) as well as catching up to Mitch Amtrak who had the night off but was still in attendance and was able to give him a copy of "Groove Summ More". I hung out with Duane and Troy as well as Erica and we said hi to our friends as they arrived at different times throughout the night. I will say that the party was a smashing success and I was pleasantly surprised (it always helps to have no expectations) to be moved right along with the crowd as Junior seems to have gotten his way back to the heart of what moves the crowd and not punishing us too much throughout the night to get us to where the party was going. I ended up staying until after 5am and was finally heading out around 5:30. I was happy to make it over to 10th ave and get a taxi rather effortlessly and make it home nice and easy.

Sunday was spent just chilling out, no exercise just lounging and I finished watching cartoons started the day earlier and was happy to spend a quiet afternoon at home before heading out to Friends Cafe so I could pick myself up a chicken caesar salad and then ate while sitting on the couch and enjoying an episode of Billy and Mandy and then went old school and watched Blacula. Pais returned from his Jets football game in NJ (they lost) and promptly went to take a nap that lasted until 10pm. I myself was watching tv and watched the whole fox block until 10 and then went over to cable. HD and then watching some of Extras on HBO. (I was going to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm on On-demand). I had the rest of the night to while away reading news stories and eating boiled egg sandwiches. Another weekend with plenty of fun, fabulousness and traveling on trains and taxis. I have decided that even though I really wanted to go to Canada I decided to take a year off and wait until we had sufficient entourage to make it truly enjoyable. Besides I was looking forward to another holiday weekend in the city and Im always guaranteed the friends here. Until next time. Stay fun and frisky. Peace

Sep 16-18 - Dancers, Watchers, Heat and then some

Only got to the gym on Thursday but have just started up with a more aerobic focus on the workout so the workout was still more than it has been in the past few months. Was my first workout after returning to the active list after having taken a week off because of a pulled back muscle. I had slightly changed my front pulldowns (for the bicep) but it was just a slight deviation at the bottom of the exercise that because it was an unfamiliar movement I ended up doing myself some damage. The pain had not hit until the next day but it stayed with me all the way until the prescribed pain-killers kicked in. I was able to recover fully and was now looking forward to my first weekend pain free.

I left work with Vy who lives in BK just like I do. After coming out of the WTC train station we headed for the Rector street station but Vy had the idea to take a side trip and visit the Pussycat lounge not a block off of church street. He ordered a Corona and I had a Bud Light while we watched 4 different girls in various states of undress dance to a few songs while getting tips that were handed across the bar to the outstretched fingers of the girls in short suits and skirts. The dancing was not very energetic but the girls were pretty enough and I tipped a few before we finished off our beers after our short stay and we headed back to Bklyn. Vy went his way further into Bklyn on the Q train and I headed down the local to my stop. After dinner delivery and then cleaning up I was ready to head out into the city. Russ was staying in as he was too tired to hang but I went down the hill and waited for a car at Castle to take me into the city. After waiting for 15 minutes the driver checked in and then I followed him back out and across the street as he took to the taxi and we drove into the city. He knew to avoid the BK bridge on the way back into BK (for some reason traffic was ridiculous) and we made our way into the city and then across town via Chambers street and then up the west side before the driver turned back into the city at 14th street and we braved the crowds. After he finally was able to turn on 8th street I told him that hudson would have been faster and when turning off of the West side hwy it is better to cross at 16th street to avoid the party crowds. He took the lessons to heart and dropped me off right at 17th Street as I headed up the street and into Gym. I made my way inside, had Stoli Orange and Rockstar in hand as I went to the back and hung out with DJ Smoky for a few minutes. The place had seemed nice and roomy from the front but was packed in the back near the pool table for some reason. As I looked over the crowd chatting and playing pool I say Brett return from the downstairs and head for the front. I followed him outside and onto the street and was not able to catch up to his fast moving self until he was across the street and about to head into Better Burger. He was picking up a late night meal and even asked me if I wanted anything but I knew I couldn't mix my food in the midst of my evening of drinking so we chatted while just Brett ate about music, drinking, the current NYC parties and upcoming vacation both this year and early next. I made sure to give him a gift CD of my latest "Entrancing Summ". We headed out of the burger joint and then over a block to the Chase ATM inside of Duane Reade and then on to his lobby of his place where we said goodnight as he headed home and I headed on to 6th Avenue and bought myself a bottle of water before I headed into Splash. I met up with Steve outside who was having a cigarette in the outside smoking area. We shortly headed inside and we crossed the floor to dance and meet up with his friends who had bought him a Bud. We stayed on the floor for a bit before I headed downstairs to the restroom for a short break and then I was out to buy a drink at the downstairs bar. On this eve I started off with just one Smirnoff Ice with a splash of Grenadine before switching over to just Absolut Mandarin and cranberry for the rest of the night when I needed a drink for myself. I headed back upstairs to hear the tunes that DJ Billy Caroll was dishing out on the turntables. The heat was definitely on as the floor was almost too hot to handle but I still took to the stage and listened to a few different songs from both the dancefloor and the stage. I found out from my bartender that one of the air conditioners had caused a smoke condition earlier in the day and was currently shut off so the remaining AC had to make do for the crowd of partiers that were more than ready to dance the night away no matter how hot the dancefloor got. I hung out a bit with Andre who was taking a break from trips up to the DJ booth with friends, back to the dancefloor and all through the club and listened to mixes of Lose Control, Hollaback Girl, and Its Like That. Over the course of the night my red Nike shirt was soaked through despite taking 2 more trips outside for more water and walking back to the front and downstairs to get cooled off but the siren song of the music called me up to the stage and I danced some even as I watched over the place and watched what everyone else was up to. On the way I said hello to Michelé as well as gave a gift CD (Pop Life) to the cashier guy at the front. I also helped out Robbie who while dancing on the box was accosted by an overenthused partyboy who stepped down on the box from the stage and danced behind him even though one is not supposed to share the box with the professionals. After I explained that some people get paid to dance on the box alone the boy finally gave up on impressing his BF and Robbie thanked me and I went back to dancing on the stage myself. The floor was a little wet (wonder why with all the sweating people around) but the judicious application of napkins took care of that. Before I decided to dance some more I stepped up to the DJ booth myself and saying hi to the DJ and gave the set of my late summer CDs ("Move Summ More" and Groove Summ More") At around 2:30 I had already gone shirtless and I lit up my hands to a mix of "Stupid Like You" by Deborah Cox and danced for a bit on the stage. As the night got later after 3am I stepped down onto the box myself and danced a bit with the lights in motion and got nice and wet before stepping down and heading back to the front for some air. I finally headed out at 3:45 and headed outside to catch myself a car. After a few minutes of drama waiting for a car I finally caught a car heading over from Park Avenue and made my way back into the BK. The trip was nice and easy and I was happy to get up stairs and into bed nice and easy.

I awoke Saturday feeling tired yet I dug into my delivery breakfast and watched various sports programming with Russ as the afternoon rolled in and I checked out some new tunes from online and and on the different DJ sites. I had just the slightest headache because I probably over did the water at first but finally it all settled in and I stayed in watching the end of "Daddy Day Care" and some other DVR programming and prepared for the oncoming night. I had waited too long to decide to go to the gym so I just stayed home and awaited the delivery dinner from a new italian place. When the food came at first it seemed like they just gave us the salad for the Chicken Caesar salad without the chicken. But after calling the place and asking they told us the chicken was wrapped separately from the salad and was still warm and seasoned. The food was good (if a little pricey) and after dinner I went back to using the computer and setting up different CDs but I already decided that this was going to be a one CD night. Stephen and the Jimmy arrived around 10pm and we hung out for a bit and talked sports for a while before heading out into the city at 11:05.

We tried to avoid the traffic on the BQE by going through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel but ended up getting caught in a different backup because one of the tunnels was closed and all the traffic was going through one tunnel. The traffic backup was enough that by the time that the police actually closed the traffic coming into Bklyn and they were about to make both lanes straight into Manhattan. After we came out the other side we saw the backup that was developing on the other side but by then we were headed uptown on the west side and moving fast. We were able to get up and past 14th street nicely and then we were looking for parking for a bit but the hordes of people made it more difficult than usual. After a full loop through the area, over to 9th ave and back up and all the way to 24th street and finally found parking right next to the corner. After that little stop and drop we headed down the street and onto the line in front of the place. The line moved quickly and after talking to Doorman Derek briefly we were headed inside of
Roxy. We made our way to the bar in the front and started off with water and drinks at the bar from barman Barker. The DJ for the eve was DJ Tony Moran and the beats were on a high point right from the beginning with a re-rub of "Lola's Theme" remixed with itself. The sound was fresh but was just a taste of what was to come. We did like the music though the general tone remained unchanged until around 2am where there was a slight variance to a more thoughtful tone but I was too busy dancing with the crowd and hanging with Russ, the Jimmy and Stephen we were having a great time. My first dance was in the asian section speaker and later moved on to the rear stage and then the speaker over the muscle beach dance floor near the steps. The energy was soon back up as I welcomed back the blonde dancer who had been away from a month (temporarily forgot his name) and our usual cast of friendly partygoers who kept the party going. We ended up staying until 4:30 and dancing virtually the whole time. After my final appearance on the front speaker near the bar we said goodnight and headed out into the night. A car was rather easy to come by right on 10th Avenue. The ride home, like buttah. Another Saturday enjoyed and off the chain.

Sunday was pretty dull, mostly football watching and then heading out late looking for late day eats. We ended up settling on Chicken Teriyaki from a sushi place we had not visited before. Mine was without the bento box but pais had the side of sushi. After that it was the slow decline down and into sleep and another weekend was over with. Keep it hot.

Sep 9-11 - Much More and then some. Light me up and keep it moving.

Friday Night upon us once again. I left work and headed home another week of work closed out and some fun times with friends up ahead. The all Hurricane all the time newswatch continued but I was the one looking for it and it wasn't just getting thrown into my face with no effort on my part. I was glued to the newswires and constantly checking on the drama from multiple sources. From tales of ineptitude by FEMA such as not allowing through food and water to the people who needed it, to even the poorest of poor countries such as Bangladesh and Afghanistan feeling so bad for Hurricane victims they were giving even small amounts to help. I got back to BK and quickly settled into the delivery dinner that had that was in house before I even arrived and I made sure I finished up the dinner before preparing for the rest of the night. The muscle relaxants I had been prescribed for my upper back pains (right smack in the middle of my upper back) had me feeling a little more lethargic than usual (always wanting to nap on the trains) but my back was definitely feeling better and the pain was spread over a much wider area than the pinprick of sheer torture pins I had at the beginning of the week. I still had plenty of weekend to look forward to so I went ahead and cut the hair, cleaned up and outfitted so I was ready to head out just after 11pm and make my way into the city along with Pais in the Murano.

We made it through the traffic crossing the Bk bridge and then across downtown over to Hudson Street to head up the west side to make it up to 8th ave and 18th street. A parking spot right around the corner and we walked back down the street to head on into
Gym. Brett was already over with his tour at the bar but he was still in house so we picked up a drink from the bartender and hung out for a bit before he returned upstairs. I said hello to DJ Smoky and watched the crowd playing pool, watching Boxing and baseball on the big screens. After Brett came back upstairs I said hello and gave him the Pop Life and Street Beats 2 CDs (you've been busy he commented) and he rushed out as he had many chores to complete over the weekend as he was finally off work. We bid each other goodnight and I went back over to the bar to have another drink with Pais. After my first Smirnoff Ice the sweetness of the drink came back to remind me I had just finished it off. I then switched over to Vodka drinks instead which seem to stay with me better. After the second drink was finished off we headed out to retrieve the car and made our way east 2 blocks to park before heading in
Splash. The DJ of the eve was Susan which meant the mood was hot but fickle and the crowd was restless to recognize even the slightest change in her musical canvas. I headed downstairs and picked up a frozen margarita before heading back up to check out the music and the people on the dancefloor. The music was pretty much the same she played for her birthday set with some new beats thrown in. Pais was in telephonic contact with The Jimmy who was around the corner and pretty close. After hearing "Black Betty" remixed once again I decided that if we were invited to go someplace else there was nothing holding me there. We met up outside with the boys and decided we would find parking up near club Deep and KRASH. The night was the afterparty for the annual trip down to Six Flags and the party was on with DJ Demarko upstairs. The music was good though not as varied as we had listened to a few weeks before at Splash. He seemed to be trying to push the crowd to listen to something new but was not really giving them anything to go on to continue the trip. The $11 dollar drinks didn't put too much of a damper on my eve as I hung out with boys, including the always in attendance Anthony Lamont, along with friends Ed and Stephen. I danced next to the dancefloor just on the other side of the first box, facing the stage and watching the DJ and Light board guy as I lit my hands and danced to the beats. The girl box dancer was very into entertainment and I myself was right there with the crowd all the way up until around 3:45am when I finally gave up all remembrance of the evening but from all accounts I arrived at home (after a short stop for a hamburger at McDonalds) none the worse for the wear.

I woke up Saturday and enjoyed delivery breakfast from the cafe down the street and after rehydrating and cleaning up I felt good enough to just chill for a while before we headed out briefly to stop at the drugstore for Pais and then Lenny's pizza down the block for a slice before heading back up to the house and cleaning up some and then taking a brief late nap after some CD Mixing before it was dinner time and I received a delivery dinner of chicken caesar salad. My sister stopped over briefly to pick up some baby gifts (RC Car and baby pillow) as well as my older upright vacuum (bye Kenmore) and they hung around for a bit with dinner from Lenny's before they took the car service back home. I cleaned up and changed before the arrival of The Jimmy and Pais and I hung out for a bit before heading out of the house at 11:05 to make our way into the city.

Once again major delays at the Bk bridge but once across town to the west side we were warned about the delays heading downtown but the way uptown was clear as we headed up the west side and looked for parking. We ended up parking on 23rd street and 10th ave and I made my way down the block and over to 18th ave and Roxy. The crowd to start with was kind of light and I even thought that barman Barker was not in and was hanging with barman Matt before Barker showed up in his mechanic shirt. We made up quickly and I gave him the Pop Life CD to match the CD he had received the previous week. I hung out at the front bar for a bit before heading to the back of the dancefloor with drink in hand to dance right on the floor at the back curtain to finish up "Love has come again" which segued into Jody W and "I'm looking for a New Love". No one else seemed as into the Chus and Ceballos mix as I was but it was a good start as DJ Hex Hector let the night slowly build as the crowd got more and more into the music. As the crowd on the dancefloor was getting respectable the 4 towering drag performers took to the stage and whipped the crowd into a frenzy with their antics. I was standing near the stage watching the show when the called me over and made me the center stage attraction as the grinded on me in the middle of the stage and then stripped off my shirt as I stood under the hot stage lights and in front of the whole crowd on the dancefloor. After I moved on one of the performers came over to me and asked me if I was embarrassed by their acting up onstage with me in the middle. Of course with my usual speaker dancing, stage walking self I told them "never" and we smiled and moved on with the night. The music hit some older points with high energy remixes of MJ and "They don't Really Care about Us" as well as "Want To Be Startin Somethin" and JLo and "Waiting for Tonight" along with more recent hits such as "The Light" and some more hits for the crowd that grew to a respectable amount but was still not as busy as last weekend with the crowd that had made it in to fill the space for the 3 day weekend. This weekend crowd was still plenty fun and I also gave a gift CD (Beats the Heat) to Duane who was heading out early around 2:45am. We got plenty heated up dancing for the crowd on the stage, on the speaker in the asian section and only watched one person get sick and called security to clear their sick self out of our partyspace. The rest of us stayed until 4:15 before it was time to call it a night. Ahhhh Roxy...

Sunday I still felt pretty good and after delivery breakfast and plenty of water we headed out to go shopping. First into Lowes to pick up white Duck Tape (Duck Brand Duct Tape) and then over to Pathmark to pick up the fixins for a dinner of spaghetti with sweet sausage and red sauce. Me likey the homemade italian dinner. Back at home the dinner cooked fairly quickly after the sausage was done (covered pan for 10+ minutes in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan). The sauce made from a tiny tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and some cubed tomatoes and red peppers (Contadina) and all the seasonings, brown sugar, parmesan cheese, olive oil, red wine vinegar and some beef flavor (the stuff they make the bullion cubes from but easier to deal with). Dinner was ready around 7:30pm and we were digging in shortly afterwards. Very good, very filling and so very fresh. I then sat down to watch the Fox lineup at 8 but feel asleep during the Simpsons. I woke up 20 min later though and watched the rest of the eve's programming and laughed and laughed. We headed out for our weekly foray over to McDonald's to get a McFlurry and listened to the tunes to and fro. I closed out the evening watching the news and then some DVR programming and tried to get to bed a little earlier than the previous Sunday nights. Anything before 2am was admirable.

Another great one with more stuff learned and more friends met and plenty of fun to look forward to.

Sep 2-4 - Labor of Love, Never Enough Fun, Always With Friends

Got home from work and Brought home my bags from Target. Always nice to bring home things with nice prices. I settled into delivery dinner and when that was over I made sure my selection of CDs for the eve was completed and then set off to the in house barbershop. After the haircut and cleaning up I was outfitted and ready to go. Pais returned from his trip down to Philly but I was in a rush so we passed each other at the door and I made my way into the city via Castle Car. The trip in was quick and I was on the corner of 18th and 8th Ave nice and easy. I walked in and caught barman Brett just as he was closing out and ready to finish for the eve. After procuring my first drink I was hanging out at the front bar for a bit with David before heading to the back and saying hello to DJ Smoky. Brett returned upstairs and received his gift CD before I walked him outside as he was on his way to watch Jason W. performing at Crobar. Shortly after, Pais and the Jimmy showed up and we had another drink with Ty and chatted a bit. I headed back to the DJ for a second and told him that I had enjoyed what I had heard of the last hour of his set (R&B, Dance and classics) and told him so before we bid the
Gym bar goodnight and we headed over to our next stop for the evening.

I headed into the bar as the boys found a place to park. I headed inside and picked up Smirnoff Ice with Grenadine downstairs before heading upstairs and dancing on the stage for a bit. The dancefloor was plenty full and the boxes were occupied too as I watched Demarko turn out the boys. He played the other slightly diff remix of "Don't Cha" as well as some tribal beats and vibrant crowd that kept the crowd interested between some new classics When I heard Offer Nissim and "First Time" I headed down to the speakerbox with hands lit to the crowds ovation. I was even video phone recorded while dancing at
Splash but I did not have any cards on me to give the my blog address. (I will remember to get that fixed post haste.) Between speaker appearances and picking up drinks with the guys we finally determined the night was through around 4am. After saying goodnight to the Jimmy, Pais and I headed outside and waited a few moments for a taxi to make its way down the street and pull up in front of bar. We got in and rode on back to Bklyn as we discussed our night, our friends and plans for the rest of the weekend.

The next morning I awoke around noon and began with watching some DVR programming and fixing up a bit with setting up the PC before heading out to the gym. The trip into the city and the workout at NYSC was done fairly quickly and a lunch at Wendy's was right on time. We were still watching the scary footage out of Louisiana on the monitors while I ate my lunch. After I was finished I headed back into BK and watched some more television where I got very hyped watching some cartoons.

Titans quote of the weekend:

Ignorant Quote: "Go! . . There's Nothing YOU can do!"
Angry Response: "You don't KNOW what I can do!"

As well as seeing Oma (Grandma) on "Life and Times of Juniper Lee" kick mad ass.

"Don't worry babies... Oma is coming for you."

With those upbeat thoughts in mind we headed into the evening making sure everything was in place and I was all washed up, outfitted and had gift CDs in place and ready to head out before 11pm. Monika showed up around 10:55 and we sat in and discussed a bit before the car arrived to bring us into the city. Pais was still down in Philly and as he had just finished eating dinner he was going to be a no show for the eve of hanging out but wished us well in spirit.

The trip in was quick and we were on 10th Ave and 18th and walking over to the club around 11:45. I gave a CD to Derek (Dance Summ More) and headed in and made it past the cashier and into the club in short order. We looked over the crowd at Roxy around the front bar and picked ourselves up a bottle of water as we awaited Midnight and watched the party start. We did the once over tour of the place, from the back bar and back lounge on the dancefloor to the upstairs in the Martini Lounge before heading back downstairs and seeing what there was to see on the dancefloor. We said hello to a few people before heading to the speaker in the asian section and I danced a bit for the crowd before I lit up the light on my leg and took to the speaker again and danced some more. We split our time between the front bar and the dancefloor in between saying hi to Erica and handing out gift CDs to barman Barker and Matt (Street Beats) and the bar-mistress as well (Dance Summ More). DJ Merritt made sure we stayed interested throughout the night and saved the dancefloor filler of "Don't Cha" until 3am when the dancefloor was already plenty packed and keeping up very well to the beats and the movement of it all. Of course I was already on the speaker and stopped for a moment to tell Monika what was about to come on over the speakers. We spent time dancing in the black section next to the stage in the back, on the stage as well as a final dance on the speaker in the front overlooking muscle beach. We were thoroughly danced out through and through by 4:30am and ready to head back into BK and call it a night. We got a taxi right over on 10th Ave and headed back to Bklyn with no trouble at all. We dropped Mon off first said our goodnights and then pulled up in front of my building and I paid the driver and waved him away to return to the city. Another Sat Nite concluded and another happy time for all.

I awoke sunday with a strong taste of Vodka on my breath and a little fatigue still holding over but other than that I felt fine... Until I got up to a vicious twinge in my neck as came into the dining area for delivery breakfast. The mystery pain was annoying but moved a little at bay by judicious application of pain-killers (ibuprofen and naproxen) and we watched Sunday afternoon programming before heading out to an invitation to BBQ not a few minutes away in the slope. We were debuting a new dance mix in the car but it was a short ride before we were walking upstairs and ringing the bell. We said hello to everyone who was already there and were given the short tour from the front to the back of the apt. before heading up to the roof-deck where the party was ready to begin once we started up the grill and the tunes. Tuned to WCBS-Jack FM we sat around and chilled out well into the evening as the propane grill turned out some great hot dogs and hamburgers and we also had some salad and pickles as well. After it was finally too dark to see very well and we also had to take our time to pick up our friends at Lowes who were done with their houseware shopping. We said goodnight to our Park slope hosts and were over to the warehouse hardware store fairly quickly. We said hello to Phil and Kevin and loaded up the trunk with the wooden doors before we squeezed into the Murano and headed into Prospect Heights to drop the whole load off. The ride over was quick and after the car was unloaded we said our goodnights and then headed back home to meet up with the Jimmy who was in the lobby. I took some more ibuprofen and naproxen for my lingering upper back pain and we were off into the city once again.

We arrived at GYM bar and had a drink before awaiting the re-arrival of Ty who had been hanging out with his friends in town for a visit. We picked up another drink before we decided on our next stop for the evening and made our way uptown to the EAGLE bar. The ride up was easy but it took us a few moments to find a parking space over on 9th Ave and then it was time to head over and see what the crowds were up to. There was already a nice line in front of Crobar for the party they were hosting but where we were headed had no line out front and we headed right in. After a short bathroom break it was upstairs to the roofdeck where there was a short wait at that point for the roof to release some of its revelers before we all headed up to the roof and over to the bar to pick up some Absolut and cranberry. I spent most of my drinks that evening switching back and forth between regular Absolut and Absolut Citron. We met up with more friends of Ty as well as Ed from softball and spent a while just talking about fun stuff, friend stuff and fun we had enjoyed this summer so far. We spent a while at the place before finally bidding the place goodnight and going our separate ways. The Jimmy was staying with some new friends, Ty was leaving and heading over to Avalon and the party by Junior Vazquez with his old friends, and Pais and myself were heading over to Splash to see the party the out of town boys were having. We got over there pretty quickly with a taxi that was right outside. We headed on into the bar and picked ourselves up a drink and looked over the crowd. While it wasn't at full as the previous Friday it was still a happy crowd and I took to the stage and danced for a bit before heading across the floor and dancing on the steel box stage for a going away dance of "I'm telling you, I'm Not Going" as the crowd looked on and cheered me on. Alas, it was time to go and I was done for the night. Pais and I headed out and flagged down a car right outside. The weekend of hanging out with friends was over but I was happy with my time I had spent and the conversations I had taken part in.

I would eventually have a doctor's visit ahead of me to get a prescription for relaxants for my spasm and pains and back troubles. Despite the distraction of the back discomfort we still had half of a weekend pain free and can now look forward (boo hoo) to a week without the gym as I convalesce. I will still look forward to next weekend. Keep it hot until then.