Sep 17-19 A Play in the Rain and Then We Dance

Arrived at home Friday Night at 9:10 and warmed myself up for a night out. A new set of black and blue kicks, a new outfit, a steak and spinach dinner and a quick cleanup and we were ready to start the night out. The Jimmy showed at 10:30 in the BK and we soon headed out after catching the final scores on some late baseball games. The journey into the city was more traffic ridden than usual as the last gasps of summer night were enjoyed by the downtown NY populace. The backstreet traffic cleared out around Houston street and we arrived in club vicinity about 11:50. My mission to say hello to Brett was begun. I walked in the place got my hand stamped and spotted too many bartenders at the front bar. It was interesting but eventually the extra bartender cleared out but poor barman Brett still had to share a register. Of course, he loved the new mix CD especially, the tracks by Shapeshifters, DJ Paolo, and David Morales. After my first drink, a Surfer on Acid I knew was ready to take on the rest of my night. Splash had as DJ Susan Morabito for what seems to be turning into a monthly residency. The DJs mix of off all over the place tribal beats, snatches of once-upon-a-time hit songs, and endless tempo changes usually leaves me feeling empty so I determined to try and see if I could find someplace else to try and find a party I could get a good dance too. Heaven of course is full of lesbi-ladies and Discotheque is cute but small and early night Junior is not usually my cup of tea anyway. So after some earlier planning and checking what other parties were in the neighborhood, I walked up the block to see if I could check out what Krash was like. I remember visiting the place out in Queens and remember a decent sized space, loud music and a lot of people in the space dancing to Hip Hop and Salsa music. After I determining that I had reached my quota of merengue that night I decided I was not going to journey out to Queens to party anytime soon. Recently the Krash party has taken over Club Deep and seem to be doing their best to fill up the three level space. When I got to the block there was a line that massed 4 people across and went a third of the way up the street. After verifying with the line security guy that I was in fact looking at the right space I determined that instead of waiting on line with a whole lot of girls (genetic girls not the "You go girl kind") I decided I would go to the party I knew instead of the great unknown. After making my way back to Splash I came back inside and said hi to everyone all over again and decided to make a go of it. After a while I determined that in order to enjoy the party I just had to give up and just be drunk enough and guess what... after awhile the drinks kicked in and I started dancing like all of the other boys in the place after just deciding to be in the moment and just have fun. We finally left around 2:30 and got a cab outside rather quickly. Gave the driver directions and arrived home safe and sound.

Woke up the next day at 8am with a thunderstorm rolling through soaking the streets. Of course this was far too early to wake up on a Saturday so I went back to bed. I finally made it out of the bed around 11am and found that the rain had stopped and we were going to be going out to a ball game. The final game in the in the league division The Titans were in still needed to be finished for the playoffs to be complete. The date had arrived and the fields were waiting so we got dressed and went out to Randalls Island. Despite the many accidents on the road and random flooding all over the city we made our way up the east side and got out to the fields.

The whole team was in attendance with a few arriving later and we said hi to all of our friends on the team while commenting on the field looking like China beach. The river running close by gave us a sense of scale while the dreary skies and rather cold day (62 degrees) made us wish we had came out to the field with long pants. We did not feel the full force of the wind and light rain until we arrived out on the field but the game must go on so I pulled out my directors chair, found a nice spot to watch from and watched the boys go at it. The game started right were it left off and was good right from the beginning. It stayed pretty close all the way till the end even as the rain got harder and harder but at the end the Cruisers beat the Titans by one point with a home run at the end.

Some of the many highlights of the game were:

• A catch at right center by Rob with a fall and back roll catch that surprised the runner at 2nd base by keeping ahold of the ball for the final out of the inning.

• 2 tag out plays at home plate by Demetrius

• Back to Back Home runs by Jeff and Chris (who almost died rounding the bases at 2nd)

• A triple from Kevin even after he ran back to 1st base to tag, after a missed catch in right field.

• A bunch of dramatic ball fumbles to keep several people safe at 1st, 2nd and 3rd and keep the game close.

• 2 great come backs in the last inning by both teams to wrap up an exciting game.
  

Despite the weather I was glad I was there to see it. The whole game definitely entertained and had some really great plays by players on both teams. But after it was over we hightailed it back to the car and closed the doors and we were very happy we were out of the rain. It got kind of shocking cold there at the end. We got to back into BK and picked up a nice lunch at Quiznos. Got back home and chilled out. I did the weekly haircut, rehydrated, rested and watched some early evening television and filled up on some feel good visuals (cartoons and Itunes visualizations) and took myself some megaman vitamins to help the metabolism snap back. By 11pm we were ready to go out and hit the town once again.

This time we were going to hit up the Roxy and rock with DJ Peter Rauhofer and all the grooving boys of the city. Of course when we first arrived Peter did not appear to be in attendance but I felt we were still in good hands with DJ James Anderson who kept up a nice groove for the boys with a hip uptempo groove and a few new songs we had not heard before but still appreciated the cool beats. Barman Barker had us from the very beginning and made sure we had the drinks going good and the water and gatorade too. The party fun kept rising as the night progressed and I even saw my SBNY friend Grace in attendance sporting a nice leather showoff top and a cute baby blue fan flag to dance on the stage with the boys. I lit up the stage for a few songs but truly lifted when my man Pais brought me back my last drink of the night just when I was about to go to the bar myself, along with a bottle of water for the road and the moment of 3:45am hit and Peter threw on Shapeshifters at full throttle that I got truly happy and threw myself into the dance. We hung tough until around 4:30am and proceeded to make our way out the place without too much trouble and caught a car back to BK after walking over one block to the next downtown traffic avenue. Another night in the city worked out and done for.

Sunday was spent just chilling at home. Had a nice brunch at the Greek diner down the block. Picked up a new cable for the Cable box and discovered the prob appears to be the box and not the cable wire (maybe). We also shopped for dinner and enjoyed a quiet time watching 60 Minutes and then watching the season premiere of The Wire. Seems like it is shaping up to be a cool season on one our favorite HBO series. The first episode of Family Bonds was cool too with some pretty interesting people out there, both criminal and the ones bailing them out. Another weekend completed and a cool time had by all. Till next time... Same days... same friends... even more fun.