Three Day Weekend, Friends, Friends and Friends Again

The people at work decided to have a little drink downstairs at Ole. I was heavily invited so I left work to go downstairs and have one drink. We discussed the new year with high expectations (anything better than last year). Celebrated working for the same company we were at 2 years ago and laughed and even danced a little to "Follow Me" by Aly Us. I did get back upstairs to finish up with work so it would not be waiting for me Monday Morn. I was offered a ride from V so me and LL hopped into the new Infiniti SUV and rode back home into BK. The car was pretty much the same as the Murano with just buttons instead of dials and a different gear shift and different placement of the cup holders. A little more expensive because it has a different platform but the same size and options. Am happy that Pais settled on the Luxury suspension instead of the sport suspension as the ride was a little rougher, but still a nice ride. Got home plenty early just after 8pm and proceeded engage in a haircut, shower and then a nice steak dinner. We discussed with The Jimmy about whether to go to Krash or to Splash but I knew where my fun was so we wished Jimmy well and headed into the city at just after 11 to get to Splash. Walked across the lot and headed inside, paid the cashier and headed for coat check. There was a line but it was not that bad. Headed for the backstairs and then up across the dance floor and met up with the crowd at the front bar. I got a drink for me and for Pais and said hi to barman Brett. He introduced us to Quentin E and his friendgirl Tina. She told me that Quentin would be performing at Splash on the 31st for a fund raising benefit. We said for sure and I gifted her with one of my mix CDs (The Workout CD) and proceeded to enjoy the evening dancing. DJ Eliot DeHoyos gave us another dose of his Tribe party and the place got more and more filled as the night progressed. I was surprised that the regular light guy was in attendance but he showed a renewed interest in synching the lights to the mood and to the music and gave the crowd that little extra push to keep the crowd going. Over the course of the evening we heard the Shapeshifter Dub Mix (as usual) and also a remix of. Erotic City (Prince), Twisted (Star 69) , and La Noche. I danced on the stage and later in the night as I got more bold I danced on the table box and then crossed the dancefloor to dance on the steel speakerbox. I danced a little reckless considering the size of the speaker, the fact someone else joined me and the lateness of the night (right around 3am) but I survived and eventually it was time to call it a night. I said gnite to Brett, picked up an HX and headed back out into the night to the car. We found out that the Jimmy had spent an hour on line waiting to get into Krash. He said the place was full and that it was fun but where I was it was pretty full too. No wait for me and plenty of friendly faces. We got home easily and turned in. Another Friday night experience that was all good and then some. Nice.

Saturday morning has a brunch with Kevin and Phil at their place to attend so we cleaned up around noon and headed over with a gift CD and a bottle of Korbel. We drove almost straight there but realized we were on clinton and not clifton. After circling the block we showed up just as the crowd started to pile in and even though I started with a soda one of the guys we just met from Cali made a killer mimosa (Mostly champagne with some orange juice for color). We enjoyed the great food (Fresh Direct) and the great new furnishings. The little kids watched Shrek in the other room while we all talked and hung out. We even all joined together to sing Kevin "Happy Birthday". What was funny was that we made it sound eerily professional. Nothing like having a whole room of friends who know how to hold a note. Sounded really good. We then had cupcakes and then prepared our various groups to say our goodbyes and head to our various other tasks for midafternoon. We grabbed a couple of doggy bags to take with (bagels, cheese and coleslaw and a few cupcakes) and we got back in the car headed over to Pathmark. I walked the aisles to get some soda, and a few other household items and then headed back for home. I cleaned the mirrors, discarded some container badness from the fridge and generally just hung out. The bell rang around 5 and in walked Ernesto. We passed the time watching football, reading the news and looking up people online. Ernesto finally had to head back out to to visit with friends in the city before heading back to LI. We rested up and ate our italian delivery dinner and made sure all was in order before preparing to head out later. I checked out the new On-demand stations we had around the dial and made sure the outfit was together (repaired the button on the Tommy's) and made sure we were all set and ready to go.

The drive into the city on such a cold night was still easy and after circling a bit we found a space on 23rd Street. The walk down to the club was long but I had dressed warm enough it was not too much of a trial. After arriving in front we took our place on line and began to wait. Because of the constantly arriving crowd of supposed VIPs and one boy with no ID who held up the regular line for several minutes we thought me might never get in. Finally after waiting on line for almost 10 minutes in the sub-zero the line finally moved, Derek apologized to those he kept waiting and we were allowed in past the outdoor heater and then inside. I took off my coat before I even bought my ticket and was ready to go through the coatcheck immediately afterwards. I made my way inside the Roxy and made my way over to the front bar to say hi to barman Barker and order my first drink. The DJ of the evening was Manny Lehman and we were definitely prepared for a night of great beats and lots of energy. The party was going to come out and get you no matter what. As I went to the dancefloor in the back to dance to Shapeshifters and then returned to the front to talk with Bob, Hal and Pais and found myself dancing to Superchumbo "Dirtyfilthy". I danced on the speaker next to the stage (both sides), the speaker in the asian section and the speaker in the front near the door. The music was definitely as good as advertised and the place filled up and stayed jumping well into the night. We stayed until just after 4 and my last drink of the evening was a bottle of Gatorade. I picked up a Next magazine on the way out, had a running conversation with Pais as we made our way back up the street and headed into the diner. After finishing off another great burger and chip fries we were able to walk around the corner to the car and then head on home. The trip back to BK was made safely and I turned in to fall into my very welcome bed and nice clean sheets.

Sunday I climbed out of bed around 12:30 and hung out watching football on TV. Midafternoon I stated I had a taste not just for chicken or quiznos but wanted something barbecue. Pais said we had a menu that had been left downstairs that advertised a barbecue place over in red hook. I looked up the address and said it wasn't in red hook but between the battery tunnel and the Bklyn Bridge. After mapquest finding the place we headed down to the car and went for a ride over to the place. The neighborhood was quiet and the place seemed small but once inside we liked the nice city pictures on the walls and the friendly staff who made sure we got our order in and then were surprised with the portions. Jake's Barbecue was definitely worth the trip and we are sure the place will really pick up once they start building up the neighborhood to revitalize the waterfront that is supposed to start this year. The food was good and I couldn't even finish it all but they didn't make too much fun of me and let me take home a nice little bag of leftovers. We spent the rest of the evening watching more TV and just hanging around. I decided since I had the next day off I would head out into the city. Foregoing the classic theme parties, and the expensive parties I headed over to Avalon and the promise of a low price entry and low price drinks (a winning party combination) The holiday crowd was surprising packed into the place and I waited on a short line outside and then a long line for the coatcheck inside. There were a lot of young people out for the night, a lot of girls and friends of girls and a lot of friends of friends of girls. The bar in the chapel was crowded beyond walking space and took far too long to get from one side to the other. I went from bar to bar trying to find out where I could get a drink the quickest and settled on the bar in the front just off of the dancefloor. While getting one of my many weak but tasty low price drinks, I spotted Bob and John and a few of their friends nearby. I kept on coming back to the same bartender and after tipping nicely he remembered me after a few trips, buying bottled water and vodka red bulls. The DJ DeMarko made sure that we did not know what kind of music to expect next. We went from Peter remix of "How Would You Feel" to high speed techno, mashups of classics and new beats and the lightshow to match. I went from upstairs to downstairs checking out the crowd but eventually went up to the stage when I noted a space clearing out right in front. I lit up my hands and danced for a few songs. Before I could leave the stage however I was approached by a young guy who actually wanted to buy my lights. I told him they were not for sale regardless of what he wanted to pay and I left the stage. I went back to the bar and had some more but was drawn back to the dancefloor and danced right at the front between the bar and the speakerbox. I made my way around the club again, tripping up and down the sudden floor height changes so much I started warning other people and making sure they didn't follow my example as I made my way from front to back and upstairs and down and then found myself on the stage one last time to dance to "Glamourous Life." I then headed to the back lounge which had emptied out some and seeing an emptly space I actually pole-danced until it became too crowded up on the mini stage with its pole once again (I never did that before but it was fun). I then walked through the place again and decided it was time to go. I had a wait almost as long to retrieve the coat as I did during check in. It was a little unorganized but eventually I got my coat back and was able to head out into the night. I waved for a taxi but could not get one right away. I walked down the street towards 14th St and three cars later the third taxi let me get in and took me home. We went all the way cross -town to Bowery and got home rather quickly. I handed the driver the twenty and let him keep all of the change and made my way inside. I readied myself for bed in record time and turned myself in for bed arrest.

Monday I stayed in and rested. Yes on the third day the body needed rest and I took it. I spent the day web browsing, watching MTV and VH1 and just laying low. I was very happy with how my weekend went and don't think I would have changed anything vital. (Except for my sunday bartender grilling me to make sure I wasn't on drugs. Ha!) All is well that ends well. I didn't waste the weekend and did not feel TOO wasted at the end of my weekend either. A quick nap Monday evening and I was able to perk right up and make it through the rest of my evening. The next weekend starts in just 4 days. And I am about to start my gym workouts back up again tomorrow (Sweet). It just gets better with time.