March 11-13 - Its Snowing Men and then it got Nice

Some weeks seem longer than others. Some almost fly by. This past week was not that bad even though I had to take off from work on Tuesday due to out of control allergies, tender sinuses and a sore throat to beat all getout. But later in the week all healed up, cold free and allergies under control I was able close out the week on a high note and get out and about. I got to the gym early enough so my workout wasn't cut off 2 soon this time. Nice results every time. Rushed home to dig into the dinner, used the low-budget steak sauce I found in my fridge since we were out of ketchup and then clean up, cut the hair and suit up. The cargo pants loaded with the gift CDs and the soundtrack in the car set up we were ready to go out and do the do. We arrived just after midnight party beats in full swing. After the coat check boy stressing me over the baseball cap that Pais took off (folded and stuck in the pocket) I was able to make my way over to the bar and get our drinks. Of course barman Brett got me a Surfer for my first drink because he knows I knows I handle my liquor roughly . But I did have to warn everyone that I would be having no more as they kinda do the stomach in if left unchecked. The beats we were hearing sounded good and because of our sketchy internet connection I had no idea who was mixing. My first quick trip upstairs through the cloudy dancefloor yielded a bad viewing and my first thought of the DJ was Joe G. Later on I heard Brett tell another clubgoer that the DJ was Eddie Elias. The sounds of the middle of the party from 12:15 to 1:15 was kind of all over the place with a truly tribal feel but I could not tell where it was going. However by 1am the music was truly cooking and I had long since handed out gift CDs to BB and to David. Then Reggie arrived and the rest of the gift CDs were spoken for so I told him I would hold them until it was time to go since of course he had no pockets to hold a CD in. We both danced in the back when we were actually challenged for floor space by some crazed dancer but after that was over I retired to the other side of the floor only to follow the beats up onto the speakerbox and dance overlooking the crowd with my hands lit up. Afterwards I headed downstairs to hang with Pais. He was away from the bar so I figured he had headed for the mens room so I caught up to him on line and played bathroom director telling the people waiting when there was a free stall. Of course my bathroom drama continued as I was trying to direct some drunk person to a stall. Of course the rampant cutting meant one was supposed to be on top of their game and move like they meant it. I pointed out the opening and patted the next guy on line in the general direction and saw that he was not moving fast enough to secure the space. He felt I was rushing him and said that he did not like people pushing him. I thought he really wanted to pee and was trying to be helpful. I apologized for trying to assist and then moved on to find Pais and get the heck out of the bathroom. Earlier that evening when I myself was in the bathroom I put my drink down over the sink and the glass knocked someones ring into the sink. I was accused of all kinds of stankness before the owner dredged his precious costume jewelry from the drain at the back of the sink. If I had to take off jewelry in the bathroom I would be sure to put it someplace safe, like my pocket and not have the nearly invisible ring sitting where anyone could touch it and possibly cause it to fall. Anyway he recovered his jewelry and I got out of the bathroom and told Pais that the night was just too full of Drama for me. Splash was chock full of people both upstairs and downstairs and even Grace stopped in and said hi. She told us she had been sick and then got into a whole conversation with DJ DeMarko about flagging. He did not like flaggers. I told her that he probably found them a distraction and maybe had an attention issue. He just stated he did not see their purpose and made sure there were none at any of the venues that he DJd at. She went upstairs to flag and I headed outside to get myself a bottle of water. On my way outside I asked Reggie if he wanted me to bring him back a bottle of water (can't beat those $1 bottles) and I headed outside. Outside it was actually snowing but since it was above freezing and there was no wind I was actually outside, in shorts sleeves and a baseball cap while viewing snowflakes. It was a truly next top model moment and I only wished I had thought to have Pais carry the digital so that he could take pictures. Anyway I got to the store picked up the bottles of water and guzzled mine before heading back in. I told everybody about the snow but after all of the snowfall we had received this winter already it was only shocking for a moment and then we moved on. We ended up staying until 3:30 and after I picked up our coats (a slight mixup caused a short wait) I made sure to stop at both sides of the back to pick up the magazines and then gave Reggie his CDs which he was sure would keep him in the music until summertime. Anyway I could not find Pais on the way out when he said he would meet me at the front and actually ended up going all the way to the car and then returning to the bar and calling Pais on the phone. He was on his way out as I was I was viewing the front of the bar. After we settled our differences we piled into the Murano and headed back to BK. A trip of a few minutes and then it was time to rest up for the next day. Well it was the next day already but not quite daylight. I hit the sheets pulled the covers over my head and lights out.

I got up on Saturday around noon and came out to an already delivered breakfast of eggs and bacon. They actually delivered twice as the first time the eggs were delivered instead of scrambed I received sunny side up eggs which entailed a plate of runny eggs and bacon on top. I ate the scrambled eggs in the styrofoam container and then ate the bacon that had come with the runny eggs. It added some flavor but I was glad I didn't have to eat the liquid eggs. Thoughtful Pais. Anyway after breakfast we watched some TV and scanned the days news stories. Since we were out of soda and a few other essentials like orange juice we headed out to do some shopping. Downstairs and into the car and then we headed down 4th ave to the mall at Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal. We parked down in the lot underneath Pathmark and headed upstairs so we could make it across the bridge and over to Target. Once inside Target we made our way to the front to get a shopping cart and discovered that the lines at the checkout were out of control. I did not know what sale brought all of these people in but I knew there was no way we were going to wait on those lines. We headed back downstairs and across the street to the Vitamin Shoppe even though the traffic on Atlantic Ave was out of control and some lady in a white truck tried to take me out (run a brother down). I saw her in the peripheral and made sure to stay on the curb until she passed. Inside the Shoppe we took some time to find all of the supplements and then dodged cars getting back across the street and headed into Old Navy. One pair of cargo pants and a new summer shirt for me and Pais picked up some new shirt wares for himself as well. I came down to the front just in time to wait behind just one person. Of course after me the line exploded and because Pais didn't see me until after I had made my purchase and of course he had to wait on the full length line. I watched the movement of the line until it was the turn for Pais and then we were finally able to get out of the store and head back to the car. Down the elevator one level and we packed the bags into the car and headed for the exit. The lot was only $2 because we didn't take too long but because we didn't get to pick up anything at Target we still had to do some shopping. We headed over to Wendy's for some pre-shopping lunch first and found nice parking with no meter in sight not 2 blocks away. We walked up and around the corner and ordered our lunch. We sat for lunch upstairs and listened to the offbeat music while munching our burgers. We finished that off, retrieved the car and then dodged pedestrians on our way over to Pathmark. We did the shop picking up enough juice, milk and soda along with decent selection of foodstuffs so that we could live another week. Back home we chilled for a bit. Pais napped while I downloaded songs from Beatport and iTunes and completed my newest chill CD Mix. Around 9pm we ordered in italian from Friends Cafe and I enjoyed a nice penne ala vodka with grilled chicken. I watched tv and finished up the mixing before going to clean myself up. The Jimmy arrived and they hung out while I cleaned up and outfitted and then went back to finishing up the mixing. Stephen K arrived at 11pm and we soon headed out in the new Range Rover.

The drive into the city was quick and we dodged all kinds of pot holes to find a nice parking spot on 10th ave (after crossing 3 lanes of traffic and beating out a car full of spanish girls for the parking spot). We walked down from 22nd street the 4 blocks to the club and then stood in front. This week the line moved fairly quickly and I shook hands with doorman Derek and headed inside. This week the party crowd was kinda split because DJ Rauhofer was over at Spirit and we were hearing the first night of DJ Chris Cox tonight at Roxy. We headed into some strange mix of retro house music and the crowd around the bar made the place look real busy until you looked at the dancefloor and saw that only the truly brave were out there on the floor. I hoped for the best as we said hello to barman Barker and checked out the bar from front to back. We even checked out the chill out room but I myself found it a bit too chill and told Pais I was getting cold and needed to head back out to the bar. We couldn't walk in front of the DJ booth because of the performance later and the stage was velvet roped off but we could walk around far side of the floor and hang out and wait for party to get started. In the meantime we talked and chilled and bumped elbows with John Norris and Pstars Tag Eriksson and J. The music finally took a turn for the better around 1:10 and I was actually pulled by the beats out the speaker to dance. I was dancing behind some boys that had been thrown off by the earlier strange tunes and now could only sit on the speaker and wave their heads to the beat. The beats reached a sort of crescendo and I suddenly recognized the beat and sounds of a remix Ciara and "One-Two Step". Since the DJ was one-half of the former remixing duo of Thunderpuss we were hearing some new mixes and I suddenly had some hope for the rest of the night. I actually pulled off my shirt with one hand and my hat with the other (at the same time) for a wild speaker moment that I did not actually pre -rehearse but looked and felt kinda cool. Back from the speaker and looking for the boys outside I actually reshirted but headed back in to find them walking towards me near the front bar. The scheduled performer of the eve was Kristine W. and as the hour crawled ever later despite the energy of the curly, dark maned DJ the boys were getting restless. I was dancing on the speaker right near the stage when they began preparing the stage and doing final checks to make sure all was clear. Her own personal stage hand came out and laid tape at all the marks for the dancers and also put out water bottles for when it was time for the performers to leave when it was over. I wandered away for a second and then stepped back over to the spot next to the stage speaker to watch them come out. At 3:08am they finally came out on the stage and began singing, Kristine and 2 backup singers with the song from QAF "Some Luvin". She then proceeded to go into a medley of every number one hit she ever had. It was good at first but then seemed to go on for far too long. I left the side of the stage when she was singing "One More Try" to find Pais and found him two songs later as we stood near the bar and ordered something more to drink. Even our friends were saying that they could not wait for the show to stop as it was kind of a severe length break in the party. Finally she thanked the crowd and left the stage and it was back to the music. We stayed and danced and hung out until 4:45 and picked up our coats to head for home. We walked over one avenue and Pais flagged down a taxi for us to take back to BK. Another Saturday night under wraps and well enjoyed.

I awoke early Sunday afternoon and once again had a breakfast delivery waiting to be eaten at the dining room table. After breakfast we watched basketball, optimized the home network and increased the encryption rate transmissions and made a spring chill out mix CD. After 5:15 we piled into the Murano and drove over to Quiznos and ordered some sandwiches. After eating in and saying hi to the owner that stopped in to check on the store. After lunch we walked over to Footlocker and looked over the selection. I found it kinda limited and overpriced when I consider what I would pay over in NJ. Pais did not see anything in sneakers or clothes that looked worthwhile either. We drove back home and watched TV and hung out until it was time for me to defrost the meat for dinner and cook up some chicken wingettes and some microwave rice and Green Giant Corn niblets. The microwave Zatarains was not all that but I guess for rice in 60 seconds you could not ask for too much. We watched two different episodes of The Simpsons and some more tv until around 11pm when we decided to go out and pick up some ice cream from the 24 hour Baskin Robbins. We listened to the new chill mix CD and drove over to the place fairly quickly and parked right next to the place before walking in to order. Of course the same ice cream guy who looks as if he has some sort of anger simmering under the surface took our orders for ice cream and of course got mine wrong. I got one scoop instead of two but did not feel like going to get it corrected and plus I probably did not need the extra ice cream anyway. Pais laughed it off but I never could shake the feeling that the ice cream man was just waiting for an excuse to curse us out or worse. Anyway we got back home and I just chilled as Pais went to sleep. I watched cartoon network and DVR programming until it was time to finally turn in and go to sleep and end my weekend as nicely as it began.

It was another cool weekend, well planned, well executed and well enjoyed. And now the countdown to the Black begins... Where to go, check. How to prepare, check. What to wear, hmm. we are still finalizing but the preliminaries are in and it looks nice so far. Now if only I work well at staying hydrated, amino acid supplemented and have all of our tickets in line. Now its time for the show.