July 8-10 - Getting out and about and Hanging with the Peoples...

Went out with Pais to Gym, Hung with Brett and David at the Front and Smoky in the Back. Watched Smoky hang with pals and still have time to throw on some hot beats from Patrice Rushen to Vanessa Williams "Right Stuff". Said goodnight to doorman and got a ride with Pais over to 6th Ave where I walked down to the pizzeria and got 2 bottles of water one to drink and one to carry before heading into Splash, but not before saying hi to a friend I had met at Gym during the spring who had come with Chanel. I promised him a CD the next time we hung out. Went inside and when I took a break from dancing on stage in front of DJ Alex Lauterstein (he smiled at me) I ran into the Steve from the military and we hung out for the rest of the eve, along with Styles, dancing on the floor but the dancers hogged the boxes so I was driven to dance in the middle of the dancefloor but my gifted malibu bay breeze from military Steve was good and we picked up some more drinks downstairs between smoke breaks. I stayed until around 4:15 and picked up a taxi right out front and got home nice and easy.

Woke up in the afternoon and after a delivery breakfast with Pais he went off to play softball and I cleaned up and headed into the city to go workout at the gym. Went to Vitamin shoppe, dodged a rainshower by going into Wendy's and it conveniently stopped raining by the time I headed home. The rest of the eve was spent in preparation for the nighttime and ordering in dinner before throwing in the fresh from the month of June blue shorts and compiling the outfit before the arrival of the Jimmy. We headed out just after 11 and made our way into the city. We were able to get the last good parking space on 20th St and waited a bit before heading for the front door and making our way inside. Doorman Derek welcomed us in and we got through the wristband staff and cashiers fairly easily. Once inside we could hear the party being thrown by DJ Manny Lehman load and clear. Barman Barker still was not back yet but Matt was holding his end of the bar down well and making sure the drinks kept flowing. We were all over the place in the space that was Roxy. Between my first stage appearance for Shape:UK at 1AM as well as plenty of other high points during the eve. I some of the speakers too busy at some parts of the night but there was definitely always somewhere to dance. The mostly vocal party had its splashes of tribal energy and great vibe. I saw DJ Merritt going back into the DJ booth at one point and he made sure to let me know that he would be back on July 30. I very much enjoyed the night and the weekend was not as off the chain as the previous weekend but was still plenty of fun for all involved. We left the party around 4:30 and made it home after catching a car just a block away.

We awoke on Sunday with a plan to get up and go shopping. Not food shopping though we did end up picking up some food but for some household appliances that were just necessary. A new A/C unit for the living room from Sears as well as a new Hoover Vac (picked up more than a Dyson in the study they quoted) and then over to Target for some more housewares. From there on to Bed Bath and Beyond for some sliverware and an impulse buy of a new throw pillow. After that stop it was across the parking lot to head into ShopRite and see that once again I could not find the Oven Stuffer Roaster wingettes (damn) but I was able to pick up a great Butterball Turkey Breast for something to cook for dinner. We had picked up the soda already at Target so we were now ready to head back through the tunnel and back across the city to get back in time for appliance installation. I ended up with more drama than was necessary when after pulling the old A/C unit out of the wallthrough I ended up pulling a back muscle when I was surprised by a back-end of rusty water that began spilling on the floor. Trying to stretch in an awkward position to minimize the water damage I ended with back pain that prevented me from even putting in the new unit. With some help from Pais however I was able to get the new unit in place and then finish up the trim before starting dinner. Dinner of course was much easier but no less complex and installation. The turkey was joined by stuffing, as well as macaroni salad, and sweet corn that would have been ready sooner but the seasoning on the pop up timer threw me off a bit. I finally knew dinner was ready by the smell coming from the oven. Once it was all on the plates and the repast was dug into I knew it to be one of our better most recent meals. I hadn't spent enough time cooking in a while and it was too long a wait and was really glad we were able to dig into a good turkey. The rest of the eve we hung out and watched HD programming before calling it a day.

The weekend was over and we had gotten a lot done. Always more to do but the summer still has plenty of days and nights ahead. Keep hydrated in the hot days and hot nights and make sure your friends stay with you and happy. Always a good plan.