10/10-10/13 - Put the Weekend on da Replay.

This week ended early. With Veteran's Day on Friday we only had to work until Thursday before getting the release of going home to enjoy the weekend. I got home to a nice italian dinner ordered from Friends, an order of Penne a la Vodka topped with grilled chicken. Russ was staying in for the evening so when it was late enough (11:50pm) I journeyed down the street to the car service and began the trip into the city. For some reason my driver felt it was his duty to tell me that all of the problems in the world could be traced back to Jewish people. From the tumult in the middle east to the fact that jews were buying all of the real estate in Brooklyn. It is truly sad when people spout blind rhetoric that has truly hateful roots to it. I actually had to tell the driver that two of the newest large real estate acquisitions in Manhattan were by Arab investors purchasing buildings in midtown. I just mm-hmmed and interjected when necessary and got to where I was going. I let the driver drop me off at 14th street and 6th Ave (watched some poor girl trying to flag down a taxi for herself and a friend as the friend was held up by pizza place employee as she let loose her dinner in the street). I avoided such issues by spacing out my drinks (never out of control before midnight) and picking up some Tums on 14th before heading up a few blocks to 17th street. I didn't want the food repeating on me and then getting infiltrated by the alcohol. Ray met me at the door and gave me a wristband (it was college night tonight at Splash). And then I was inside and downstairs at the coat check. After checking my wrap and picking up a drink at the downstairs bar from a new bartender (wearing gym shorts and baseball socks) I headed upstairs to the main floor. To start off the evening it appeared to be kind of depressing, a very lackluster crowd, music was unfocused. But as we approached 1am and later the crowd began to build and the music got better. The fat boy in red gym shorts, white tee and no shoes finally left the stage for good and DJ Billy Carroll started to pick up the pace with familiar but faster paced than usual lyrics and beats. It was too cool to go out for bottled water after I had entered and I had also forgot to bring Altoids with me so I ended up getting a minty shot after 2 drinks. I danced on the stage twice and only had my hands lit once but nothing truly inspired or energetic but it was good enough the keep the crowd into it. I stayed until 3am after one more drink and after making sure I had thanked the DJ in person when he came down to the bar to get some drinks for his entourage. After retrieving my coat from the coat check I headed outside and got into the waiting taxi in front of the space to take me back to BK. After writing down the trip start point and then headed downtown I was able to lay back and listen to my ipod and wait to arrive back in the slope. The driver made all the right turns and listened to direction well and I was back at home in short order. As I arrived home I wished the cab driver well and headed upstairs to go to sleep. The weekend started early but well.

Friday was mostly spent watching DVDs and DVR programming. Finally saw XXX-State of the Union with Ice Cube. The movie was definitely entertaining and had a lot more entertainment value than the first one. The stunts in the first one were a bit over the top. The sequel had stunts that were still outlandish but at least were within reason, as things anybody would do in the same situation and not only the extreme sports fan. We also watched Unleashed with Jet Li and were surprised that the movie was very good and was both funny and very watchable even in the slow parts. Lunch was picked up from the Italian sandwich shop on 7th Avenue but the sandwich had too much bread to eat more than half of it. The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully until Russ had to go and get someone out of police custody (evening arraignments on a court holiday). I decided to do the ride along, listening to my newest R&B mix (Beats of the City) and just hanging out in the car until Russ returned for the dinner break. We headed uptown and to the west side and did a short parking spot search before parking on 24th street and walking back over to Dallas BBQ. There was a bit of a crowd inside at 9pm on a holiday Friday night but the wait was only 15 min for two people. We passed the time commenting on the other diners and staying out of the way of the fast moving wait staff, fully laden down with food of all kinds. We heard our table called for before too long and we were seated and ordering our food soon after. We had a great meal, I had the ribs and chicken combo myself and Russ had the Shrimp and chicken combo. The food was good as could be expected but I stayed away from the texas size drinks myself for this eve in preparation for later. We left BBQ to head back down to the court for Russ to finish his representation but I stayed in the car, read some my latest Sci-Fi Novel "Revelation Space" and listened to a greatest hits selection of some of my CDs on the booming car stereo. We were finally finished with court around 11:50 but it was too late to do much else besides return to BK and spend the rest of the night messing with CDs and watching DVR programming. I finally turned in around 3:30am and bid goodnight to my Friday Night.

Saturday I got up to prepare myself for the rest of the day and despite just having vitamins and milk before heading out to the gym the workout went well. I only had to wait for machines twice and the people were not too mean to move on after they had finished with the machines. After the workout was over and I headed back to the house and made myself a chicken sandwich. The chicken was leftover but oh so good and while munching we watched "The Warriors" on DVD. The movie was good but Russ had it turned off halfway through the pic so he could catch some rest. I went ahead and moved on to more music mixing and watching DVR programming before it was time to order dinner. Jack's Fifth Avenue delivered a great Pot Roast and veggies and mashed that was all good for dinner time. I made sure to have some copies of my newest R&B mix to take with me to the club for gift CDs and then it was time to clean up to get ready to head out. I did the haircut, shave, shower and all things necessary for a night out. The Jimmy arrived at 10:40pm and we all hung out for a bit and chatted seeing as we had not all been together for a hangout for about a month. We were all set and ready and headed out at about 11:04pm.

The drive into the city was quick as we decided to take the Manhattan Bridge and cross town at canal street. The trip up the west side was quick but we found no parking spots in the usual places. We ended up looping back all the way from 23rd street back down to 15th street before finding a nice two spaces right between West Street and 10th Ave right on 15th. We verified the spot was legal and then headed up the street and inside. Once again we went through the ID scanner at the front door but even with the new ID fresh from the DMV (nice hologram) it was a quick once over and we were quickly headed into Roxy. After cashier and coat check we were inside the place and giving it the once over. Barman Barker and Matt were both at the back bar so I hung out in back for Barker's return from the offices before I got my first drinks. The DJ for the eve was DJ Paulo who seemed somehow bigger (more worked out) than I remember. Somehow I remember how the DJ fills the dimensions of the DJ booth and realized he must be a big dude. Anyway the party was underway by 12:35 and I found myself up on the speaker for my first dance appearance at 12:45. The music was just on point, energetic and a lot more vocal than I expected. I decided I wasn't going to light my hands until after 1am but ended up dancing the one set past 1am and totally getting overheated during the remix of Rihanna and "Pon de Replay" which I was just happy to hear as it is on my next full length peak hour dance mix. Anyway I was happy with the music all the way through the night, so much so that I actually had to walk outside to cool off not once, or twice but three times. All the way down the back stairs to the outside smoking area (only once to retrieve Russ and The Jimmy) and even started talking to the security guy (dressed in his fur collared overcoat) and told him I was just enjoying myself so much which is why I needed to head outside to cool off at different spots during the night. As the eve progressed I said hello to Erica and her entourage, talked to Bob H who told us he had done another comedy show in which he totally nailed the performance and got much accolades. Me myself I just took the time to go up onto the stage and dance a little in front of the light guy and the DJ, right behind my friends Erica and my fellow speaker dancer (the one with the baseball cap) I always forget his name but I danced behind them for that once dance but returned later on to light up the stage once again. We ended up staying until almost 4:30am and even returned to the back bar to say goodnight to Matt and Barker. They both enjoyed the CDs as Matt gets to listen to them on his drives back from Philly every weekend. Once outside there were no taxis to be found on 10th ave but once over to 9th ave we were easily able to flag down a ride and head back to Bklyn. The ride back was nice and quick and we were able to get back to BK pretty quickly and even find a sheet from the NY Post for the lines for the games on Sunday. Once upstairs and in the house I was still feeling the munchies (dinner was like 9 hours before) and I decided to make myself a chicken sandwich. Even though I was in no condition to be slicing chicken breast I found myself visualizing doing myself some damage and then not a minute later I went ahead and hit my finger a glancing blow with the knife. At first I thought I just brushed the skin but of course those darn Sabatier knives had dealt me a nice cut on my left index finger. A few well placed slices later the chicken sandwich was made (Russ decided to make himself a PBJ sandwich, totally foregoing the chicken altogether) The sandwich was good and I was able to decompress and head to bed satisfied both mind and body.

Sunday I awoke to delivery breakfast and after finishing up the viewing of "The Warriors" on DVD and the special bonus features it was on to watching football. I split my time between the TV in the living room and the computer in the office making CDs and making sure I was prepared to head out to our dinner invitation. Moms had invited me out to dinner out in Staten and I was able to premiere the new CD Mix "Pop to the Beat". My last mix was all about the Rap/R&B and the new CD was all Pop/Rock and just as good. Unfortunately the storage facility as closed so I was not able to pick up my mothers PC before heading over to the house but of course she was still happy to see me. The house was mad heated from the oven and stove and I opted to open the front door to let the heat out. Ian, Iana and Gigi were all there as well. Ana had stayed home to take care of her sick baby daddy and we while we did miss the sis we were happy to be able to dig into the nice spread of Cornish Hens, macaroni and cheese, stuffing and collared greens. After dinner I let my clock wind down and I napped through some of the football games playing on TV until it was time to make the trip back to BK. We let Gigi come outside to take advantage of our better parking space and bid good night to all before getting on the road again. On the way back we opted to head over Mickey Ds for the dessert while it was still sooner than later and we picked up the Mcflurries before heading back into the house. I watched the Fox block, DVRd "Curbed" and "Boondocks" and prepared for bed. The night wound down in the usual Sunday fashion and I was ready to turn in before it got too late (around 1am)

Another great weekend, a lot of work done on the PC and with my music and plenty to look forward to in the coming week(s). Always a good thing.