In Need of Some Rest

HELLO PAR-TAY PEOPLE! Hope everyone has been doing well. I've been quite the slacker in blog posts lately, so I'll do a recap of the good, and the not so good.

Our plans to meet up with the fam in the Land of Oil were unfortunately cancelled. Cancelled in the most shitty form imaginable. We made our way to the airport on the Thursday before the 4th, walking through security around 2 pm for a 3:30 pm flight. We immediately saw our flight had been delayed until 5 pm, but weren't too concerned. We started boarding our plane around 4:30, and about 5:10 the pilot came out of the cockpit and said we had been delayed again b/c of the weather between Land of Oil and NYC. We were looking at a 5:45 pm takeoff time instead.

We were in first class so we started drinking pretty heavily at this point. We had checked the weather and it was horrible in between the 2 cities so whiskey seemed like a brilliant idea. Around 5:45 pm we pushed back from the gate, but with the warning that we had no route at that point and wouldn't get one until we got in line to takeoff b/c of how fast routes were opening and closing. A VERY LONG taxi then occurred before we got in line with a shit ton of other planes. And then we sat and sat and sat. And sat. And finally they pulled us over to the side of the tarmac and parked us while we waited. And waited and waited and waited. All the while drinking whiskey

Finally around 8:30 we headed back to the terminal - but were told don't leave as we were still going to fly that night. At 9 pm. Blondie and I went and grabbed burgers and beers at that point, showed back up at the gate to a 9:45 pm leave time. And the finally at 9:15 pm, they cancelled our flight. 5.75 hours after we were supposed to leave. I was shell shocked at that point, so we just cabbed back home, I cried for a little bit, and then we went to our bar for the rest of the night.

We had debated driving or training to Land of Oil the next day (neither of us were in shape to drive that night) - but a 7 hour drive wouldn't put us into Land of Oil until late afternoon. And then we'd have to leave super early on Sunday to get back. It was a total fucking bummer.

Friday was the 4th and I ended up meeting up with my bar friends at our local for many drinks. The bar was dead b/c they did fireworks this year on the east side of the island, which was kind of nice. Around 9 pm we walked up the road to a sports bar and watched the fireworks from the TVs there. And drank some more.

Saturday was way nice - I met up with my bar friend for tacos and beers for lunch, before heading up to see Cabaret!!! OMG! AMAZING! Alan Cumming was incredible in it, the music was awesome, the dance routines were insane, and we were 2 tables from the front. I loved that musical sooooo much. My friend even pointed out that we were far and away the youngest people in the theater - which gave us a good laugh. Cabaret is set in late 30's Germany, and deals with a lot of very heavy issues - and it was a sad musical. But it was also an upbeat musical - no other way to describe it.

After the play, we stopped at a new tavern for a beer before finally dropping in at a new wine bar that had just opened in our hood. The wine bar was pretty cool - I had a sparkling flight and we had a few appetizers between us. And then we made our way back to our local to end the night. Sunday I went and got a pedi, then met up with Blondie for lunch at 5 Napkin Burger. After lunch, we dropped by Pony for a few beers before heading home and taking a nice long nap.

Work was work that week - I'm in the midst of 4 weeks of no travel (!!!!!!!!!!) which has been *desperately* needed. The weeks are going fast as I'm still busy as fuck and then I'm catching up with my friends from being gone for so long. That Friday though, work threw us a bowling party, so a few of us left early to go pre-party, and then went and met up with everyone for bowling into the evening. I only bowled a little bit before just drinking, socializing and then finally shooting some pool. I was home for a nap around 8 pm, but back up around 10 pm, because PFunk and Slick were flying in!

Friday night we sat up for a long time, just drinking beers and chatting. Saturday we went for a late breakfast before doing the 3 hour circle line tour of the island - the boat actually circumnavigates the whole of Manhattan and as I spend almost no time on the east side, getting to go all the way down the island on that side was pretty cool. After the boat tour, it was time for cocktails and oysters, before stopping at our local to let everyone meet our friends.

Dinner that night was 2-fold - we first went to a lebanese restaurant b/c they were supposed to have a belly dancer, but for whatever reason, she didn't show up. Also the A/C was busted in the restaurant, so we only stayed for a little bit - had some hummus, a few drinks and a hookah. Left a gallon of sweat behind as I decided to dance to their DJ - and it was sweltering in there. The 2nd dinner that night was tacos from our local little mexican restaurant. And then it was time for bed at a really late time for me.

Sunday I went with PFunk for a few hours in the morning to run some errands, and then we all took off to meet up with Slick's cousin for watching the World Cup game. After the game was over, we went down to the East Village for dinner and drinks. We fell in love with a venezuelan restaurant, and then fell SUPER IN LOVE with a dive bar his cousin's wife knew about. OMG. Dave = the best bartender EVAH! Next thing I knew it was 1 am, and Slick and I were trying to convince PFunk and Blondie to stay out to no avail.

Slick and PFunk left on Monday which was sad - I worked from home in the morning, and got super swamped, so had to say goodbye to them around noon for the day. Work this past week was really fast - I had a ton of meetings to go to, a ton of planning to try and do, and I feel so far behind right now it's not funny. I'm mentally gearing up for travel starting next week that will go through the end of Sept. It makes me want to cry.

Friday though was excellent as the one and only Shelby Shelbs showed up for a visit from SF!!!! We met up with her for drinks and dinner on Friday, but it was an earlier night as she was pretty tired from the week. And then yesterday I went down to Soho and met her in the afternoon for pizza and wine - and catching up on our own for the first time in forever. She's gone through a lot recently and I'm glad we got a chance to "in person catch up". We then came back to our hood and met up with my bar friends at the new wine bar again. A trip to the piano bar ended our evening, and I stumbled in pretty hamschkied around 1:30 am this morning. And felt like shit all day today.

Other random stuff has been: going to lunch with a different group of people this past week which has been pretty nice (we're all friends, I just don't normally go to lunch with them); drinks out with work friends several times; meeting up with 2 coworkers who had quit in the last 3 months for a quick coffee one afternoon; my boss taking our whole group out to lunch; 2 new people starting on my team; and fighting a strong urge to quit my job and just bartend a few days a week.

This week should be quiet. Blondie is headed to NOLA this weekend for a bachelor party, and I have big plans to be as lazy as fucking possible while he's gone. The cat is good - he's getting a tiny bit fatter every day. You can now pinch a very tiny piece of skin on his stomach whereas before there was nothing to grab onto. It's TINY, but it's there now!

Okay. I'm outtie for the night.

--K