Gummy Bears are the lunch of champions

A very good, very busy week!

Let's see... it started last Sunday with a trip to Pony. I met up with Glitter and Heinie there, and our bartender is back! She's still a bit shaky from what happened, but she's doing well which made things good. Glitter and I stayed all afternoon, but Heinie left to hit up another bar midway through the day and then rejoined us at the end of the evening.

Monday I met up with Glitter to do a bit of shopping / errands. We first walked down to Macy's in Herald Square and shopped there for a bit, before hitting up the busiest Sephora in the world and then a trip to get Glitter's ring cleaned. While we were waiting on the ring, we decided we needed wine so we texted our English girlfriend who also thought wine was an excellent idea. We then cabbed back to our hood because the 15 minute, 9 block walk seemed very long (yes, lazy), and hit up our regular wine bar.

They had a private party that night so we only stayed there for a little bit - long enough to get tipsy on lambrusco, short enough to not get drunk (I like small wins) - and then trucked over to another wine bar in our hood. And LOVE. The new wine bar was pretty awesome - tons of small mediterranean plates, tons of great wines. And then suddenly it was midnight and the 3 of us were loud stumbling our way home. It was a great night!

Followed by a massive hangover day! And a text from Mr Pooh who was stuck in Allentown due to weather in Philly. His flight had taken off on time, and then got sent to Allentown and they had to wait there for several hours. After I got notice from him that he did indeed make it to Philly, I headed off to Penn Station to make my way there also. The trip is actually pretty nice - you take a NJ Transit train through NJ to Trenton, and then switch to a SEPTA train in Trenton for the rest of the way to Philly.

Anyway, I made it to Philly around 4:20 pm and was seated in a (really awesome) bar by Mr Pooh's hotel around 5 pm. He joined me around 5:30 and we had several drinks at crazy good HH prices as well as some snacks. We stopped back at the hotel so I could drop my shit off, and then it was time for dinner! Mr Pooh's colleagues had suggested 13th Street area which is apparently one of the best areas to hang out in terms of food and bars, so that's where we headed. We hit up a tapas place for dinner and had some awesome good food (paella mixta FTW!) as well as a huge carafe of red sangria (huge carafe of red sangria FTW!).

After dinner, we found a great outdoor bar called Graffiti. They had massive space heaters and the entire place was actually sweltering. Like we had to take off our jackets even though the bar was outdoors. We had a good laugh about that - it was December in Philly and it felt like May in Florida. Anyway, a few tall boys at Graffiti and then we called it a night. As one of us had to work the next day (hint: not me).

Wednesday I finally made my way out of the hotel around 11 am and went straight to Reading Terminal Market. I wandered around there for about 30 minutes before sitting down at the cajun booth in the market. A huge cup of red beans and rice as well as a fried oyster po' boy made me feel a lot better. We were hoping Mr Pooh would be off work around noon, but then he texted and said it would be about 2 pm instead. So I finally started towards the historical district, making my way to Ben Franklin's grave. When I got there, Mr Pooh texted again and it looked like the meetings were going to be 4 pm end time instead. :( Based on that, I decided to head back to NY. It was Mr Pooh's lunch break so we met up super quick to look at the Liberty Bell and then I said goodbye to Mr Pooh and made my way back home.

I thought I would be done for the night as I was pretty exhausted, but then around 7 pm, an old coworker of mine who worked full time "not from the office" texted. He was in town for the night and was getting ready to meet up with my 2 bestie coworkers for dinner as well as yet another coworker "not from the office". So I managed to rally (I have no idea where I found the strength) and headed out with the crew. We did dinner first at a Thai restaurant and just spent a good few hours getting caught up on everything. And then it was a Pony run for an hour. And then the original texting coworker and I headed back to the Winchester and talked for a long time, finally heading out around 12:30 am.

And then on Thursday, my old boss texted. He had given notice and was having his going away drinks that night (it was a company sponsored HH, not just his drinks, but he combined the two). So I headed up and met up with my entire old office. I had a blast! It was SOOOOO good getting to see everyone I hadn't seen since I quit, as well as a lot of the people I had seen in the interim. We raged that night, as everyone was in the mood to just keep the party going. Finally around ??? (I honestly have NO idea what time I went home), I stumbled my way back to my apt where I shoveled a bologna sandwich down my throat and passed out hard.

Friday was also a GREAT day. First off, Blondie texted around 9:15 am and asked me to meet him for an early dinner at 4 pm. So I walked down the High Line to Blondie. We had been planning on a jamaican restaurant, but Blondie texted right when I got there that the restaurant shut down between lunch and dinner so it wasn't open. I then saw Blondie coming down the street and could see he was carrying a shopping bag. When I got closer, I realized it was a shopping bag from Louis Vuitton! Blondie bought me the most adorable LV bag for Xmas!!!! (I bought him sheets - I win the "you suck at buying gifts" award this year).

I spent the next 10 minutes squealing over the bag before we finally found an awesome mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village. Both Blondie and I were on that night - like making each other laugh, not having a shortage of conversation, and so we sat in the restaurant for a bit, imbibing in margaritas and beers, and then finally made our way to our favorite beer bar in the Village. We finally left there around 7:30 pm, and went straight to Winchester.

Because it was our Indian bar friend's birthday-eve celebration! The group met up in there and drank into the late late evening. Many many songs were played, many beers were drank, and a 7-11 run was made at around 11:30 pm. Saturday was yet another go-day as it was back to the Winchester around 4:30 pm for football and our Indian bar friend's real birthday celebration. Our bartender brought in amazing sausage rolls, and the bar kept giving us free plates of spicy fries, and again, many many drinks were had.

Today I am home for now, eating said gummy bears from the title for lunch. We are leaving in a few hours to head down towards NYU. A friend of mine has a burlesque show tonight, so we are going down to see her. And then hopefully tomorrow night, nothing.

Plans this week include: a trip to the Land of Cheese, first into Madison for a day and then onto Blondie's hometown.

And since I won't probably be online on Thursday, a very merry xmas to everyone!

--K

I have no title today

But then maybe "I have no title" is my title?

My first announcement is that I'm renaming some people on my blog - instead of a big group of "bar friends" (which is what I call them now), there will now be Glitter (I might switch between that and Sparkles, but it's the same person I swear) and Heinie. Bar Friends will now shrink to just be my English bar friends and my Indian bar friend. It's simple right? :)

2 Sundays ago, Glitter and Heinie and Blondie and I headed up to Pony to wish our bartender well. Glitter and I ended up staying for awhile, but Heinie split off early to meet our Indian Bar Friend at another bar and Blondie only lasted a couple of beers before heading home. After Pony, we headed back to our local to meet up with the guys. We hung out there for awhile, but the guys were being grumpy (certain teams lost) so I trucked on back to my apartment to end the night.

Blondie and I hit up our local on that Wednesday, and everyone was in a much better mood then. I had been supposed to meet my English girlfriend to watch the tree lighting in Rock Center, but it was freezing cold and drizzling that day so I bailed on her, and went drinking instead. I'm awesome that way. It was good getting to hang out with everyone on Wednesday night, but it got even better when a couple of my besties from my old job texted. They were in the hood and headed to Pony, so Blondie and I left our local a little bit early and went and joined up with them.

I had a blast that night! I got caught up on office gossip, got to talk about some rumors I had heard, and just got to hang out with my friends. We were joined about an hour after we got to Pony by our Indian bar friend, and he ended up hanging out with our group into the night also. We finally left the bar around midnight. My bailing on the tree lighting was a great thing in the end as I got to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile.

Thursday I was a bit hungover. A bit in this case means "a lot". I lazed around all morning before finally doing a weak workout early afternoon. A quick shower and it was time to meet Glitter at our local. She had asked the previous night if I had wanted to meet up for early afternoon drinks and I had agreed. The trip to Pony almost threw a glitch in the plans, as there was an unexpected hangover. But I pulled through. We met up around 2 pm, and drank into the evening, joined eventually by Heinie and our English and Indian bar friends.

Friday I was supposed to walk down and meet Blondie for lunch, but he ended up working from home in the morning. So we took off around 11 am and got some street tacos before he headed to work for the rest of the day. After lunch, I stopped and bought stuff to make chili as I knew we were in for 3 days of cold and rain ahead of us. And Saturday we made chili which was awesome because it was indeed cold and raining outside (we made Mrs Pooh's chili the week before and a red chili that week - so basically, I can haz chili).

Sunday I got texted from Heinie that we were skipping Pony that week and heading to another bar in our area to watch football. I joined up with the crew around 2 pm and we cheered some teams onto victory. After the bar we were at, we headed back to our local, and Blondie joined us at that point. We stayed into the evening, snacking on food and drinking many beers. All in all, a great day.

This past week was also good. Monday night was first spent calling the Packers unstoppable as they walked all over the Falcons in the first half of the MNF game. And then it was spent having mini heart attacks as the Falcons came back and walked all over the Packers in the second half of the game. But my buddy Aaron and his teammates "Cobb from Kentucky!" (all of them are "Cobb from Kentucky!" to me) pulled through, leaving us cheering and whooping around our apartment.

On Wednesday morning, I met up with Glitter and my English girlfriend at 9:45 am to go see "Wild" up at Lincoln Center theater. The movie was excellent - a real wallowing one which I appreciate. But I also loved the book too so I was already inclined to like the movie. After the movie, we headed back outside to see it had started to snow. Since we hardly ever leave Hells Kitchen, we decided to stay in the UWS for lunch so we popped into a mexican restaurant, sitting at the bar which had big windows overlooking the street. We ate lunch there, which involved many margaritas, before starting to walk back to our hood in the snow. We made another stop for cocktails at a local food court and then it was finally into our local to end the day. There was a giant party going on in our local, and the owner of the bar kept bringing us free food from the buffet in the back (cheeseburgers, french fries) and then another regular and I had a mini dance off which I won simply because she was way more wasted than me. Small victories - I'll take them.

Friday it was a trek down to Blondie to meet him for lunch. I headed down to him along the Hudson - it was windy and cold, but the sun was out and the walk kept me warm. We went to a local pizza place - Blondie got a few slices and I got a meatball sub, and then I walked back to our hood along the High Line. I calculated my walk after I got home - and what I thought was 3.1 miles each way was actually 3.5 miles each way. So 7 mile walk total. I stopped for snacks for the night at a local gourmet food store, and then just crashed out the rest of the day. That night we took it easy, watching TV and relaxing.

Today I'm still laying in bed. I need to do a workout. I'm hoping to hit up Pony to see our bartender and find out how everything is going. But I can't make myself get up. Yay for me.

And I have exciting plans this week - a visit to Philly to hang out with Mr Pooh! He's coming on Tues and I'm going to head out there Tues afternoon and party with him PA style. So excited to see him again - that will make it 4 times this year which is unheard of!

--K