"Normal" Life

Although I can hardly categorize my life as ever being "normal" (just take a look at my eyes and you'll know what I mean), I am back to being as "normal" as I was three weeks ago. Should I even attempt to cover the last week and a half? Debating, debating, debating....for the sake of my personal history, I think I will. It'll be rough and my peculiar personal touches will be lacking, but...whatever. If you know I'm missing details that should be added, let me know and I'll modify it.

So, to continue where I left off last.....Sunday morning/afternoon, we woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to head downtown for a little brunch action. Brunch on Sundays is an institution in NY, and it was something that the three girls had to experience, especially since Wila (the one from Miami) only got one shot at it, she was leaving on Tuesday. We headed down to one of our favorite brunch spots, Noho Star. It's located right off the subway, which is perfect for the wet, miserable conditions that we were experiencing that day. In order to make it a classic brunch, we took our time getting there, arriving at around 3:00. This place is great, it's got really high, lofty ceilings, it's a big, open area, and the subway runs directly beneath it, so the whole place shakes every few minutes when the 6-train comes rolling into Bleecker Street. After brunch, we stopped for the first coffee of the day at Cafe Anglique. I could tell this was going to be one of those days when we stop every hour to drink something warm, it was just soo cold, rainy, and dreary outside. Naturally, my instincts were correct, and we were headed to the West Village, which is the best spot in the city to experience a day like that. Loaded with French, Italian, and New York cafes, we walked for a few hours and then stopped at another Cafe Angelique so Vanessa could load up on her caffeine kick and, since we were there and were hungry, we figured dessert was in order. Prior to that, we toured the cute, Sex-In-The-City streets that compose the West Village and are what people dream about here. If only I had a few million to buy a one-bedroom place....

After dessert, we headed back uptown to relax for a few minutes and then head down to Times Square for a night-cap at the Marriott Marquee lounge on the 45th floor (again). The girls splurged for the $30 buffett while I, being strong willed (and cheap), determined that I could not justify such a ludicrous expenditure for such marginal food. And then the girls came back with their plates stuffed with food and I didn't care how much it cost, I was going to get my own. Woh-is-me...and my bank account :o
After dinner and cocktails, we walked around Times Square for a bit because everyone wanted pictures of NY's tribute to capitalism. Somewhere along the way, Mili and Wila were drawn to a cop car like a magnet in order to get a picture with some of NYPD Blue's finest. Well, the girls thought the cop in the driver's seat WAS NYPD's finest. Of course they got their pictures taken with him (and the other cop) and he pulled a suave manuever and, before I knew it, my mobile phone number was being given to him so that he could call her. "Justin's cell phone service. To whom may I direct your call?"

I realized shortly after they got here that the phone formerly-known-as-mine was no longer actually for my use, but rather for the girls. Nevermind that I'm expecting a call for directions to dinner tonight, it is certainly more important that they have two hour conversations with their ex-boyfriends instead ;o) . Of course, they got teased incessantly about this and I established a "call-waiting" rule that they had to answer the phone if someone else was calling. It was intermittently enforced and followed.

Monday came along and went, and the girls came home at 7:15pm in a mad rush to get ready for their ladies night on the town. They met some crazy party animal girls on the big red tour bus earlier that day and they were going to meet up with them to check out the lady's club (that is, the opposite of a gentleman's club), since NY is apparently home to the finest strip joints in town (I wouldn't know). Wila was being picked up by the Super Shuttle at 4:00am the next morning, so I thought this would be an interesting evening for them. But I sent them on their way and went to bed early, having been self-relegated to my futon. Being the responsible one, I woke up at 3:45am to wake Wila up and get her ready for the bus. I stood up, looked at the bed, and realized that there were only two bulges, not three. So I woke up Vanessa (who screamed when I touched her elbow, thinking I was some murderer) and was told that Wila was out with her friends still. Oh boy. Well, not my problem, I'm going back to sleep!!

Sure enough, Wila came home at 4:00am, quickly packed here gear up, and was out the door when the Super Shuttle buzzed downstairs. I found out later that day that the girls had spent so much time getting ready that night that they were 45 minutes late meeting up with their new friends, who just ditched them. So they wandered around, found a bar, and invited all their other NY friends (they have lots of them!) to come and hang out. It wasn't the scandle-ridden story I was hoping for, that's for sure!

Wednesday night roles around, and tonight Mili is going out with Mr. Officer, Lee. Of course, Vanessa is going to tag along as well, since we don't even know this guy and I don't trust anyone in NY, including cops. I give them my $.02 about this guy and, after being an hour and a half late because he DROVE from thirty blocks down, the guy is invited in while the girls finish getting ready. I talk to him, he seems a bit strange (no eye contact, staring at the floor, etc.), but he seems human at least. So he takes the girls out. I guess they're going to some Italian restaurant and then meeting up with his partner (uh, that would be his partner on the job, not....his....partner partner) to hit up a club. Naturally I'm a little concerned about my girls, for better or worse. Especially since Mili thinks this guy is Zeus the Greek god. Nonetheless, I relax at home, I prepare their bed so that they don't wake me up in the middle of the night (they put the futon away every day) and I hit the sack, waking up every few hours to see if they're home yet. No. No. No. No. My alarm clock goes off, and they're still not home. I'm dead tired because I was waking up all night, but no phone calls or anything. I hit the shower to get ready for work, my mind in a million places, and sure enough they come home at about 7:30am. Hands on hips, I lectured them about coming home late, why didn't you call, etc. etc. etc. and tell them that I'm establishing a curfew from now on ;o) . I'm only joking, but I was not happy about them not even calling me to tell me everything was cool. I guess Lee likes to eat a lot and breakfast after the club was a requirement.

The Thursday workday comes and goes, and I find out that "we" are going out with Lee Thursday night again. Based on his comments about him not liking NY and going out to eat Italian food, I can tell this guy isn't too adventurous on the food front, so I recommend that we go to a good Morocoan restaurant. Let's see how he handles THIS! So he meets up with us in the East Village, except that we went into the wrong restaurant and ended up at an Italian place (but at least it's one I haven't been to!). The sangria was decent and the girls were infatuated with flirting with the Argentinian bartender while we were waiting for Lee again. I make it my life's mission to get Mili to hand out "her" number to as many people as possible during our last few days. She balks at this one and before we know it, Lee has arrived, so she missed out. Or did she? Guess who are waiter is?

Needless to say, Lee gets (rightfully) pissed about a guy who comes up to his girl and starts wooing her again in Spanish. We high-tail it out of there and head to the Moroccan place to have a few drinks and check out the club they have downstairs. It's off the HOOK! Crazy Arabic techno and hookah smoking upstairs, trance/house music downstairs. It was totally hopping and awesome. Mili and Lee kissed and made up (figuratively and literally) and everyone was having a good time. At around 3:00, we decide to bounce and Lee drives us to another club that he knows the bouncers at in midtown. I learn that cops seem to know everyone in their districts, as evidenced by the fact that he scored us some free pizza at a late-night place as well, after talking to the owner outside for a few minutes. Seems a little shady, but maybe it's a cop thing. I don't ask questions when free food and beverages are offered.

Sweet, it was 4:30am and we finally make it home, and I was exhausted (btw, I did my cardio class before we even went out. Yea, sore.). I woke up a bit late on Friday but I dug in and got lots of "work" done. :o\ .....

Friday night was Paul's last night in NYC, so the night was dedicated to him. I was told the schedule included dinner at a Cuban restaurant possibly followed by a club afterwards. My girls decided to make it an early evening and rest up for the weekend (much to my chagrin), but I wouldn't miss it for the world. After a fantastic feast, we headed back up to the UES and hit the classic piano bar at Brandy's, a place we've been to quite a bit. We had a great time and bid Paul farewell until this summer, when he returns for a few months.

Saturday we went shopping downtown in SoHo for most of the day. Alan and Andrea weren't happy with me because they wanted to know if we were going clubbing the night before with Paul and I didn't call them and let them know :ox . Not to make excuses, but the girls were in possession of "their" phone that night and I was too lazy to ask for Paul's and let them know that we weren't clubbing. And it was late by the time we were done with dinner. And....well, no good excuses, really. My bad. I'm a jerk. Sorry Andrea :o( .

Anyway, Saturday night we decided to go to SOB's with Alan and Andrea. It was Samba night, and since I'm so good at dancing Latin dances, I thought it would be a good idea :o? !! What was I thinking?? There was a crazy Brazilian percussion band with like 15 drummers and bongo players on the stage and a ton of people that apparently knew how to Samba. I wasn't one of them! But SOB's is always a fun atmosphere, so we still had a good time. The girls all learned how to Samba and I did something that really shouldn't be seen in public, but, alas, it was.

My eye issue had a bad reaction to something I ate earlier in the week and my eyelids went crazy on me, so I was forced to wear my orange sunglasses Friday and Saturday in order to hide from public humiliation. Not that wearing orange sunglasses at night is incognito or anything like that, but, trust me, it's better than the alternative. I am beginning to think that maybe red wine is causing me some of these issues. We'll see what the doc says when I go under the knife (again) on Friday.

Sunday, their last day in the city. It was their day, so we went and ate bagels one last time and did some last minute shopping around town before heading to Central Park and enjoying the nice day, followed by a trip to the Metropolitan Musuem of Art for the last few hours of the day. I knew it was a world-class art museum, but who knew that there were Picasso, Monet, and Renoir originals there?? I should really go there more often I guess, especially since I'm a member!

The last events of the evening involved staying local and eating with Sean, Lauren, and Lauren's parents and meeting up with Lee before his night shift started. Afterwards, we went to a low-key Victorian lounge around the corner to socialize and hear about Sean and Laurens' ski trip the week before. We headed home at a reasonable hour (~11:00) so that I could finish burning CDs and they could finish packing.

Monday morning my life became much more simple and much more boring when my roommates moved out :o( . So, things are back to "normal" now, which isn't a bad thing when you're 27 and living in the best city in the world :o)....

And I'm spent...
J.