Oh What a Night

After signing the lease, it was time for celebration...actually, I'm 30 now, I really just wanted to sleep.  Plus its been a long 3 days and my body aches from too much luggage and couch crashing, but sleep was definitely not in my future.  Kev and I headed uptown to meet our friends at Happy Hour, no not too drink, but to grab Steve's keys so we could just go rest.  When we got to the bar, we were met with congratulations and smiles.  Soon enough I had a beer in my hand and then just right after "soon enough," I had another beer in my hand.  What can I say...its hard to pass up a $3 beer in Manhattan.  And really, deals such as these $3 dollar beers only come around once every 24 hours.  I wouldn't see a mark down such as this until 4pm the following day.
I stopped at 2 beers, and we went back to Steve's to have order-in Italian.  Food delivery here is amazing.  {Mom, we can even order ice cream delivered.  Could you imagine, every night as Dad goes to bed we call for our shipment of Haagen Dazs, gluttonly enjoy it (or is that guiltily enjoy, I forgot the spelling), and then discretely hide the evidence in the outside trash.  Heaven, right???}
After dinner, I was ready to sleep, but remember I was staying in Bed-Stuy and Steve's is in Midtown.  After much convincing to stay, I still packed up and left for Bed-Stuy; I wanted one more night with my friends who had graciously opened there home to me.  It was around 10pm and darkness had already taken hold of the city.  And while all of the building and billboards fought against it, it still can be a bit intimidating.  So as I began my journey to Bed-Stuy (2 subways, a transfer, and about a 10 block walk by myself), I decided against it.  My friend Mikey had invited me out for a drink after he got out of work.  Now although I was tired and really didn't want a drink, Mikey happens to be the person I'm staying with.  And my thought process goes like this: go have a few quick drinks, bond with Mikey, and then commute (with Mikey) back to Bed-Stuy and walk those 10 blocks with him as if he is some sort of good will ambassador to the greater Bed-Stuy area.  Smart cookie am I.
Well I guess in NY a few quick drinks means 7 beers and close down the place because thats what we did.  This cozy little piano dive-bar in the West Village happens to be Mikey's very own Cheers because everybody knows his name.  I bought one round and the rest were free--I'm telling you the boy gets free drinks.  Even when I was past the point of wanting more, Mikey would show up with another and gently place it in my hand.  He made sure I had a good time as well as met everyone he knows, including the piano player who gave me a huge sweaty hug (I think he thought I would actually wick moisture away from his drenched shirt if he held me longer), and then proceeded to pull down my V-neck shirt to see the amount of hair I had on my chest.  Apparently he disapproved because he guffawed and took his sweaty self elsewhere.  The bar in general hosts an eclectic mix of gays, straight couples, elderly women, and european tourists to which the bartender is more than eager to explain our American tipping process.  I ended up meeting a director, a future composer and many others.  To one person when asked "where I was from" I laughingly said, "the Upper West Side."
At just before 4 in the morning, my Bed-Stuy ambassador and I arrived home I finally got to sleep.  Oh what a night....