A friend from home, Law and Order, the Vag-ankees and toilet water definitely make for an interesting weekend...

So this weekend was definitely an interesting one.

First, on the way back to the office from lunch Friday, I noticed some commotion on the steps of the courthouse across the street from my office building. Upon further inspection, they were totally filming some "Law and Order" action since its steps are the ones you always see people on in the show.

Unfortunately I didn't see anybody I recognized, but whoever was there got
some schnazzy looking director's chairs to chill in.

It looks like they were filming some sort of press conference. You can't really see it in the picture, but the people were crowding around a guy standing at a podium.
So that afternoon, a friend of mine from back at USF flew in, which was cool. I hadn't seen her since last winter, so it was fun to catch up. We went to see the D-Rays at Yankee Stadium... twice! Granted the first time, our game got rained out... so we had to go back Saturday night.

The game was a lot of fun (though we lost), but it's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get, right? As she'll probably tell you, I won on that front.

They had the final destination of this year's Vag-ankees team on
display right in the stadium.
P.S. Along with both being mature and taking the high road we found ways to include "gay" in every Yankees player's name (Bobby A-gay-u, Gay-Rod, Robinson Gay-no, etc... sometimes I miss middle school)... We also determined that the Devil Rays need to draft Oroku Saki and put him in the infield to complement Akinora Iwamura.

Though, unfortunately Saki might be on the DL for a while after getting jumped (like out of nowhere and for no reason!) by a group of crazy teenagers...



Sidenote... On the way to the game, we passed a bunch of kids playing in a spraying fire hydrant, which I always thought was strange. For a little while there in the middle of the summer, I saw kids playing in gallons and gallons of spraying hydrant water almost daily. Heck, in Florida we had lawn watering restrictions, so it's always crazy to me to see that.

Every time I see it though, part of me is just waiting for someone to come out of nowhere and start beating the crap out of someone on the street, a la "The Godfather."



That's why whenever I see the whole fire hydrant thing... I keep aware of my surroundings.

Anywho...

So, along with baseball, we did some barhopping and wandered around midtown and just had an overall good time. We even caught Brutus the Buckeye being naughty...

Maybe they were a bit distracted
during the USC game, hmmm...
So God decided to make sure the weekend stayed interesting even after my friend flew back to Tampa, I kept busy all day Sunday in the bathroom... since that afternoon my toilet clogged and flooded out the bathroom... twice. The room filled with toilet water, I cleaned it up, then it filled again. That was weak... and gross. I'm pretty sure my neighbors heard me yelling obscenities as it flooded the second time. I was quite pissed.

Don't worry, I have no pictures of that to post, as it wasn't too pleasant.

It was extra weak because it made me miss the WNBA game I was going to go to to get Bill Laimbeer's autograph at. I guess that will have to wait until next year.

I've never been to a WNBA game, and while I've heard people talk trash about them I'd venture to say they are probably more fun than being on your knees cleaning up toilet water.

On another interesting note, my work is going to send me to Texas for either a couple of weeks or a whole month to help with Hurricane Ike related work... so that should be interesting. I'll probably leave by the end of the week. I'm not quite sure yet how exactly that will impact the posting and such, but we'll see.

I'm really excited, I think it will be interesting...

Me + Fashion = Jiggawha?

So... I'm going to try to keep this quick since I have to work in the morning (so please forgive any random typoes...)

So I had mentioned that a friend of mine was working Fashion Week... and today I figured I would wander by and check out the scene and maybe have a few drinks nearby with my friend if she was free.

She totally had other plans in mind for me...

Instead, she got me into the main Fashion Week tent and let me roam free while she went to see the Christian Siriano show (the weird little "fierce" guy from "Project Runway"). She told me as long as I looked like I thought I belonged there, it didn't matter that I had no badge and she was right. I wandered around there for a good couple of hours and nobody ever said anything.


So the tent is basically a bunch of booths promoting weird new items, with a couple open bars mixed throughout (which was golden!).

They had wine gals wandering around...


And they had a one main open bar...


I mostly alternated between a delicious red wine from the wine girls and Peronis from the main open bar (since it was Fashion Week I figured I would indulge in the free Italian import beer).

I had been hanging out with a couple of photographers for a while, but they decided to go outside to the back entrance and see if they could catch any stars... (P.S. they got very offended when some French photographers referred to them as "paparazzi")

So after about four glasses of wine and four Peronis, I wandered into the T-Mobile/BlackBerry booth (which of course had its own free bar deep inside in the back). I have a couple free "T-Mobile Sunsets" (which is basically a Madras) and chill there until my friend comes back from the fierce guy's show.

At that point I'm talking to this cute stylist. My friend comes and continues talking to her about fashion-related things and they hit it off. Next thing I know, we're in a New York Fashion Week runway show! Word?

So I got to see Aurelio Costarella's show... which was really neat... since I had never seen a fashion show live before in my life.

Most of the shots of the runway models didn't turn out too well, but this is one of the better ones.
Here's my friend snapping some of her own shots at the show we went to.

Good thing they're pros, or I might be worried that they'll run into each other.
As for celebrities?

I could have sworn one guy I saw was T-Weed from "I Love New York," but the photogs swore up and down he wasn't.

Also, I'm fairly certain Alexis Arquette was in the front row of the fashion show we saw.

I know, I'm busting out the big dogs, right?

While there weren't many big name celebrities inside the tent, I assure you there were plenty of beautiful models wandering around... which was definitely a plus.

Oh yeah also... I almost forgot to mention the booth set up by the Italian Trade Commission highlighting Italian shoes. It reminded of a certainly "worldly" travel with a shoe collection that could make most men tremble :)


On the way out, there were a bunch of fur protesters handing out "in-fur-mation" pamphlets. After mixing and matching several beers, glasses of wine and vodka drinks (I knocked out all three major food groups in one night!) on an empty stomach I wasn't actually kidding when I asked them what the heck "in-fur-mation" was. I was actually confused and figured they needed a new copy editor. I got it later... but long after I had already opened my mouth and asked the question... oh well.

Overall, that trip to Fashion Week went a lot better than my one earlier in the week, which ended with a police officer telling me to scram. I had wandered/stumbled to Bryant Park from a bar late Monday night and all the tents and stuff were all closed up so I was exploring around outside... until a police officer told me the park was closed and to get the heck out of there, so I did.

On that note though... it is way past my bed time.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I absolutely love this city yet? Word.

...

G'night!

So the local club across the street is slapstick awful...

Quick update...

I explored another new neighborhood the other night, the Meatpacking District. It's supposed to be this ubertrendy area with upscale bars...

While wandering around, I'm about 95-100 percent certain I walked by Tim Meadows, from SNL,... so that was kind of neat. The "Lady's Man" was out with a lady friend.

The Meatpacking District was alright, I could see it being more fun with a group of people.

I didn't stay out too late, so when I got home the club across from my apartment was still open. I still hadn't checked it out yet, so I wandered over,

Oh my God was it lame. They try to project this fancy image, but it was the saddest thing I've seen since coming to the city. The worse part is that there is a line out there on a lot of nights... It's also only open on weekend nights, which is kind of odd. I wonder how they stay in business, but I probably don't want to know...

Anyway, so I walk to the front door and a bouncer in a full suit cards me. Then I go inside, and there are two more bouncers and a girl taking money.

They tell me there's a $20 cover. Ha! I ask if that was every night or if tonight was special... they tell me that's every night.

I kindly tell them that I have no interest in paying a $20 cover. As I start leaving, they say I can go in for free... (I think they were just trying to fleece me for cash, but they epic failed... I sincerely doubt they usually charge $20 admission).

Next I get a full pat down for weapons, an odd little surprise, then I go through a big curtain to the club... the very, very empty club. It was dark and had loud Spanish music playing, which makes sense... but there was nobody dancing or anything.

There were a couple pairs of people at the bar, and that was about it. There was more staff than clubgoers.

It gets better. I figure, that I'd order at least one drink and see how things play out. I order a rum and coke and just chill. It was the worst drink I've ever had. I couldn't even finish half of it. I guess it was just clear rum on the rocks with a splash of cola... I don't even know. It was just gross.

After a while, I gave up on sipping my nasty beverage and asked to cash out.

$12! For one rum and coke. Who'd have thought the most expensive drink I've found in the city so far would be an awful rum and coke at a feaux trendy dance club in my little Dominican neighborhood.

I actually chuckled when she told me.

Heck, the actual trendy club I went to in the fancy pants Meatpacking District wasn't nearly that expensive. I got a Maker's Mark and an import beer and it came to $14 for the two... and people were saying the drinks were expensive on the cruise, hehe.

Also, I found a bar in SoHo that has free beer-cooked hot dogs on Wednesdays... so you know where I'll be Wednesdays. They were actually pretty good.

I had fun this weekend, but it looks like I missed out on some Central Park fun...

So I had originally planned to go to Central Park a couple times this weekend to jog and explore, but instead I got lazy and mostly drank the weekend away... which was tons of fun, but apparently I missed topless day at Central Park! (NSFW)

I really did have plans to spend most of the weekend exploring the park and getting familiar with it... oh well. Win some, lose some I guess. It would have been the perfect excuse to be gross and jog topless too. Maybe it's best that I didn't end up at topless day... as things like that have ended poorly in the past.

As has become normal when I've been lazy and not posting too often, I'll do bullets...

* Friday night I went barhopping around Columbia, which is in the Upper West Side (just not nearly as "way upper" as where I am. It was interesting, and I swear the couple next to me at the first bar was a professor and a student. It was an old WASPy looking dude and a 19-year-old looking Asian girl. That was totally a "Law and Order: SVU" episode waiting to happen.

* Saturday was the Upper East Side with MM. We went to this piano bar where we ran into an uber-celebrity! He's so huge... I didn't even know who he was. That's a whole new strata of celebritude. It was Doug Wilson! Yeah, THE Doug Wilson.

Apparently he's on "Trading Spaces" on TLC.

I would have had no idea who he was, except another guy at the bar excitedly asked me "Is that Doug Wilson from 'Trading Spaces' over there!"

I think I said something to the effect of "I have no idea, but I bet he knows, let me ask..."

He was a friendly guy, I think he was a regular there.

* Another bar we went to was kind of interesting... as soon as I walked in the guy who had been playing the bongo drum grabbed me and sat me down at the bongo and said "play." Play I did, just some sort of random beat that hopefully had something to do with the beat (though most likely not... the night was well underway at that point).

I must have been really loud though, because my fingers are like bruised... weird. They also had a hula-hoop competition... I did not win. I know, you're shocked.

I chatted up the owners for a bit, asking them where they recommend in Chinatown... turns out they were from Taiwan and loathe Chinatown - oops. Again, win some, lose some, right?

* Then we went to a new bar and watched the men's basketball gold medal match... while closer than it should have been, we still dominated. The only takeaway from the game is that Pao Gasol is a complete beeyatch. Word.

* I really should start carrying my camera around... but I've said that before. This weekend I heard "Beat It" blaring at the subway station and a big crowd had gathered, so I check it out and sure enough there's midget dressed up in full MJ garb, with the white glove and everything moonwalking around the station.


It was basically the same as this clip, except a midget in that outfit, and fewer people, and just a boombox, and no spotlights or special effects, and it probably smelled worse, and... well, the only things that were the same were the outfit and the creepy factor.
* The other strange sight was a man walking near Chinatown around lunchtime today wearing a sandwich sign covered in too many words to possibly make any sense, like "Bloomberg," "school," "Child-torture" and about thirty other random words. He kept hitting a cowbell and chanting "Arrest Bloomberg. Arrest Bloomberg." That's the mayor, Michael Bloomberg in case you're wondering. I bet the weirdo would be none too pleased if Bloomie successfully beat the city's term limits and got re-elected.