EXTRAVAGANZA

(From the top left, clockwise: Will, Me(duh), Ryan, Laruell, Emily. Credit to Will on these pics.)
It's important, when celebrating birthdays, to have lots of fun. Celebrating mine and other's was quite an experience this year. My birthday was March 7th. Emily had her 21st birthday on the 2nd. On Saturday the 4th together with Will, Ryan, and Laurell we set off on the 6:07 train to New York for a night of drinking in the city.

Giving the play by play of a night in the city would feel kinda dry (I think Will realized too), so I'll just kinda photo-blog it and give you some amusing anecdotes.

The first bar we went to, The Darkroom I think it was called, had a gay bartender. He wasn't really flaming but it was obvious he was gay because of the bandanna or neckercheif or whatever tied around his neck. We asked him to take a group shot of us and we told him it was both mine and Emily's birthday's. He gives Emily a kiss on the cheek and as he's shaking my hand Ryan is like "Why don't you give him a kiss!" I wanted to fucking kill him. Thankfully he only touched his cheek to mine because I'm sure if there was any more contact Ryan would have suffered the consequences.


There was one bartender who made Emily cry. We ordered five Jager-bombs and it cost us $45. That's $9 for one drink if your too slow for math. Ryan was incredulous, "This better be the best fucking Jager-bomb I've ever had!" he says. Apparently the bartender thought we we're cheap (which we are) and he tells Ryan something like go drink at home and Ryan says something like it'd probably be cheaper. I was right there and this exchange was not very heated. However, the bartender made us all leave when he refused to give Emily a drink, "You can blame your friend there" he says. Now, I've never ran a bar in the city but I know enough about customers to know that that is not how you treat people. Emily was fucking crying because of that jerk! Happily, Emily calmed down and even remarked that she thought it was a cool bar. Figure that out. We moved on to a place called The Library. It didn't have nearly as many books as our hometown Mullany's but it was enough to name the bar such. I though it was a pretty cool place, the jukebox was playing some good tunes. We went to one other bar called B-side that I also thought was cool. We got to our hotel room at about 4:30am.



And what hotel experience would be complete without jumping on the beds?I love this one:
Somehow, Ryan gave Emily a high five and she was launched into lamp as reinacted here.





Emily attacks as her alter-ego "Ron":

We finally all passed the fuck out around 9am. We had set the alarm for 11 so we could catch the 1:oo train home. I tried everything I could to rouse everyone else but the girls proved to be tough sleepers. I wasn't going to splash water in anyone's face but of course, we missed the train by 20 minutes.

The city was a great time. Then, Wednesday the 8th, I went to Henry J's in Chester to drink with some friends at work. It was two other people's birthday's as well as mine.

I was continuously fed drinks all night. Now, I've never had a problem with free drinks but I didn't refuse a single one and therefore... blacked out.

My memory becomes very spotty trying to recall my night. I remember taking a shot of Jager.... Having a big mac in my hand thinking it belonged to someone else.... And putting band-aids on my face and hand.The worst part about injuring my face was that I don't remember doing it. Today at work I was able to get a few more details about my faceplant. Now keep in mind that this is all stuff I heard from other people because I don't remember any of it:

• I went to McDonalds for food.
• Stepping (jumping?) over the curb, I fell, clutching the cheeseburgers. I managed to save the burgers but at the cost of my face and right palm.
• I did what is described as "pig rolls" on the asphalt.
• Back at the bar I'm eating cheeseburgers with a napkin pressed to my wounded face.
  
• I did four or five more shots. One of them was apparently a body shot. I still can't believe I could forget that part!

I had a ton of comments and questions about my face at work today. I told everyone I got in a fight with the asphalt and the asphalt won. Once, as I was saying that, Mike (who filled me in with most of these details) said somthing like:

"Nah. I was there, he threw down. He won."