By Tuesday, this week was already too long for me
So when Lisa called me on Wednesday to meet for drinks at Lua in Hoboken my answer was, “Hell yes!” The last time I was at Lua I was not drinking. It’s a tough place for me to be sober. Nothing against it … after all my friend Fernando manages it … but it’s very fancy-schmancy and the choice of music is a bit too ‘overloaded-with-cologne-picking-up-40-year-old-desperate-housewives’ for my taste. When we got there, Lisa was looking for Fernando so we could slip by the valet parking fee. He was no where to be found so we got out of the car. Lisa, in all her cleverness mumbled, “I’m gonna kill that Fernando!” To which the valet responded, “Oh you’re Fernando’s friend. Didn’t you used to have a T-Bird?”
We laughed on the way in because the kid remembered her car before he remembered her. She had since traded it in for a new Explorer. We ordered some food and talked for a while. Fernando kept disappearing on us, but we’ve always been able to entertain ourselves. It’s one of the many reasons why I love hanging out with her. The best moment was when she tried to hit Fernando with a wadded up napkin; hit the bartender instead and in an awkward scuffle to cover up what she did, a wine glass was sadly shattered. Sacrificed for the sake of our good time. For the rest of the night we’d start laughing each time we found a shard of glass on the bar.
The next night was a dual-birthday party/karaoke and I was still ready for blowing off more steam. I met my friends Luis, Rob (the birthday boys) and the rest at Scruffy Duffy’s (743 Eighth Avenue) and my dinner was Guinness. Yeah I was hungry, but this day being as bad as all the rest of late, food was not really on my radar. Scruffy’s has history for us. It’s a popular after-work, happy hour place. It reeks of buffalo wings and is loud as hell. There’s a lone pool table awkwardly situated by the front door and darts in the back of the bar. Because it’s a long, thin room it does get crowded fairly quick. Our buddy Elvis and I were rounding folks up for what is a usual course of action with this crowd … karaoke. You know you go regularly enough when you start to have a signature song. Mine has become ‘Summer Wind’.
We went to Second on Second (27 2nd Ave). There was the usual metamorphosis of people coming out of their shells leading into that fun mess of drunken cacophony that is Karaoke. Despite the fun level, it was gearing up to be an earlier than usual night. This was OK by me. We had started at like 6:00, so by midnight, I was ready to call it. I also wanted to try and get to Willie McBride’s in Hoboken for a drunken Christmas sing-a-long. Jim Testa (Jersey Beat) had told me about it. Well I would never make it there. Though we did settle up the bill, the leaving portion was slow in coming. One of the venue’s staffers kept putting in songs … and we kept singing, including an encore of ‘Summer Wind’ from yours truly.
We finally stumbled out of the place. Our crowd was down to four of us … me, Rob, Luis and Madeline. It was now about 1:30 and I finally felt the time was right for dinner. We wandered about looking for some burgers or something when we came upon San Loco, a little Mexican place on 2nd Ave near St Mark’s that was beckoning us in from the cold. I still wanted a burger and they had what they called a taco burger on their menu that turned out to be nothing more than taco ingredients on a bun. Tasty though. After a few laughs, we walked out. I’m not sure if any of us paid but, since no one came running after us, I assumed we were ok.
Luis and Madeline got into a cab and Rob and I decided to take the long walk to the PATH station on 9th and 6th Ave. This was OK by me. I’m used to being out so late that my last hope to get home is the PATH. But that’s the thing … it goes to Hoboken … which is my home. For Rob however, he still needs to find a way home. There are no more buses or trains to where he lives. Luckily his very understanding wife Jessica agreed to come get him. So we waited for a little while in the Hoboken Dunkin Donuts.
They drove me to my apartment. By this time it was right around 3:00 and I’d soon realize how perfect our timing was. I had intended to eat a little more since all I had was that taco burger, but sleep came easy. After a large glass of water and three Advil, that is. I woke up to feed the cat at around 7:00 and saw the snow. Apparently we got about four inches since 4:30. I happily went back to sleep knowing that I took the day off from work. Ah now this I really, really needed.
