The Secret

Sunday afternoon started out innocently enough - but it soon became the most crazy/random night of our lives so far in New York.

Aries & I met at 6pm for a drink at The Standard Biergarten. We had a few weak mojitos and decided to grab a quick bite at the new Gansevoort restaurant, Carte Blanche. Over chicken meatballs and cucumber martinis, a plan was formed. Maybe it was the balmy summer evening or a sense of a life without consequence, but soon Aries & I had that mischevious sparkle in our eyes. Our very obviously impared waiter regaled us with stories from his first years in New York for over 45 minutes, while I texted my contacts to see if we could find a little herbal refreshment.

The texts came back - they couldn't help us. Aries, being the more charming of the two of us, sweetly asked our waiter for guidance. Unfortunately, he was fresh out. (His tip did a nosedive after that!) Determined, we pressed on.

Aries and I tried six places including The Spotted Pig, The Jane, Employee's Only... we thought the bartenders might be able to help, but no luck. Soon, we had made our way from Meatpacking down to Greenwich. We stopped in a dive bar for a fortifying shot of Seagrams Sweet Tea Vodka (yum!) and continued our quest. While walking down a random street, we spoke loudly of our dashed dreams. No sooner than I had said defeatedly, "Guess I'll have to take a Xanex instead" did our knights in shining armour appear.

"Xanex?" the man said. He was standing on the streetcorner outside of a shop with his friends. We explained our predicament. Their eyes lit up; they could totally help us. Giving each other a glance of solidarity, Aries and I entered the shop. We both felt at ease with these guys and as we passed it around, we got to chatting. One guy told me he was raised by an adventure junkie - he swam with jellyfish at age 7, sharks at 9. His father was always pushing him to be tougher, and as a result he very rarely feels afraid. The owner of the shop and I chatted about what a great feeling it must be to be your own boss. It was a lovely, relaxed evening. I kept thinking it was like that book, The Secret, that I never read. We believed it would happen - and we reached our (albeit minor) goal.

Aries & I decided to go around 11, after all - it was a school night. After being sworn to secrecy, we started to leave. I looked over at Aries and realized that her face had gone totally pale, even her lips were white. As we were walking out, I turned around to talk to her and see if she was ok, and I realized she wasn't responding. Suddenly, she sank to the floor and completely passed out.

My mind went blank. We all hunched down over her, completely silent. I remember thinking to myself that I should wait before I began to panic. I looked up and locked eyes with the owner; we shared a calm stare. Within five seconds, she was awake again. She sat up slowly and I told her not to worry, she was only out for a few seconds. She kept saying that she'd never passed out before - I'd never seen someone pass out before! We both went outside to get some fresh air and gather ourselves. The men were really helpful, bringing us water and making sure she was feeling better. We figured out that it was probably a mix of the insane amount of walking we did, combined with heat, dehydration, and a little too much of a good thing.

When Aries felt stronger, we thanked the guys profusely and I put her in a cab.

At least now, they'll never forget us!


*scorpio*

Tall Drink of Water

A certain Thompson LES owner made a beeline for me & my Swede friend last night while we were dining with friends at his hotel. He sat down, ordered a few rounds of "Top Chef" curry chicken & proceeded to name-drop like only a hotel owner can. I did my best to seem impressed (after all, MGMT is there in two weeks...)

He made a point of asking whether I was Swedish before telling me he exclusively dates Swedish girls. I assured him I was not. A couple bites of chicken (his) and a few polite laughs (mine) later, he stood to leave.

"You could totally pass for Swedish" he leaned down to whisper in my ear as he stood. "I have a thing for tall blondes," he winked as if he hadn't told me this several times before.

"Us tall blondes just love being reduced to our most obvious physical characteristics," I teased, "You must do well with that line."

Needless to say, he gave me his card. Guys like that crave a bit of sass.

Looks like I'm going to be poolside at the LES tomorrow! Couldn't have come at a better time, honestly. I'm losing my California color.

*scorpio*

Friday Night Lights

Friday night found us splitting a cab to Grammercy for a new friend's birthday party. We brought Prosecco for the apartment party, thinking it surely must be like all of the other pseudo-casual apartment parties.

We were dead wrong.

First, there was a cute little red carpet and velvet rope. When we opened the door-to a very chic apartment- we were greeted by the bartender, mixing up the most incredible cocktails. We perused the menu, and quickly decided on the 'First Orgasm' as we glanced around the apartment. We quickly realized we would not be needed the bottle of Prosecco as one entire wall was devoted to a gorgeous display of hundreds of bottles. In the corner, a DJ spun music so cool I wasn't even familiar. As the party began to heat up, I found myself talking to the man who decided to make red carpets rentable for the common man.

He had quite the interesting story, and a completely viable business (thanks to the age of internet celebrity and reality tv, it seems everyone needs a red carpet these days). I waffled between being intruiged by his business, and being put off by the man himself. He was way too close to me, for one. Secondly, he had a small chip in his front tooth (this is how close he was!). Third, and most important, he made two or three rather vulgar jokes. Now, I'm no prude, but these jokes were more of the bathroom variety than the bedroom... something I'm just not interested in hearing. Especially when they were passing out cake.

The clincher though, was when the party was moving to the next venue, I watched as he rolled up the carpet and moved the velvet rope inside. Call me a snob, but once a man rolls up a dirty well-tread carpet, the moment just kind of loses it's magic, doesn't it?

After collecting our Marc Jacobs giftbags (!), we headed to the next venue... from there, the night was a blur...

Can you tell where we are?