I Heart You, Nice People at the Nice Karaoke Place

I am working today by choice. Work has shifted to a floating-holiday policy. If you don't want to work on President's Day, don't! If you do, take another day off some other time. Sweet. I will be taking next Monday off to recover from the Oscars and drive back from MA after what will hopefully be a fun weekend devoid of any sort of drama.

I love being at work when nobody is around. The heightened productivity! The guiltlessness of listening to your own music! The blogging! The accomplishments!

The weekend turned out in splendid fashion. Friday night’s soiree at the apartment was even smaller than I’d anticipated, but I didn’t care because there was food and drinks and dancing. We were trashed by the time we piled into cabs and cars (cars!) for karaoke. Sister arrived late with The New Man and he was kind enough to cart our drunken asses down to karaoke. I’m sure we were a terrible embarrassment, but I’m also sure he warmed us to it as the weekend progressed.

Karaoke? Awesome. This new place is the best thing ever. They didn’t overcharge us. As far as I can tell, they didn’t even include tax. We tried to leave a tip but they were so anxious for us to leave that they said “No, don’t worry!” They were so nice. I would go back in a second. In fact, I want to go back repeatedly to reward the rarity that is kindness in customer service in NYC. Thank you, IBop, for restoring my faith in the karaoke way. It was bring your own so we were all, of course, a mess. It’s amazing how much alcohol ten people can consume when karaoke is involved. We inhaled popcorn and Multi Grain Tostitos (recipient of the Leah Lar Award for Best New Chip That Kicks the Crap Out of the Original Chip Upon Which It Is Based) and salsa and something else, I can’t quite remember. There was a lot of falling and knocking over of beverages and snacks. There was a lot of 80’s. Since we were a reasonably sized group, we had room to dance. It was lovely.

We stayed until around 3:30, and I came home and cleaned the apartment because I had also consumed too much caffeine and was bursting with energy. I think we all went to bed at around 4:30, but I was up until 7:00 because D snores even more when drunk. I actually got belligerent at one point, because his body is also more rock-like and he cannot be rolled over. I also couldn’t get “Milkshake” out of my head, because it was the last karaoke song of the evening. Wait. Maybe it was “Cry Me A River.” I can’t be expected to remember these things.

On Saturday we slept until around noon, then headed to Vynl for the most gratifying brunch ever. I’ve eaten there 12,000 times and never noticed that they have eggs florentine on the menu! I was thrilled, because my hangover craving tends to be eggs florentine. Back at the apartment, we hung out and read and relaxed and then Brother hung out for an hour and a half or so, during which we watched the beautiful restored version of “The Last Unicorn.”

After he left, we napped, and then headed out for Ethiopian food after playing some games on the computer and more relaxing. The dinner, of course, ended up reminding me of the poor customer service in NYC. I’ve been to this place a million times and have split the combination platter. After waiting at least half an hour to be served, we ordered two combination platters (for four people) and an appetizer, and the waitress was all “For four people you have to order at least three entrees” and we were all “Uhhh…” and we had to think about it, and I wanted to leave because (a) it was bring-your-own and we didn’t know and were disappointed because we wanted honey wine and (b) there was no indication of a minimum order on the menu and (c) we specifically decided on Ethiopian because we wanted to split things so as to have a light dinner and (d) I hate ordering food that I don’t want. We cancelled the appetizer order and ordered another entrée, and then waited another hour for the food to arrive (while the waitress in the meantime hung out with her boyfriend at the bar and ate her own food – hmph). We were all a bit irritable as it was 10:30 and our blood sugar wasn’t doing too well. Needless to say we inhaled it when it arrived, and all was forgotten because it was so darn good.

I didn’t go dancing because the eggs florentine and I hadn’t gotten along earlier in the day, and I hadn’t got much sleep the night before. I read a bit and slept 9-ish hours. Bliss.

On Sunday we ate again (delicious brioche french toast stuffed with mascarpone and spiced apple, topped with berries!) and said goodbye to Sister and The New Man. I can’t wait to live closer to her. We missed “Breach” so killed time shopping, and then saw the next showing. We washed sheets and towels and made the apartment sparkle, and then I talked to Mother to give her the scoop. I stayed up too late, and am looking forward to reading and not having any sort of agenda tonight. Nothing will be checked off the list tonight, and I couldn’t care less.

Until tomorrow…