All of the Lights

From Frying Pan

From Frying Pan

     Saturday morning I woke up thinking that I had to get ready for work, but as I came to and realized that it was, in fact, the weekend, I rolled over and faded back into my dreams with the biggest smile. I'd never been happier that it was a Saturday morning. After spending the day on the couch, I headed into Manhattan to meet Vikki and a friend of hers. First off, her friend, Francesco. He actually also goes to Mizzou, and he's this delicious little Italian man piece, with an even more delectable Italian accent. Yeeeeeaaaah! So, the three of us went to Frying Pan, it's an old lightship docked at Pier 66 on the Hudson. My friend Jenna had included it on an A-Z Guide to NYC that she provided me, and within just a few minutes of being there, it was apparent why. The place was great. It was dark when we got there, so we got a few drinks and found a table and the view was just amazing! We went upstairs and were completely surrounded by lights. On one side there's the west side of Manhattan as far as the eyes can see, behind us there's Jersey, Jersey City and Hoboken, off in one direction you can see lights from a bridge connecting the two aforementioned, and in the opposite direction just more lights. The coolest part was probably one ittttty bitty light off in the distance that was the light of the flame held by Lady Liberty herself. It was beautiful. 

From Frying Pan

    When I get to catch sights like that, like being in Colorado and seeing the mountains, or in Costa Rica and seeing volcanoes, I always wonder if the locals take it for granted and become immune to the beauty that they're surrounded by everyday. I guess I probably don't marvel at the Sears Tower quite as much as a first time visitor would, but, I don't know. So there's something to ponder over. 
     We weren't there for too long because Vikki had to work and I'd been planning to just head back home, but me and Francesco figured we'd hang out and find something to do. So we walked Vikki to work and then moseyed around the Meatpacking District looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Pop Burger. It was an experience. The two slider burgers I had were delicious, and so were the fries..they were those kind of long, thin fries that like...are darker and not just cleanly sliced, but they're kind of messy looking. It doesn't matter, they were good! But, as we were sitting waiting for the food, I noticed that there's a club there too. I should've taken a picture. But so you walk in, and as you walk straight back, you either step to left and one side of a little divider, you order a burger, OR, you step to the right and past the bouncer and head into the club. I had a hard time conceptualizing the appeal of a club in a little burger joint. But I guess it's the curiosity and the mental fixation on the blatant juxtaposition of dirty, greasy, and swank and classy that drives people to places like that. Cuz God knows that now I'm curious and wanna check this place out.

View from apt

     After food, we stopped by Francesco's apartment to clean up and head out to meet some of his friends. His apartment had the cooolest view. It was somewhere in the W 30's and like, the exterior walls of his apartment were all glass; floor to ceiling. And from the balcony connected to his room, off in the distance you could see the Chrysler Building, and Time Square, and THE MOON! I haven't seen the moon since I've been here until last night. That's not normal! So I appreciated that sight more than any. But his whole apartment building was awesome, there were observation decks and a Japanese garden on one floor and stuff. Cool place.

View from apt

This one had a bikini top:
the rest didn't

     Then we took a taxi a few blocks up to 54th and went to The Volstead. Francesco works at the United Nations here in the city, so a lot of his friends and coworkers from work were at The Volstead, so that's who we met. It all started off pretty cool because as one of the bouncers took my ID to check it, he laughed and told me he went to NIU. HEYYY-OOOO!! Never too far from home! The Volstead was fairly small, but a cool ambience. There were gogo dancers in pasties and booty-shorts on random elevated surfaces and in random corners dancing. Hah, kind of threw me off for a bit. It was a cool place though. I eventually got pretty tired, so I took a taxi back to Vikki's and passed out there. Along the way, the taxi driver took 5th Ave from about 50th to 29th st, and I was taking mental notes of all the places I need to visit next month when my Momma Bear comes to town ;)