pt. 2

continued from below

After leaving our friends the buskers we set sail for 42nd Street, in fierce debate as to whether or not the associated classiness made for an obvious destination to men dressed like us. Robert postulated that we were well-dressed for a outing at 42nd, while suggested that our arrival there would not carry the same sense of silliness as if we were to turn up in some place where we were more blatantly overdressed for.

Along the way we met another friend of Conor's, this time outside of whatever restaurant is roughly across the street from 42nd. She and her friend, both of whose names I forget, were standing outside taking a break. This was when I met my first fan.

The girl who Conor knew looked vaguely familiar to me, as someone I had probably seen around campus before. I mentioned this to her, and she said she had seen me around before too, and in fact had seen the production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead I had recently been a part of. She went on to tell me how much she enjoyed it, and had a wonderful pile of flattery to dish out to my acting ability. So much, in fact, that I was reduced to bashfulness and uncontrollable hugs. It was quite an evening highlight, and I felt pretty giddy for some time afterwards.

And thus we trekked across the street to 42nd Street, which sure enough proved a bit lackluster. We poked our noses in the door, looking pompous and arrogant, and were met with nothing that intrigued our aristocratic sensibilities. After deliberation we decided an excursion to Baba's was the only way to go.

When we reached Baba's some kind of show was going on, and we realized we had no money for cover, having emptied our pockets of change for our friends the buskers. This almost proved a non-issue as we ascended the stairs and the bouncer, confused as he likely was at our ostentatious getup, asked if we were a band. The obvious answer for any band of rogues such as ourselves looking for mischief was to claim to indeed be a band and head in to look like we were going to perform. However, sadly, Robert was hit with a compulsion of truthfulness and blew our accidental cover, and thus blowing our finances on cover.

Baba's was an interesting time full of minor encounters, and two pitchers of Sweet-O. We chatted with an Asian man about pocketwatches. Robert and Conor loudly discussed Star Trek much to the bemusement of the patrons around the table next to us. At one point I wandered up front to see the band and a man turned towards me, looked me up and down, and said, "You look cool." At one point I stopped a man to tell him how good his facial hair was, and another guy stopped with him to extol the virtues of this man's impressive chops. We then fell into a long discussion with the second man, the content of which I have completely forgotten, though likely centering around how fun it is to dress up silly. We're still not entirely sure whether or not he was actually acquainted with Chops Man.

When ordering our second pitcher of Sweet-O, a curious event happened. A girl who Conor seemed to know that we'd been sort-of conversing with, after two of us had filled our glasses, picked up the pitcher and wandered outside with it. This didn't seem to trouble us until Robert came looking for his refill and we went out looking for her out in the mass of bodies packed on the deck and found no sign. Someone had very oddly wandered off with our alcohol! We wandered in and out a few times, rather confused. Eventually the deck cleared a bit and we found her at a table in the back. When we asked what the hell was going on, it turned out she had mistaken it for a pitcher of water and was rather shocked to learn what she was about to start drinking.

This was how we found ourselves relaxing on the deck at Baba's. Conor and Robert started talking to someone we referred to as Star Wars Shirt Guy, and I started chatting up Big Earrings Girl and Her Friend, who I would later know as Ashley. Fairly typical tipsy-bar-chatting-with-strangers ensued, which was a pretty good time. After a while we felt it was time to move on to a new locale, and we staggered off to the Globe.

Because the Globe is Conor's current place of employment, we were able to slip in for free, which was pretty great at this point. The Globe itself was fairly unexciting, being seemingly a generic dance club. We did, however, meet some of our pub crawl girls from across the street, and delighted reunions were had. There was also a balcony, which was of great excitement to me personally, and I quickly pulled my cohorts off the dance floor in order to explore. Up on the balcony we met more pub crawl girls, and Conor went to the bartender and asked for a surprise, which produced shots of something pink that tasted like tylenol. Shortly after we departed out the back door, and Conor stole us some cold french fries from the kitchen.

At this point we decided it was best to head to Conor's house to wind down the evening with some elicit substances. On our way, however, we walked past the spot where we met the buskers. Sadly, they had already disappeared from the world. However, by odd coincidence, a couple who had been standing nearby listening to them at the same time as us before was also walking by, and we were able to share our distress in their absence.

At this point there were a lot of people on he street, particularly lined up outside of China Garden, which was where I met up with Ashley and Earing Girl once again. The night was full of continuity! We chatted it up and I told them about the crazy fighting that had taken place the last time I was at China Garden in the middle of the night, while Robert and Conor also seemed to make and meet friends amongst the crowd. We met some more pub crawl girls who didn't seem to remember us, and I met a girl who was celebrating her birthday and gave her a hug. We then wandered up to the library so Conor could relive himself, and then headed off to his house.

Once there we begin to get sleepier, and the evening wound down with bad jokes some pretty good chats about life, death, and M*A*S*H. After our business there was done, Conor sent us off with some chips and pop tarts and Robert and I stumbled back to my house to fall asleep, in preparation for another day of adventures full of yard sales, korean food, and n64 games.