I love New York

This blog is a week over-due. Sorry, but our trip to NYC really kicked my butt. I spent all last week trying to catch-up on sleep from roughly 72 hours of insanity.

Chris and I kicked off the trip in style. And by style, I mean Greyhound. Only the best for us! We got to the city around 8 and split up to meet up with various friends. I met up with my friend Rob and hung out at his place. Can I just tell you that Rob is one of the sweetest people on earth? He bought me the new Tori box set!! I was shocked. I absolutely love the box set, so if you are a Tori fan, I highly recommend it.

We showered and changed and then met up with Nick over at his place to pre-game. From there, we went out all over town. If I remember correctly, we started out at Urge, then headed to Eastern Bloc and ended the night back in Chelsea at Barracuda.

Let's go back to Eastern Bloc for a minute. I am pretty sure I fell in love there. The bar is this tiny little space, so small I'd be amazed if you can cram 50 or 60 people in there. Yet, they have enough room for a pole and go-go dancers.

I don't know why, but strippers and "dancers" make me uncomfortable. I feel like I shouldn't be looking at them, or that I am some dirty pervert or something. I have no clue why I feel this way, I just do. Usually, I'll just stand to the back of the crowd and observe from a distance.
When we got into the bar, I saw the dancer and my eyes just glossed over him. Standard twink with a nice body and skimpy underwear. Typical. A short while later, the dancers changed and the man of my dreams took to the pole. He was maybe 5'8" or 5'9", dark hair shaved close to his scalp, built body, but not overly sculpted, with a hairy chest and a leather jock strap, all man. Ugh, I almost melted.

For the next half an hour (as near as I can approximate), I was mesmerized by this dancer. My friends were possibly talking to me through all of this, but I have no clue. The rest of the world ceased to exist while he was working that pole. And I do mean working the pole.

Finally, I started feeling guilty for staring at him so much and not tiping him at all. I worked up the courage to approach him and slip a bill into his jock. I waited until he had his back turned to the crowd and made my move. I slipped what turned out to be a $10 into his jock and quickly went back to my spot away from the stage.

The dancer turned around and saw me leaving, then grabbed the bill and saw what I tipped him. He motioned for me to come back up, but there was no way I was going up there. I hate being in the spotlight as it is. Much less with this man who makes me weak in the knees right in front of me! In typical fashion the girls were yelling at me to get up there. The best comment came from none other than Chris. "Girl, for $10 you better go up there and at least jiggle his balls." Classy.

After he finished his time on the pole, I saw him standing back by the DJ. I used this as a chance to go and speak to him. I went up, and in true drunk Bernie fashion, told him I thought he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. He was actually quite humble and thought that I was just running lines on him. I assured him I wasn't and that I don't typical give dancers a $1, let alone a $10. He thanked me for my compliments and gave me a quick kiss. Shit, the world could have ended right at that moment and I would have died a happy man.

The rest of the night was typical Mean Girl drunk fun. The next day Chris, Nick and I spent together just the three of us. It was awesome to spend some quality time together and really catch up on our lives. It was long overdue. That night, Joey, aka Josefina, came into town for a night of dancing. We started at a house party our friends Nik & Jordan threw. From there, we headed off to Crobar to hear Tom Stephan spin.

It has been ages since I was at a straight dance club. That night reminded me why it has been so long. At least half of the guys in the club clearly took their fashion cues from the "Growing Up Gotti" boys. I don't know how the floor wasn't slimy with gel by the end of the night. And why do straight guys feel the need to be aggressive toward each other for no reason? I saw at least two "almost fights" on the dance floor. Regardless, we had a great time and danced for five hours non-stop.

The next day, we woke up late, had lunch and then started drinking. There were many obstacles to us getting home that night. Including, a failed car rental and a train delayed by nearly two hours. We finally pulled into Union Station at 2 AM. I was close to just coming straight to my office, since I only work one block away. But, my bed was calling my name, even if I'd only spend three hours in bed before getting up for work.

The rest of the week was spent trying to catch up on all the missing sleep from the weekend. Thank God for the extra hour this weekend. It was much needed!