Monday, December 01, 2003

I'm Baaaaack!!!

Yes, I am really alive. One day I was fine and the next day…boom! I was struck down with that horrid flu that was hurtling around the city. It started with a headache, and by the end of the day I couldn’t swallow, breathe or walk.

I ended up spending a week in bed. I was so achy, and too tired to read or do anything. I just slept on and off. My voice came back midweek—and for three days I sounded like the love child of Darth Vader and the Exorcist.

The week after that I just killed trees by using way too many boxes of Kleenex.

Um, I think I’ve run out of excuses. No, seriously, being sick for over week, played havoc with my work life. I had a deadline or two that were screaming for me to hurry up.

So, here I am at the tail end of the T-day weekend, trying to summarize the rest of the month….where do I start?

Okay, my “dating moratorium” lasted most of the month—no, being sick had nothing to do with it. I think.

Last Tuesday, I met a very tall guy R., for drinks. Went to Lunasia, nice place, exposed brick walls, lots of places to sit. Chatted, drank and he asked me out for Sunday. He seemed like a nice guy, tall but nice. And never heard from him again. That’s okay, I’ve been so busy, I needed the rest.

Wednesday night at 10:40 get call from M. Who I’ve met very briefly, and the ensuing convo proved to me, that sometimes brief is much better. Within two minutes into the convo, I now know he’s been to Harvard and Columbia and is starting another business. He wanted to discuss econ theory with me. All I can say is “NEXT.”

Thursday, Roxanne threw an amazing T-Day bash. She did the brine thing to the bird the night before…massive dishes of every traditional holiday food everywhere. There wasn’t enough room on the table for all of the food. We all tried to do it justice, and then crawled into the living room to pass out and breathe. About an hour or two later, we game fully crawled back into the dining room, loaded up our plates, crawled back into the living room, put our plates down, then passed out. I crawled home in turkey stupor.

Friday night I was off to the Tribeca Grand. There in the Sanctum, Peter Hook of New Order was spinning discs. Grabbed Roxanne and Ivan for company, and went out to check out the scene and do some celeb spotting. If I saw a couple, I’d write it up and give to the mag. Somewhere in the crowd was either Fischer or Spooner…not sure. Peter Hook had pre-mixed his stuff, gave it to the DJ and went to the bar (outside the Sanctum) for a drink or two, then came back. The strangest part of the evening was dancing to a New Order tune, while Hook was hanging by the turntables.

The three of us were turning our little heads like radar, trying to catch a glimpse of someone I could jot down on my notepad. Nada. At one point, this really cute guy walked in. Yellow baseball cap, brown leather jacket, curly brown hair, kicks…he had this glow about him. He walked up to Hook, shook hands, they chatted for awhile, and he walked about the room a bit. I was tugging Ivan’s arm, “Dude, who is that?” Ivan looked at him. “Don’t think he’s anyone…I’m not sure.”

The crowd was as lame as a limp fish; we blew that pop stand and hit LIT.
LIT is a bacchanalia personified. The booze is cheap and flows from a generous hand, the patrons are relaxed, and the music rocks. It’s got two floors. The basement has nooks, crannies, and a back room filled with cushy black sofas. No one seems to know about the back room, so it’s easy to (and usually the only place) where you can cop a squat. Best of all, you can smoke in the basement.

So we went from someone’s over-decorated rumpus room, to a redneck’s basement. Hey, at least people know how to dance at LIT and the music is much better. After pushing, shoving and crawling our way through the crowd, we made it and threw ourselves onto a couch. Beers and lighters magically appeared. Suddenly I spot yellow baseball cap. I point at him, “Hey! You were over at the Tribeca Grand.” He walks over, sits down and introduces himself. T is from France, has been here two months and is dj’ing and starting his own label. He invites me to check him out Saturday night when he’s spinning at >b>VOID. I tell him that I’m checking out Hybrid at Avalon, but will try to get there. He kept bouncing back and forth between his friends and us. Yup, very flattering. Esp. since we were discussing everything from Napoleon to where you can hear techno in the city.

Two guys flop over to us. I really do mean flop, they were drunk out of their skulls. Two boys from East Hampton. Jay’s tall, cute and blond. Colin, short and as nasty tempered as a garden gnome. They sit down, say hi and ask me to go home with them. I tell them, nah, too many elbows. They point at Roxanne and ask me if she’d go, “See the guy she’s holding hands with?” They nod. “That’s her boyfriend.” They get up and try to snare someone else.

Rolled into bed about 3 AM. The next day, I get an email from T, reminding me about the gig, call him up and he puts me on the guest list.


Kate and I meet up to see Hybrid at Avalon. Many zillions of years ago, Avalon was Limelight. I remember that place from my misspent youth. It’s weird to be dancing in a converted Gothic church. The old club retained a lot of that atmosphere; it was funky, dark, with candelabras and had a cool vibe. Now, it’s all’s high gloss and high tech. Pretty soulless. Band’s supposed to go on at 10 PM. But, no! The crowd isn’t big enough, they keep pushing it back. Kate and I are dancing, making fun of people, checking out the boys, but we’re bored. The place feels like a bad high school dance. Only exciting thing was watching two guys try to out freestyle each other.

Back on the train to SOHO and off to see T do his thing. VOID should be re-named cooler. It was so damn cold I never took off my jacket. Saw T, chatted, he DJ’d and looked for me after. Must mention that it’s very cute to see a boy hunting for ya. Found me, introduced him to Kate. Kate’s off to Paris Wednesday, she’s going to spend two weeks hanging out at her Dad’s apt, while he’s in Miami. T mentioned a few places she should check out, I suggested that he email them to me and I’ll forward them to her.

The place was stacked with his friends. He went to make the rounds, and asked me if he could buy me a drink. I said, yes, and as soon as he left, Kate and I looked at each other and giggled. Um, it didn’t go so great after that. Yes, he bought a drink, but for someone else, then he was making the rounds. Meanwhile, I’m getting that stupid high school feeling all over again. Y’know the one, where you feel like you’re suede flat in a room full of stilettos?

Kate’s telling me we ought to go; the worst thing is to hang there waiting. And yeah, I do agree with her. Hear me out, okay? Yes, he’s asked a ton of friends to come and yes, he should spend time with them, but if you’re gonna offer to buy someone a drink and maybe want to do a bit of sport kissing, c’mon on back soon. Not twenty or so minutes later. I didn’t really care about the drink, but was looking forward to other things. So, we gather up our stuff and I walk over to T, to tell him that we’re meeting friends at LIT, and there’s my drink. Shit. He looks a bit crestfallen (whee!) and we talk about going out later on that week (double whee) and his looking at me with huge brown eyes and I’m smiling back…yeah baby!

Once more into the breech! Once more Kate and I hurl ourselves into the frigid air and walk to LIT.

After pretending we were in a rugby scrum, we make it into the back room. Couches and space. As soon as I tell Kate about Colin and Jay, they show up. “Hey guys!” They have no recollection of the previous night. Colin kept apologizing over an over again. Jay was still trying to get laid, their friend Amy walks over and we’re having this funny and wild convo about men. Two very hot boys join us on the couch and jump into the convo. Pretty soon, we’re all laughing and flirting. Then T pops his head in the doorway. Wow. He said that he and his friends were off to a different club. Okay, I now totally flattered. He didn’t see me and popped out of the room. If he had come in, it would have been awkward, as I met S. and we were playing with feather boas and chatting. But, one of his friends saw me flirting and the usual with S…..so hmmm? Will he tell?

S and his friend A grew up in France. Yup, more Frenchmen and just like T, they’ve got dual citizenship. Okay, we (Kate, D, me and S) hung out till 5 am.

I’ve spent the day sleeping. I’ve been a busy, busy girl.

I’ve got a date with Ross this week and am wondering if S and T will call. Would love to hang with T, and S is an amazing kisser.

Stef’s book party is this week.

Yup, this is gonna be a goooood week.