Last weekend, a few of the boys and I took a trip to NYC to celebrate Paul’s graduation from college. Paul has been wanting to go to The National Underground with me, so we scheduled our jaunt on a night when Joey DeGraw was playing a show down the street and then having the after-party at the bar. David and Joe came along as well, and we had a blast. I got to see some of my NY pals, as well as make some new ones, and I got to see Gavin, which is always a treat. And the boys? Well, they got to relax and get nice and happy drunk. In other words, good times were had by all.
Since there was going to be a lot of drinking on the menu, we decided to stay at the hotel that is right outside of the bar so that stumbling back to the hotel room was easy for all. The other benefit to that hotel? The awesome, awesome rooftop terrace. Here we are enjoying it when we arrived:
I don’t know why David decided to cup his boobs, but that apparently turned into a trend:
Classy as always.
After we arrived in the city, we headed over to Times Square to do a little bit of shopping, but it was so mobbed with tourists that we only stayed for a little while. We went to the two stores I wanted to go to, and then headed back to the quiet of the lower east side. Everyone has been raving about the burgers at the bar, so we decided to go there for dinner before the show. David made me proud by following up his first drink with some good ol’ Country Time Lemonade:
I still love that they serve that at the bar. I didn’t have one, but the boys all raved about their burgers, so I’m going to have to try one the next time I’m in town. After the boys spent some time relaxing on the rooftop with some pre-show drinks, we made our way to Joey’s show. David is the only one who had seen Joey before, so it was nice to introduce his tunes to Paul and Joe. They were both impressed, and I have to say, this was the best Joey has ever been. He had some great new songs, and he sounded fantastic. My pictures came out too dark and grainy, but I did grab a little bit of video from the show:
There was a crew from A&E there taping the show and following Joey around afterwards as part of some reality show thingy, so I’ll be interested to see what comes of that. (Joey is the “voice” of A&E – next time you’re on that channel, listen to the announcer on any of their promo commercials – that’s Joey.) Gavin was pretty low-key and told me that he was just going to be watching the show that night. Joey invited him up to sing later, but he didn’t go up, just hung back and rocked out to his bro – it was cute.
After the show, we headed back to the bar for the after-party, and it was packed. I decided to hang out outside for a little while until the crowd died down a little. Plus, this also meant that I got to hang out with the always entertaining Matt the bouncer and my boy Sasha:
I also got to meet Karen, who was crazy nice – we bonded over our love of good tunes and desire to stay out of the crowds and away from the cameras:
I have no idea why I look pregnant in that picture. Anyway, I also got to hang out with the lovely Brenna, whom I met in January the first time I went to the bar:
After the crowd started to die down a little, we ventured into the bar. The boys did some shots and then decided that they would act as the bouncers:
The best part is that people were actually showing them their IDs. Paul is still kicking himself for not asking for a cover charge and making some more drinking money. After that, I brought the boys over to meet Joey, and Paul went on and on about the burgers. I really do need to try one of those next time. Anyway, here I am with Joey:
Not long after that, the boys disappeared and wandered to a club around the corner where I hear they were dancing their asses off. I stayed at the bar, and they eventually all wandered back at some point later in the night and I put them to bed like a mother hen. It was hilarious. I wish I had known at the time which club they went to so I could have seen what went on there, as the details are sketchy to all of them. All I know is that I had one hell of a time getting them all up in the morning so we could check out of the hotel on time. Here they are the next morning, looking like the night kicked their asses:
Hee! Do you know why I wish I had been at that club the most? Because we all noticed these on Joe’s neck on the ride home:
No one, including Joe, knows who or where they came from. Random hickeys - Club Sapphire will get you!!! Also? Awesome.
On the ride home, we decided to stop to eat at Duchess, which is a place I’ve only heard about from billboards that I’ve seen on the ride to New York. Every time I see the signs, I get more curious and want to go. This time, my desires became reality. Behold, Duchess:
Y’all? Duchess is magic. I thought it was going to be like a Friendly’s type of place, but it was fast food, and it was really good. David was excited about the prospect of breakfast sandwiches all day, and I was excited by the fact that you could tell that the chicken nuggets were made from real chicken. Paul called me last night still talking about Duchess, saying that he still can’t believe that Duchess happened and that he needs to go back there right away. Oh, Duchess:
Perhaps the magic of Duchess includes healing powers, because we were all a LOT more awake and chipper after stopping there. Just look at the contentment:
Not to mention the joy of a post-Duchess world:
The perfect end to a fun weekend. Of course, we all went home and slept for about 3 days, but it was well worth forgetting that I am too old to be out until 4:45 AM when I have to be out of a hotel at 11. It’s fun to forget that every now and again.
I can’t wait for the next time.
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