As most of you should have realized by this point, my friends and I celebrated the relaunching of my blog this past weekend. Celebrations started Friday night and kept going strong all the way to Monday morning. Ironically I wasn't able to release the new format on-time (March 1st) because of all the celebrations. Typical me.
Now lets talk about the good stuff, the parties. Friday night was a dual celebration in Williamsburg, BK. The 7 other NYU poblanos and I hit up some asian fusion cuisine at the Red Bowl, chosen for its fair prices and close proximity to Manhattan (only one stop into BK off the L). This was the compromise to get everyone to willingly leave the island. Although the original reason for the dinner was so that Renee could introduce us all to her new boyfriend, I quickly usurped the situation to celebrate the conception and release of Rich White Kids. Long story short, 3 hours, 3 courses, plenty of rounds of drinks ($4 beer, $7-$9 cocktails), and one free bottle of Sake from the manager later Rich White Kids was already a success as the whitest kids I know (plus Raqy) tipsily sauntered through the streets of W-burg to promptly make their return to Manhattan (we wanted to go out in BK, but we had no clue where to go).
Los 8 poblanos split up and went their separate ways. Some of us "relaxed" a bit before going out, while others packed it up early for the night (I know, like what's that all about). Ultimately half of us went home, a quarter went to Harlem, and one went to Hell's Kitchen (guess who). The night doesn't end there, but you'll need to invite me out to coffee to get the rest of this story ;)
Saturday started late for me, and by late I mean having brunch at 4 in the afternoon. A special friend & I had brunch at the Mocca Espresso Lounge near city hall in the financial district. I was pleasantly surprised with the place. The decor was a nice black, red, & green coffee house mix which complemented the excellent menu options & fantastic coffee bar. As you may already know, I am a pretty big coffee snob - a properly made shot of espresso totally gets me hot. Mocca made for a great brunch, and the company wasn't too shabby either :).
After a nice afternoon shower and nap it was time to get dressed and keep the celebrations going at the NYU Violet Ball. The Violet Ball is the annual school-wide dance held on campus. This year it was in the Atrium of the infamous (on Craigslist) Bobst Library. The space was gorgeous with a ceiling 12 stories tall, small tables, and excellent decorations. The free food, beer/wine bar, live music, and pretty kick-ass DJ made for a great party as well. And I think most surprising was the huge turnout. There were definitely more people at the Ball this time than when I went two years ago. The crowd just to get into the place was nuts. NYU security was all over our asses (thanks a lot TBNYU!, lol). Of course the best part wasn't the music or free food but rather the company. Kristy, Christina, and Stephanie (btw I think that's the name of Woody Allen's next movie) come very highly recommended. You'd be hard pressed to find a hotter group of jiving young ladies, plus they survived Madrid with me. Two words, bad ass. We tore it up till they kicked us out, and then we went home.
But wait, it doesn't stop there. Now it's time for the Grand Finale of the Relaunch weekend. My sister came in from L.A. to the city last week because of Market week (fashion week). She was here with her boss running around like a crazy woman and doing fabulous things. I got to see her a couple times, we had dinner one night which was super cute, and then Sunday they were doing the photo shoot of the upcoming fall line for her companies clothing line, Parker Blue. It was a very low-key shoot and she invited me over to hang out and watch. I had a lot of fun meeting my sister's coworkers and the other people at the shoot. I was surprised to see Christian Siriano there, the winner of Project Runway, who's boyfriend was the photographer. I didn't get to talk to him too much (he was a bit aloof) but he seemed nice and my sis says that he's a great guy (she apparently hangs out with him, who knew). My favorite part about meeting him was the realization that he actually talks in real life like he did on the tv show. He legit answered the phone "Hi Tranny". I about died when I heard that (and I immediately thought about Andrew). Oh and btw, Christian is totally just as tiny as everyone says he is, but very cute. His bf, not so cute. Look him up, Brad Walsh. He's ok but I feel like Christian should and could totally do better.
After a few hours of sitting around watching the photo shoot it was finally over. The shoot was fun and all but if it had been for Brian keeping my company I probably would've passed out from boredom at some point. Still though, I'm really glad I went. Afterward all the people from the shoot, including Brian & I, went out to dinner to La Esquina in SoHo. Apart from a couple issues that we had with the host and seating (pretentious much?), the food was absolutely FABULOUS and decently priced. The ambiance of the restaurant is really great as well. Feels very much like a rustic Mexican bar with a chic twist. The cherry on top of it all was our waitress, Christina. We were seated in a pretty slow section, all 9 of us, and so she came and hung out for awhile chatting about life, love, and everything. We found out that she was born in Mexico City, grew up in Miami, and moved to New York to pursue her dream of being a Jazz singer. She's gorgeous, young, and a sweetheart. Plus she felt the need to give us all a free shot, and then totally came to my rescue when the host/bouncer wouldn't let my friend come and sit with us for drinks. They wouldn't even let him into the restaurant. I immediately went to Christina and within a couple minutes my friend was having a drink with all of us at the table. I will specifically request to be seated in her section the next time I go to La Esquina, and you should too.
Anyways to wrap this all up. We eventually left La Esquina and walked a couple blocks to Goldbar in Soho. I had never been to nor heard of this place before that moment, but apparently one of the girls was friends with the bouncer so we all went. The place was small but exquisitely decorated with paintings of royalty and gold skulls all over the walls. We got a table and some drinks. I really like the space, the crowd was one I haven't really partied with before - a little posh, a little trendy, a little hipster, mostly straight. The music was good and so we danced and had a great time. Definitely the high of the night was when Mariah Carey walked in. Thats right, we saw Mariah Carey come into the club and sit in a table in the corner. The place is small so it wasn't hard to spot her. She was very low key just sitting with a couple of friends. Unfortunately Nick Cannon was nowhere to be found. Spotting her was such a great end to the night.
We left the club/bar at around 3:30am and discovered a wonderful white world. It had been snowing for hours and was continuing to snow. Drunkenly we got into a snowball fight and then finally made the trek through the snowbanks back home.
To sum it all up. Relaunch weekend was no doubt a great success.
PS: Sorry it took me so long to post this considering the relaunch happened over a week ago. I've been super busy with midterms and such lately PLUS this post took me forever to write. Hope it's not too long.
No comments:
Post a Comment