a history of me

After two straight evenings of meetings strangers over the Internet, I managed to have some fun with actual friends last night. I called Mike around dinnertime and he invited me over to his place in Brooklyn after nine o'clock. The plan was to gather a bunch of people there and do something. Friends were even driving in for this so it sounded pretty exciting.

I showed up around 9:30 and no other friends were there, just Mike with two of his roommates and some of their friends. It was very humid in Mike's home so I started guzzling water to try and compensate. I was telling him about the previous two nights when the phone calls started to come in from various people in various places. A new plan came about: we would go into Manhattan and meet a friend of Mike's at her aunt's apartment. Then we will gather there instead of in Brooklyn. After calling everyone a few times the plan was put in place so Mike and I left and went to Houston St.

The meeting point was in front of the apartment building which was right on East Houston. Mike and I walked there together although Mike spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find the other people. In the middle of this we ran into a friend from our hometown, Sarah. She was friends with my sister so she used to come over to our house all the time. I can't believe I didn't recognize her; Mike did, and called out to her. We invited her to join us but she was already bound for some other destination. I can't believe how often I run into people here.

The initial group turned out to be myself, Mike, his friend Amy (the niece in question whom I've never met before, I think), his friend Aiko whom I've met many times now, a guy we both know through Dylan named Dennis and his friend Milan (sp?). Dylan was allegedly on the way with a young lady although he was already drinking so we knew he would be awhile.

The apartment was on the top floor and it was incredible. It had a spiral staircase leading up to a private rooftop deck, complete with outdoor furniture and a hammock! We immediately gathered on the deck and starting drinking - Amy was kind enough to offer us some genuine Russian vodka that she got from a friend. We all noticed that a nearby building had a strange statue on the roof. It looked suspiciously like Lenin but we couldn't figure out why he would be looking over Houston St. in New York City.

A quick Internet search confirms the statue is indeed Lenin. See the photo

We chilled there for a long time. Amy had some of her friends come over but they split after a few drinks. The fog/haze was so thick over the city that we couldn't see any skyscrapers to the north of the south. It started to gently drizzle, almost like a mist, which was very refreshing. A couple of people decided it was time to eat something so a small food party was formed. This is right about the exact time that Dylan shows up with a young lady whose name I suddenly can't remember. Damn it, I'm sorry. They weren't hungry so we went out to eat.

I'll never get used to how busy Houston St. is at all hours of the night. It was well-past 1 AM at this point but most places were still open and bustling, even Katz's Deli! Several people opted for pizza but I didn't want to do that two nights in a row. Instead, I had some doner kebab at Mike's suggestion. I had no idea what it was at the time but it was kind of like a gyro although I didn't eat the pita they gave me. Hooray for mild restraint.

We took the food back to the apartment and spent the rest of the evening inside. We had a colorful discussion of many different topics, many of which were inspired by the large bookshelf in the apartment. Dylan began complaining about the scarcity of certain philosophers from the selection and we all chuckled at that. Then, just as we were about to leave, I found The Wu-Tang Manual. It's a book written by The RZA about the philosophy and interests of The Wu-Tang Clan. It was fascinating to find it sitting in this stranger's apartment. We saw no other evidence that this woman listened to any hip-hop. I can only assume she was interested in the philosophical aspects of the book, although there's also a huge section of lyrics along with notes explaining some of the metaphors they use. Here's a quick hint: any noun in a Wu-Tang song probably refers to guns, drugs, or "pussy."