Post-Thanksgiving Hangover

Post Thanksgiving trip to NYC breakdown:

• Drunken shenanigans
• Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Bar hopping...with my Moms
• Bad news - no - the WORST news
• No sleep
• Friendly arguments
• Family
• Friends
• Tantrums

Let's start with the trip.  Mom and I had to get up at 4am to be at the airport by 6 to make our 7am flight.  The flight was short - which is good - but I felt like a zombie the whole time.  That is, until I got some food and booze in me.
Thanksgiving was a total riot!  I loved it!  I had so much fun with the New York crew and I would love to do it again!  One of the (many) highlights was the photo booth my step-sister did!  I wish I had posed with her and my Mom and my aunt and uncle but it was really hectic and I'm surprised everyone made it up there for a photo in the first place!
As the night wore on, I got into what I thought was a friendly argument with one of the cousins about movie directors.  He took it seriously.  I took it drunkenly.  And I liked it because he was SO upset.  The argument started rooted in the truth: I'm not a Von Trier or Aronofsky fan and my love for the industry came from short form music video and experimental videos.  One of the (many) music video directors I rattled off happened to be McG, which brought up the topic of the Charlie's Angles movie franchise.  How on Earth could I use this to my advantage?  Of course!  Say that McG can get better performances from his actors than, say, another least favorite director of mine: Quentin Tarantino.  So he's not my fave director.  SUE ME.
ANYWAYS - the argument got so heated, even though it was obviously (or so I thought) a joke that we had to call it a night.  At 2am-ish.
No sleep night number 1.
Friday was fun.  No hangover, more leftovers than you could shake a stick at and plans for Breaking Dawn Part 1.  I almost said I didn't want to do it because we'd be bar hopping with some of the kids from the night before but after an attempt at a disco nap, I decided "What the hell.  Why not".  After the movie, we asked the Moms if they wanted to join us - to which they said YES.
We headed over to the Stonewall Inn for some gay pride action but all we saw were some hot bodied dancers and people gettin' sleazy in every dark corner of the club.  AWKWARD.  Especially when you're with your MOM.  Next, we went to Fat Cats - which was the hipsteriest of all the hipster places I've been to and you know what?  I liked it!  It was HUGE!  There were ping pong tables, couches, chess tables, beer pong tables (I think) and there was live music!  It was a great place!  The only downside is that they don't serve liquor.  We had to ask for more sake (wtf) in our cocktails to feel the buzz but it didn't matter.  That place was really great!  I highly recommend it!  It was at Fat Cats that I discovered my Moms enjoy PBR and Miller High Life.  WTF?!  Bizarro!!
After that, we hit up this piano bar that started out wack but the drinks were really strong and after a shot of Patron, everything was pretty cool.
After last call (which is 3:30am in New York), we decided to hit up this Cuban diner for some greasy food.  They were playing techno and there was this guy in the booth next to us who started freestyling over the beat with things like "Put your hands up", "Everybody say 'Yeah'" and such and what do the Moms do?  They do it.  They started dancing and moving to what the dude was saying.  It was pretty freaking hilarious.
After that, we cabbed it home and walked in the door at 5am.  Yes, we partied with the Moms until 5am.  Hilarious!  Not so hilarious was the phone call, voicemail and text I got at 7:30am.
No sleep night number 2.
At 7:30am, my co-worker called me to tell me that we had lost a friend and fellow co-worker the night before.  Our buddy Tim, who had been in Memphis to do a photo shoot, had passed away on Friday.  At first, I was still a little drunk and didn't really know how to process it.  As Michael told me the details he knew about what happened, I scooped up my little niece (who happened to be awake and wanted to know what I was doing in the studio) and started crying.  After a tearful conversation, I crawled back into bed with my other niece ans started crying some more.  She kept asking me what was wrong and I couldn't really bring myself to tell her - even though she's old enough to know.  Needless to say I didn't sleep after that and I was a zombie all day.  To keep my mind off of things, I went with the family to the High Line - which was beautiful but I was in such a daze that I didn't stop to take too many photos.  My aunt called and we talked a little but I didn't tell her about Tim because I didn't want to get upset.  Then we went to our favourite Puerto Rican restaurant: La Taza de Oro.  We also made a quick trip over to the Chelsea Market - which was awesome!  I had only ever seen it on TV so it was nice to see in person.  After that, we came home and packed for the two day road trip back.

It was a whirlwind of a trip!  It was a great time, as always, I just hate what happened to Tim.  I mean, what the fuck...I'll post more on that later.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday and please be sure to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.  You never know what may happen

Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.

Seaside Heights - My experience at the Jersey Shore

When you think of the Jersey Shore, I'm sure you automatically think of the MTV crew: Snooki, JWOWW, etc...Well, I was there, at Seaside Heights yesterday and let me tell you the Jersey Shore is actually quite pleasant! For people like me that live in a land-locked city like Atlanta, the Jersey Shore is unlike anything I've ever seen before! I kept thinking how it would be in ATL if we had a boardwalk with boardwalk food and games all within our reach. Would ATLiens be too cool for that?
I've been to a few boardwalks but this one is something else. I mean, I did see the quintessential Jersey pouf on one or two young ladies but everyone was quite...normal. I'm not trying to say that I was expecting clones of the Jersey Shore cast but a tiny piece of me was hoping to see a few - which I did but they didn't really stick out like the people on the show - which could be a good thing. The store where I got my hoodie (the epic sparkling unicorn) was filled with nice people working there. The lady at the register and the airbrush artist actually engaged with us and made jokes and were really sweet. I don't know if I'd find the same kind of attitude at Coney Island. BUT Coney Island is considerably smaller than Seaside Heights, so I would imagine people wouldn't really hang around for too long since you can pretty much do everything within a few hours.


Seaside Heights is sort of the same, though. The boardwalk is like an endless loop of games, food, rides, bars and shops. You really don't have to go too far on the boardwalk to do everything but the people watching is insane! There were so many different kinds of people just walking around and enjoying the shore that it was actually pretty great. But that still got me thinking: what if Atlanta had a shoreline with a boardwalk? What would it be like? I'm sure there would be a Karma-type club (which was packed on a Wednesday night!), there would probably be a Bamboo-type club but would there be an MJQ-type place just off the boardwalk? Would it be like East Atlanta by the shore? Would it be like Buckhead reborn? Who knows! The possibilities are endless. I guess you could say that maybe Underground was kind of supposed to be something like that but that just makes me think that a Boardwalk situation wouldn't really do well in Atlanta - unless maybe the Real housewives did stuff there? Maybe?? Something tells me that wouldn't really make a difference. But I'm sure that if I lived by a boardwalk, the novelty would wear off pretty quickly. Unless, maybe, a hit TV show made it popular...
They LOVE the Jersey Shore cast and what the show has done for Seaside Heights. I'm sure tourism has really gone up since the show started and you know what? I'm happy to contribute.
Viva la Jersey Shore!
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.