everything's comin up lauriebot!

the past few weekends have been amazing thanks to a handful of fortuitous occurrences...

a couple saturdays ago, i was lazing it up on the couch, but at the last minute decided to trek it up to UWS for my former coworker, shannon's housewarming. on my way to the far regions of the upper west side, i unexpectedly ran into foxy nightlife photog, nikola of gawker.com fame on the subway. giggles and accents.

finally made it to shannon's and her apartment is soo cute, painted cheery colors, huge bathroom, lots of excellent photos/art on the walls (most notably a cutiepie piccie of sir bob dylan from the late 60s.. god, he was such a fox). spent much of the evening schmoozing with benderites, delicious breadsticks and douchebags who are "into metal". saw a very old man with a black mock turtleneck, slate blue dinner jacket/suit accessorizing with a 14k gold chain round his neck. he reminded me of someone blanche might date on the golden girls. the festivities were interrupted by the most adorable text from someone rockin' so when i had exhausted my quota of fun at the party, i began making the long trip back to my hood. stopped off at the late-night hippie organic market (partially to get outta the cold and partially to purchase a snack) and then headed to union pool to meet up with some cool kids. dansing and gin and giggles and tom tom club.

longest late-night ride on the stupid L-train of my life. apparently, at 4:00am, the train lady decided that she would switch the L to express to broadway junction. ... wtf, mate?! that is so far away. finally crawled into bed round 5am and slept heavily and comfortably.

in more recent news...

interview city
i totally got the italian job!!! i start today, so of course, i'm utterly stoked. making good money, in an excellent neighborhood. the people i work with seem to be pretty cool and surprisingly un-uptight. super-hot working hours. oh man... i can't wait to work again!


high fives were in order
thanks to my supremely elevated mood, i went out to celebrate for about 60% of the weekend! first stop was thursday night, just a few short hours after being informed of my newly employed status. duck duck with sean and aaron and OMG, we had the best time! we were one of the first few people to take up residence at the metal encased bar (due to the earlieness of the hour) and made friends with dave, the cheeriest bartender i've ever met! he remembered my name, which was pretty flattering and we all became bff. shots and delicious top shelf booze and sporadic high fives. met a couple o' sound engineers who work for blue man group (!). they were friendly enough, but just a little too mocking of my overusage of the phrase, "to the max". came home round 1ish, warm and happy.


was surprisingly productive on saturday afternoon. finally mustered up the courage to brave the shopping districts ISO xmas presents for my loved ones. got super fun things for ma famille. discovered this vintage/antique store that has amazing cameras (some working, some just awesome-looking) that are completely afordable. i'm totally buying one/some. unexpectedly ran into tiya on my way to the robot store on bedford. one of my favorite things about living in a city is those few chance encounters when you run into people you know outside of the area where you usually see them. that's one of the things that makes dc fun also, the high probability of running into your friends on the street. talked robots for a while and then headed for some delicious thai at sea. i love spontaneous girldates.

saturday night was also completely boss. tiya and i decided to go out for a celebratory drink, girlie style. union pool is surprisingly reminiscent of black cat, black cat. rolled up round 11:30ish and were taken aback by the sheer number of couples but were sated in the fact that at least those couples were well-dressed. scored a booth with prime people-watching possibilities. exchanged funny faces with the bouncer/helper; reminded me of how steviepants and i met back during out fourth year o' uni. met a smiley, bearded (yes, another one) fellow. an old guy attempted to hit on tiya. a very pretty afro-ed girl in a twirly skirt and backless shirt attempted to get a danse party started. in the midst of our bartime giggles, a slightly familiar looking boy and his crew sat in the booth next to us. took me a few minutes and then i leaned over to tiya and exclaimed, i think i went to high school with that kid! turns out, i was right. 'twas none other than cool kid, paul paoletti who i thought was such a stud when i was a sophomore! one of the girls in his crew also went to my high school and she came over and was like "oh man! i heard you lived up here... what a small world!" so there was basically a little nostalgic reminiscing and all was well. after we all grew tired of playing catch up, i hung out with a very cool german kid who "takes the pictures" and spent a good hour and a half talking about photography and europe and haircuts.

headed home round 3ish, but decided to stop off at duck duck to say hi before i hit the hay. they'd had a private birthday party with a speakeasy theme earlier that night, so dave, his ladyfriend, and the birthday girl were all decked out in flapperware (replete with long strands o' pearls, heavy eye makeup, and finger-waves) and satin-backed vests with undone bowties. they are the friendliest bunch o' peeps i've met in new york during my short time living here! lots of high fives and giggles. a shot of something delicious. ran into the blue man guys again and their very stylish friend with baby bangs and a fashion sense best described as german architecht or gallery curator.

duck duck is by far my favorite drinking hole.