My Labor Day Weekend started off very interestingly. I was not part of the masses that had a half day on Friday and squeezed through the tunnels with 8.4 million other people to escape the city. I actually went home after work and watched crime shows for 6 hours straight. (Hey, I was hungover ok? Besides, I love crime shows. So bite me).
Saturday was my holiday weekend kick off. I had polished off a bottle of champagne by 4PM. Miss Brit emailed me an invite to a party that I needed to RSVP to. It was an after party for the Electric Zoo festival that was going on all weekend. I clicked on the link to RSVP and received a reply that said they would email me with the secret location of the party. In all my years of living in this city I have never been to a rave, a warehouse party, or a secret party. Now I can say I’ve done all 3. We received the address and headed to the warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn at around midnight. I have never seen anything like this party. There were DJ’s, art installations, performers, and people dressed for the Asian theme of Forbidden Temple (think Geisha’s, silk robes, pandas, and…chopsticks?). The warehouse was packed with hundreds of people decked out as if it were Halloween. (And some people decided to just pull out any old costume that was laying around…Sharks, Bacon, Bunnies…anything goes!) If you wondered where all the freaks and misfits of NYC were this weekend, well, I have a pretty good guess. The party just blew my mind. It was like an alternate universe I was just walking through observing. Don’t mind me.
So here we are all smiles before we knew what we were getting ourselves into:
While walking through the party we stumbled upon the booth for Rape-O The Clown. I mean…how do you not laugh? You could pay him $1.25 to insult you. I do a good enough job of smashing my own ego. I passed.
I mentioned all of the characters in costume. I ran into the Bacon late in the evening. I was quite hungry by then…Nom Nom Nom
Later we discovered the flower petal garden. It was a space covered in rose petals that were so fragrant and people were just sitting in it, talking, relaxing, or making out if you’re the couple behind me. I decided to meditate… with some PBR.
I finally surrendered at 5AM. I could not stand up for another minute. I crawled to a taxi and fell asleep at 5:30 AM… the second I walked into the apartment.
The following morning, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do less than waking up 6 hours after I had fallen asleep to get dresses and attend an all day music festival. But I had already paid for my ticket and had to pick up each leg that I couldn’t feel and forced them out of bed. I bought a Red Bull from across the street and that was about as ready as I was gonna be.
It was a gorgeous sunny day so at least that justified getting out of bed. Or made the day much easier to get through. There were many more firsts for me throughout the day. My first time on Randall’s Island. My first time at an Electro music festival. I’ve never understood electro or house music which always made me feel like one of those people who couldn’t see the hidden image in a Magic Eye poster (which I also can’t do). I desperately wanted to hear what everyone else was hearing. Like the kid that just couldn’t understand long division and had to stay after class until he got it, I felt like I was being exposed to electro (for 8 straight hours) until I “got it.” I’m not sure if I’m going to start following DJ’s to their shows around the world but I had a blast dancing from afternoon into the night.
By 9:30PM my legs just couldn’t take it anymore. White flag. I needed to go home. My body was covered in dirt from people dancing in the field, kicking up the dirt that blew through the air. I showered and went straight to sleep.
Monday morning, Labor Day, I had to force myself out of bed again. It was another gorgeous day and I needed to pack my bag, rush to the train, and get to the beach. I made the train with 3 minutes to spare. Romy picked me up from the station (this made me miss my mama), got take out, and headed to the beach. The day could not have been more perfect. We had a group of about 20 friends, hanging out, drinking, and enojying the weather.
After the beach, we showered up and headed to the Tiki Bar. I wanted my last pina colada of the summer but already the temps were dropping at night and I could only manage one before I froze to death. We decided to go for a sushi dinner with some red wine to warm up. We were so tired and full from dinner that we couldn’t handle any more activity after that. We called it a night.
Today I got in some more beach time before I had to catch the train home. I could not have asked for a more perfect end to the summer.
(Now let’s fast forward to February when my brother returns!)
