A Night on the Town

It's very hard to get into anywhere when you're under 21 in New York.

I found this out yesterday night. I texted Rachel, saying that it was our first Friday night in New York and we should probably do something since we're young and fabulous. Or something along those lines. Anyway, she agreed (once she woke up from the very popular College Afternoon Nap) and we chose to meet on 3rd Avenue and 8th Street. This was a mistake. Let me tell you a little something about New York - if you travel on the same street for a while, at certain points it will be called something else. This is the case with 8th Street and maybe even 3rd Avenue (I don't know, I don't remember things) at the exact place where we wanted to meet. So for a few extra minutes, Rachel was left in the cold while I walked back and forth trying to figure out where my GPS was telling me to go.

But eventually I found her. We were very excited about the grand adventure we were about to undertake and quickly looked up a jazz club that my roommate had suggested while huddling inside a restaurant pretending to look at drinks. It turned out that the jazz club was on the west side of Manhattan. Since subways are hard to figure out, we decided to walk there.

It was a very enlightening trip. Our conversation resembled our first one:

Rachel: "You just made a Hercules reference! I'm so glad I met you! I love Hercules!"

Alison: "You love Hercules?!"

Rachel: "Yeah, I love Disney Movies!"

Alison: "IUCHXIOAB:WOIAUOWIHK)(^^&E%$@!!!!"

(In case you were wondering, that's the word for pure excitement.)

Also, in case anyone was wondering, Rachel was super impressed by my plan to be all the female Disney characters in order of appearance. I am finally getting the admiration that I deserve for my commitment to Classic Disney. Thank you Rachel.

In any case, although our conversation was super exciting (and involved many more topics than just Disney movies, I promise) it was super duper cold and evil outside and it was a long, long walk. By the time we hit the Hudson River, we knew we'd overshot our destination. Rachel, who was leading our small parade of adventure, felt bad for leading us astray. I assured her that though we were not at our destination, we were much closer than we would have been if I was leading the troops.

So we doubled back. In the cold. We finally found The Fat Cat and could see the warm interior full of checkers and jazz. We were so excited - our first real club.

Bouncer: "We need to see some identification confirming that you're over 21."

Alison: "Ah... we're... not..."

Bouncer: *shakes head with a disgusted look on his face*

Back into the blustery (VERY blustery) cold we went, still optimistic about the possibilities the night held. We stopped for soda/water at a tiny restaurant (called Two Boots because it was a mixture of Italian and Louisiana style food. Get it? Cause both places are shaped like boots?) and decided we were in heaven as long as this place had heat and seats. But then, our pitiful adventurous souls caused us to look up under 21 clubs on our iPhones, and like fools we decided to brave the night to find a new venue.

I think it was even colder then.

To make a long story short, we stomped all the way across town -- again -- and finally found a bar/club called "Say Wha?" that Allen Ginsberg had apparently frequented. We were super excited, got our seats... and then were told that if we were not over 21 alcohol drinkers we had to pay twenty dollars if we wanted to stay there and listen to Jamaican renditions of Usher's OMG. This was much more than the cover charge of Fat Cat ($3) and the cover charge told to us on the Say Wha? website ($10). We decided it was time to go.

We ended the night on my bed, watching the Office on television while my roommate slept beneath us. Though our night of grown up partying never really got underway, I would still say that last night was a success. I got to walk around the West Village for the first time, go to a club where Allen Ginsberg apparently listened to crappy Jamaican music (really, I sort of doubt that), and I found another person who loves Disney movies as much as I do. What else can one ask for in a night out? It was well worth the Hypothermia. Probably.