And we did not catch the whale

Wow. What a crazy crazy 24 hours. Well. More like 28, or something. But still, in close to a day, I have done a ton of stuff. Let's start with friday night.
I worked during the day, then hung out, and waited for Maura and Ross to go out for the early St. Patricks. WE finally got collected and left at about 11 30, and went to Maggie Mae's to listen to Irish Rebel Music (that's what the flier said). There weren't as many people as I had thought would be there, but there was still a good sized crowd. We got drinks, found seats, and settled in. The band didn't start playing till 12 30, which was a little lame, but they were pretty awesome. It was good and Irish and rebellious. Lot's of rollicking songs with a base message of "fuck you, England, get out". I hadn't heard any of the songs before, but I could understand most of the lyrics, and I'm finding that I really like mandolins. They seem to be a staple in Irish music.
Meanwhile, Maura has some guy latched on to her. She really is very bad at saying no, which I understand. She's cute, guys talk to her, she is nice and talks back, and then they try to make out with her, and by that point she's pretty drunk and so goes along with it. This happens fairly regularly. I figure that it's stupid, but if she really wanted to change it, she would. I worried about her the first couple times, but now I just make sure she doesn't go home with them. That's about all I'm responsible for, I figure. And really, I'm not even responsible for that, but you know.
During the course of all this music and such, I drink. I started out with a small bottle of cider, but the next one the bartender gave me was huge. Like, slightly bigger than a pint, I think. I never checked, and now I'm wishing I had. I drank nearly three of those. I was Drunk. Possibly, more drunk than I have ever been before. I felt pretty lousy then, mostly from the alcohol, but also the cigarette smoke. Feh. We all stumbled home somewhere around 3, and I threw up. I had the presence of mind to wait till I was home, but still. No fun. Also, I got online. And talked to people. Oh boy. It wasn't that bad, though, as I mostly just complained about being drunk, and about how I couldn't see straight. Which, by the way, whoa. I have never had blurred vision before. I took a shower around 4 30, and managed to fall asleep.
I woke up around 11, and felt terrible. I have never been truly hung over before. I mean, I have, but not that badly, and not the morning after. Oog. Awful. around 12 30, Maura, Ross, Deuce and I went out to breakfast. The food was good, but the service was slow as hell. I was dying what with the feeling terrible and the being hungry. In general, it was a great time. A lot of the conversation revolved around people I didn't know, but it was all stories that didn't require me to know the people involved. I felt like I had friends. Like- the good/casual group type of friends. I really like that feeling. I got my staple of a spinach and feta omelette. It was okay. Moreover, it was fantastically welcome food.
After breakfast we got on the train to go see the parade. Stupid idea. It was about 2 when we got on the train, the parade was going to be over at 4, and we were getting off where the parade began. We vaguely tried to watch it for a little while, and almost joined it at one point (that would have been interesting. I'm not sure how we would have escaped. Also, then we wouldn't get to see it. Fortunately we ended up ducking back out again and crossing the street).
We gave up on that idea and went to find a bar, though Deuce had to pee, and the first convenient place for that was the Waldorf Astoria. Which we were escorted out of. Well. I don't think we were, but everyone else did, and it's more exciting that way, so that's how I'll tell it. So we go in, and it's this big grand lobby, and the bathrooms are really nice. They were little individual rooms, with a sink included (and an outlet. I had a brief fantasy of being able to live by sneaking in there). And then we wandered through the hotel. There were all sorts of shops there, which was weird. Or maybe not actual stores, but display windows for various men's clothing places, and St. Johns, and Tiffanies and such. There was a discrete hallway with a sign that said 'Safe Deposit Boxes'. We took the elevator to the ballroom and checked that out a little. It looked like they were preparing for some event. Maura and Deuce checked out the bathroom on that floor and scored some fancy Waldorf-Astoria hand towels. The elevator we had come up in only went up to the third floor, so we went back down, found another elevator that went up to 27. There was nothing interesting there. But then I found the door to the stairway, and went up a couple flights, until we heard someone else on the stairs. Maura dived for the door, and we tumbled out onto the 29th floor, a few yards away from a guy in a suit. And an earpiece thing. I smile at him, we walk the other way, around the corner. At this point, we're really sure that we're not supposed to be there, so we find and elevator. Earpiece Guy comes and waits for it with us, and then rides down as well. We wound up down in a smaller side lobby, and we left quickly. Outside were lots of Escalades and other guys with earpieces. So- anybody know? Who was staying on the 29th floor the other day?
Maura was set on checking out some bars downtown, so we walked down to Grand Central. There was a group there taking wedding pictures on the stairs inside. Maura took pictures of them as well.
The bar we ended up at was lame. I don't know, at that point I was still pretty turned off of drinking, and the music was really loud, and it was nearly all from my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and we had to stand. Whatever. Oh! But the bouncer was the nicest guy ever. He made nice little small talk, little jokes, and was just generally the nicest bouncer I have ever encountered. I only stuck around for half an hour, and then left to go to the concert.
The CONCERT. The POGUES. Holy shit amazing. I am going to write a separate entry about that. But I got there at around 5 45, and the doors didn't open till 6 45. I was literally 10th in line. It was exciting. And very cold. Standing for an hour in the cold sucked. But was completely worth it. Oh man.
After the concert, I went down to Bleeker where everyone was. I got a drink, I talked to people, I tried not to talk about the concert too much because Ross had really wanted to go, but couldn't afford to. He's looking for work right now, and it's been a pretty depressing search. He said that I can tell him about it when he has work, but until then it will bum him out too much. About the time the Emily left to go home (and I should have gone with her, maybe) a couple of Maura's friends showed up, two guys. And one of them, Aki, latched onto me. The warning sign was when Emily said that I was the best roommate ever, and he told me I was the cutest. Good grief. He asked me out, and I said sure. Stupid stupid stupid. He's a nice guy, but I'm pretty sure we have very little in common (not that that's necessary, but I think it's more the forced conversation type of nothing in common, rather than the discussion filled type), and I wasn't that attracted to him. Oh well.
We left that bar and went to yet another, on 1st and 1st. Aki was sort of hanging on me the whole way there (damn me for forgetting a scarf, and therefore shivering! Damn it) which I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but didn't really know how to nicely tell him to lay off. I probably could have, but I didn't really want to put in the effort to. At the bar he kept trying to get me to dance, which I was having none of. First off, I'm not a good dancer. I don't dance socially very well, I have a lame sense of rhythm, and am not totally comfortable. Secondly, I didn't really want to dance with him, and thirdly, dancing there seemed to mostly consist of lightly bouncing back and forth. Lame. Not dancing. Whatever. I had another drink, hung out by the bar mostly, gave honest but short answers to everything he was asking (mostly about why I didn't dance, and was I shy), and then left around 2am by myself. I pulled the rather rude move of leaving without telling anyone but Maura. But I didn't want him to escort me home. I was tired, a little tipsy, slightly annoyed, and word out socially. And my feet hurt. My steel toed boots are the only snowproof shoes I have, and while they are pretty comfortable, I had been walking or standing in them for most of the last 14 hours.
Two things about the subway ride home. One was a guy who I was actually sort of interested in, and there was some eye contact, and some moments where I caught him watching me. I'm keeping my eye out for a missed connection on craigslist. Because I am a big dork like that. The other thing was- while I was waiting for the first train, there was a group of guys that came down, fairly drunk. One of them threw up on the platform, and then sat there slumped against the seats, staring at the puddle at his feet. Seriously, why could he not have thrown up on the tracks? Then people don't have to walk by it. Whatever. I got on the train, switched over to the next one at 5th Avenue. Apparently, they did too, and now one of the more sober ones was walking with vomiting dude, holding him up a little. The guy I was eyeing and I exchanged glances. He got off a stop before me though. But then- my stop was apparently vomit guys stop as well! By now there were two guys holding him up. It was very funny and episodic.
So to sum up my day- Horrifically drunk, hungover, failed parade watching, got kicked out of the Waldorf-Astoria, saw the best concert ever ever ever, got asked out, and saw the end of someone elses evening in mini-slices. Next time, I'll write about the concert. And my crazy roommate, and the Spaniard on our couch.