Hang Out Type: Marathon

Evening stroll on the farm.  All pictures from the upstate birthday excursion described below.

  Marathon Hang-When your life planning has resulted in back to back hang outs.  I wrapped up a  marathon hang this past weekend which began at 7PM Friday and officially ended at 7PM Sunday.  I am a fan of the marathon hang because of the endurance required to pull it off is a reminder to yourself that you most certainly are not dead but very much alive.

Friday
7PM - Met two friends for dinner and catching up.  Ate burgers and mac and cheese which was deliciously fucked up.  Ended this portion of the evening with a stretching session, which my buddy Files is adamant about and regularly gets on me about doing in order to prevent jogging injuries.

Mexican pit stop in Poughkeepsie , mole sauce throw down

9:30 PM- The stretching helped with the walk I had to take to meet up with friends to catch the Mehanata Gypsy Bus for the first birthday celebration of the weekend, that of my good friend Amy. Mehanata is a Bulgarian bar located in the Lower East Side.  I had never been there but it has been a standing favorite with a few of my friends here in NYC for a bit.  Mehanata charters a bus where you and 30 of your closest friends will be driven around for an hour, where you can bring your own alcohol and they provide you a DJ eventually ending up at the club to dance the night away. Like all the punks I was with I was largely skeptical of the Gypsy Bus because you know, we are too cool.  What was this bus and what exactly were we going to be doing on it driving around for an hour?  What we do most the time for an hour , we drank our asses off.  Despite the DJ playing Push It twice and some momentary drama I successfully meditated myself out of delving into, the bus kinda fuckng rules.  An additional highlight was experiencing what the club promotes as the Ice Cage. A room full of bottles of vodka, where you drink as many shots as possible in two minutes out of ice sculpted shot glasses. Since my punk lineage consists of a long line of drunks I went into that "cage" determined to do them proud.  My method was steady and focused making it up to five shots fairly quickly and right when I was contemplating the sixth shot the door guy called us out. I felt somewhat grateful even if slightly unaccomplished.  But damn those five shots were good enough to get me through the night!  Me and two of my closest and oldest literally danced for hours straight.  The key to pulling this sort of evening off I believe is prior resting and chillness before joining the party but most importantly a commitment to having fun.  Nights like this are not for when you want to be in your own head and dwell on your petty  petty problems.  Nights like this are for celebrating and remembering life.


Saturday

The crew walking down through the farm to the yurt

4AM Got home, slept, woke up at 7AM to get ready for an upstate trip with three old friends. We had all been hanging out a week earlier and had hatched this hair brain scheme of taking a trip upstate together for our friend Mona's birthday.  We were tired and tipsy when the idea was born so who the fuck knew it would actually happen?! The upstate trip was perfect, combining elements of road trip (gas station snacks),  group hang (meals and group discussions), one-on-one hang (sleepy conversations, drifting off to sleep with the bunk mate), and even solo hanging (short strolls alone around the farm to check out the plant life).  We had deep discussions and reached spiritual planes we did not think possible.  These type of conversations were required, we were in a yurt!  Waking up the next morning hearing everyones subtle breathing  and bodies shifting, I knew what I missed about my previous days of living in communal houses.  The creative energy, the intimate exchanges, the human sounds and tenderness.  I just have to decide if all those things are worth the price of a perpetually sloppy bathroom.  While I often promote the idea of hanging out with those who you are not comfortable with to push your boundaries a little, nothing beats hanging out with folks where old bonds exist.  Our crew matched up perfectly, each individual playing a needed role, synchronizing into a seamless weekend of hanging hard.  Adding to the pleasantness was the owner of the property who was very kind, had beautiful large black dogs and I am pretty sure was stoned.  My favorite moment with our host was when it was pointed out to him that the water cooler in the kitchen was leaking.  He briefly looked at it, just huffed, said "I can't deal" and walked out.  I thought to myself,  "I am with you dude, me neither" and am considering changing my motto for this year from "The year of living dangerously" to "I can't deal".

Our home for the night

Sunday
5ishPM Return from trip and headed over to the house of the dude I bought my bike from to trouble shoot some problems on the new bike and for some unexpected hanging out.  He gave me a glass of water in an old mason jar so I knew we were
compatriots and I kicked it with him and his wife for a couple of hours talking about old hard core fests, how we hate yuppies, adjusting to New York and living our dreams. I think the three of us were pretending we were back to living in some small punk town were we sat outside and fixed bikes all day. White Bike is now riding like a dream!

End Scene.

I wish I lived in a lil place like this

Marathon hanging had reached it's peak by Monday eve where I had committed myself to yet another hang out and my fraying began to show.  My poor companions noticed and asked me if I was sad but I was not.  We had ended up trying to get food in the neighborhood surrounding NYU, which is an area that fills my soul with such darkness that I wish the entire human race would expire.  Starting specifically in Washington Square Park and radiating out in concentric circles to eliminate all douchery from the planet.  Therefore, Rule #2 of hanging out -know when to call it quits, before you desire a complete blood bath of all humanity.

More adventures to come because I am often blessed with complete solitude and then conversely blessed with an endless amount of socializing.  I am not sure if I can handle it but I will dammit-because I am the Queen of Hanging Out!  This weekend, camping in the Everglades for a not wedding.