After sitting at home and watching most of the Stones concert on HBO (mostly out so we could work on our "Mick" impression), Grant and I decided we should try to go out and see what's going on. We ended up meeting up with Caitlin, a friend of mine from college, and her new boyfriend - whose name I forget so I'll just call him what we called him all night behind his back: "David LEATHERMAN!" Check out those duds. All night as she introduced him, she kept qualifying his outfit by saying "We just came from the Stones concert." Yeah, like that's a excuse. ˆ caitlin brown ˆ

While grabbing a drink a Luna lounge, we also randomly ran into fellow Syracusian (and fellow web-diarist), Dennis Crowley. (It was his web page, all the way back in '96, that inspired me to start doing this.) ˆ dens ˆ

Grant does yet another impression of Crazy Pomodoro Guy. ˆ grant ˆ pomodoro jack ˆ

For those of you who don't live here, Crazy Pomodoro Guy is our loving nickname for a guy named Jack. He stands right outside our office on the corner of Broadway and Spring all day holding a sign that advertises Pomodoro Pizza. He fucking rules. ˆ grant ˆ pomodoro jack ˆ best ˆ street ˆ

Me and Dens. Yo, I challenge you to find a photo that has more C-List, low-wattage, Internet celebs than this one. ˆ dens ˆ me ˆ coldlamp ˆ

Saturday night Grant and I stayed in watching TV at my house until like 1am (losers) and then finally got our asses in gear to go meet Seth (who had just come down from Boston) and a bunch of other people at Antarctica. (L to R: Seth, Big Daddy, Grant [looking tres Billyburg in his gay-ass, cocked, camo hat] and me). ˆ colin ˆ grant ˆ me ˆ seth miller ˆ

Check this out: Fatty found his old drivers license back from his hair metal days. He played lead axe (that's guitar) for the infamous band "Nasty Magic." (And no I'm not kidding. Do you really think I could've made that name up?) ˆ fatty ˆ best ˆ metal ˆ nasty magic ˆ

After Antarctica, Grant and I walked over to Piano's where we ran into Genie and her friend Alison (I think). ˆ genie lee ˆ coldlamp ˆ mackin ˆ

While Grant and Liz threw down some gangsigns (er, sort of. Look at their hands. Whose gang are you in? Stephen Hawking's?) ˆ grant ˆ gang signs ˆ

Genie and her friend again. ˆ genie lee ˆ

Superbowl Sunday! Woooooo! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! Wait, um who's playing again? A bunch of us went out to Seven Layer's house in East Bumblefuck, Brooklyn (that's like 4 blocks from the Ditmas Ave stop off the NR train). ˆ brooklyn ˆ subway platform ˆ

Mostly, it was an excuse to eat lots of food. I don't think we even made it halfway through the game. We ended up watching the "To Live and Date in New York: Part II" (let's hear it for the MetroChannel, aw yeah) and intermittenly flipping back over to the game to watch the commercials. ˆ fatty ˆ frank ˆ pizza ˆ

So check this - I'm at Piano's on Monday night. It's like 3am. I walk past this super cute girl on the dancefloor while looking for one of my friends. Two minutes later, as I'm trying to squeeze back through the crowd , the girl on the left in the pic above (later I find out her name is Lauren) shoves her friend (the cute girl, whose name I later find out is Tara) into me. Tara, who's now leaning back on my chest, turns around and looks at me and says "hi." Lauren starts cracking up. So I say to Lauren:

"So is that your smooth way of introducing us?"
Lauren: "No, it's my not-so-smooth way of getting you two to MAKEOUT!!" Me: "Holy shit, huh?"
Lauren: "Here's the deal: I'm a big lesbian and this is my roommate. I kissed her and she's the worst kisser ever. She says it's because she was drunk, but I don't believe her and I refuse to kiss her again. So now you have to kiss her and tell me if she's a bad kisser."
Me (in disbelief, pointing to Tara): "You want me to kiss, um, her?"
Lauren: "Yes."
Me: (looks at Tara).
Tara: (Smiles, nods and points to her mouth).

So, I smooched her. Add it to the list of "Top Ten Best Random Things Ever to Happen To Me in NYC." ˆ lauren flax ˆ first time i met ˆ tongue ˆ

Later on that evening, I find out Tara (pictured above looking not nearly as cute as when I kissed her) knows my friend Gibby. ˆ gibby ˆ tara ˆ best ˆ first time i met ˆ the bird ˆ

As Lauren and Tara were leaving, I was like "Wait, I have to get a picture of you!" (Ok, it was only an excuse to smooch her again, but hey, at least I can admit that). So later on in the night, Gibby gave me Lauren's email address, I sent the above three pics to Lauren and said "I don't know if you remember this, but I made out with your roommate." and it led to Tara and I dating. ˆ tara ˆ first time i met ˆ kiss ˆ

On Wednesday, Grant, Dave and I went to see Viola's band, Stasis (pronounced "Schtay-schis"), play at Don Hill's. Here's the G-man with the lovely Viola (pronouced "Vee-oh-la" not "Walla.") ˆ grant ˆ viola haqi ˆ

Friday, later on the week, Tara and I headed out to... ˆ me ˆ tara ˆ kiss ˆ

...bad-ass photographer Ellen Stagg's birthday party. Check out the birthday girl belting out a karaoke jam. And so yeah, that was pretty much my January. Yay. ˆ ellen stagg ˆ karaoke ˆ