On Friday afternoon Posh Tony called me and told me that he and Adam were shooting a new video for Antony's band for a song called Alice. When I asked what the video was about, he told me that they were going around to different places, putting the song on a boombox and having random strangers dance to it. I told them to pack up their camera and come to my work and that I'd get a bunch of my co-workers to dance for them. ˆ adam n ˆ posh tony ˆ meetup ˆ

Hahaha. Mission Accomplished! ˆ adam n ˆ posh tony ˆ meetup ˆ

Later Friday night, I went to Hanger Bar to celebrate... ˆ crowd ˆ hanger bar ˆ

...SARAH'S BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, wonderful! Here's the birthday girl showing off the TWO DRINK HAT that someone got her as a gift. Classy! ˆ sarah ˆ hat ˆ

And how about these birthday gems from good old brother Lawrence: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism and Why Marry Jewish?. Subtle, Lawrence. Very subtle. ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ book ˆ gift ˆ

WAH-WAH! ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ book ˆ gift ˆ thumbs down ˆ

Ellen was there with Piper (who looks like she's trying to nurse in this photo! Ew!) ˆ ellen ˆ peter g ˆ piper ˆ

Hahaha. Piper is the tiniest dog with the biggest tongue you've EVER seen. Seriously, her tongue is so big that when she has her mouth closed her tongue sticks out because it's too big to fit in her mouth! Here are a bunch of pictures of Leigh trying to get a funny picture of Piper's tongue out without actually getting licked by it. ˆ leigh ˆ piper ˆ balloons ˆ tongue ˆ

Grazing her top lip! ˆ leigh ˆ piper ˆ tongue ˆ

Zooming in on the mouth! ˆ leigh ˆ piper ˆ best ˆ lick ˆ tongue ˆ

NOSE BATH! Hahaha. ˆ leigh ˆ piper ˆ best ˆ lick ˆ tongue ˆ

Plaid is the new black. ˆ balloons ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Gurj and her fingercuff mustache! ˆ jeet ˆ moustache ˆ

Hahah. Mandy tries to help liberate Meredith and Gurj from their shackles! (PS - I love the shitty look the girl in the background is giving them. Hahahah). ˆ jeet ˆ mandy ˆ meredith ˆ fingercuffs ˆ

Nina and Meredith! ˆ meredith ˆ nina ˆ

Ellen trying out the drink hat. ˆ ellen ˆ piper ˆ hanger bar ˆ hat ˆ

This fucking guy! ˆ me ˆ posh tony ˆ get a load of this guy ˆ

Brandon and Sarah (and Karen making faces at Brandon). ˆ brandon ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ kiss ˆ

But she's got nothing but love in her heart for the Poshest of Tonies. ˆ karen ˆ posh tony ˆ kiss ˆ

Hahaha. Mandy was really on a roll this night. ˆ mandy ˆ me ˆ flower ˆ

Hahaha. Something tells me that we were all probably drinking alcohol. ˆ jeet ˆ lauren ashley ˆ quinn ˆ vince ˆ

Just a wild guess. ˆ jeet ˆ lauren ashley ˆ quinn ˆ flower ˆ

You know that things are getting a little out of hand when Jenny Penny is your most sober-looking friend. ˆ jenny penny ˆ sarah ˆ balloons ˆ dj ˆ

Happy Birthday, Sarah! We love you! ˆ sarah ˆ balloons ˆ birthday ˆ dj ˆ

The next morning we got up (a little too early for Meredith's liking by the look of it) and went to La Palapa for Mexican brunch. Ole! ˆ meredith ˆ brunch ˆ grumpy ˆ

Afterwards, we went around the corner to check out Matt's brand new apartment! Look who's a home-owner! All growsed up and all growsed up! ˆ jeet ˆ matt ˆ excited ˆ

Karen immediately headed over the floor-to-ceiling windows and flashed her hoo-hah to onlookers below. ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ

Awwww, how cute is this photo? They're spelling M-A-T-T! Congrats on your new apartment, buddy! We're so excited for you! ˆ ellen ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ quinn ˆ best ˆ

Karen just can't keep her vajine to herself. Hahaha. ˆ karen ˆ door ˆ sign ˆ

On Sunday afternoon, Meredith borrowed my cam and used it to document her latest craft project: SHRINKY DINKS! Before... ˆ crafts ˆ

...After! ˆ crafts ˆ

Put some hardware on them and you've got yourself a pair of tiny sneaker earrings! ˆ crafts ˆ

Fast forward a couple of weeks and it's Saturday night and I'm back at Hanger Bar. Hahaha. I love this photo of Karen so much. ˆ karen ˆ dj ˆ hanger bar ˆ yell ˆ

By the time I got there with Pauly, it was really, really late and hardly anyone was there anymore. Plus, this one was real drunk. ˆ sarah ˆ drunk ˆ

So Pauly and I walked her out, made sure she got in a cab safely... ˆ sarah ˆ taxi ˆ

...and then treated ourselves to a 3am falafel for being such responsible friends. ˆ pauly ˆ falafel ˆ food ˆ

Significant ground-spatter is the hallmark of a perfect falafel. Hahaha. ˆ falafel ˆ gross ˆ sidewalk ˆ

Fwiends. ˆ me ˆ pauly ˆ

After we finished making a mess all over the sidewalk, we went back inside and played songs for nobody but ourselves the rest of the night. Good. Times. ˆ karen ˆ dj ˆ hanger bar ˆ laugh ˆ

I had Monday off of work! My buddy Jeff Scott was in town from Colorado to attend the toy convention at the Javits Center and invited us to come up and check it out. ˆ meredith ˆ elevator ˆ

It was an unseasonably warm day out so we decided to walk there! On the way out of Stuy Town, we saw this little guy hanging out underneath the standpipe connection. ˆ squirrel ˆ

Because there was a leaky faucet that he kept drinking out of. So cute. ˆ best ˆ squirrel ˆ

Hahaha. If you're dating me, it's only a matter of time, my dear. Only a matter of time. ˆ meredith ˆ hospital ˆ

The dizzying heights of the Javits Center ceiling. ˆ javits center ˆ

Jacob Javits slappa-your-face! ˆ meredith ˆ javits center ˆ statue ˆ

Twenty minutes later (the Javits Center is HUGE) we'd managed to find Jeff! Jeff started a company that makes a really awesome light-up frisbee called the FlashFlight. (Seriously, if you like to play frisbee, you should check them out).

We met because I bought one and wrote about how awesome it is on this site. Apparently, my write up generated a lot traffic for his site and he emailed me to thank me and told me that he'd invite me out for a drink next time he was in NYC! Now it's a regular thing and we try to get together whenever he's in town. Here's Jeff in front of his company's booth at the Toy Fair. ˆ jeff scott ˆ flashflight ˆ

Jeff hooked us up with Toy Fair badges (with other people's names on them - so we had to pretend that we were TOY BUYERS!!!) and set out with us to explore all the booths! We got to visit the Cranium pavilion! This is pretty much the closest Meredith's ever come to a religious pilgrimage. ˆ meredith ˆ cranium ˆ excited ˆ sign ˆ

Lego Boba Fett! ˆ me ˆ lego ˆ star wars ˆ

This company manufactured all sorts of guns and crossbows that shoot marshmallows. ˆ sign ˆ

Haha. ˆ meredith ˆ sunglasses ˆ

One of the companies there was selling a bunch of arcade-quality video game peripherals for the home market. Here's Jeff getting ready to pop his Dance Dance Revolution cherry! ˆ jeff scott ˆ DDR ˆ

There were a lot of really cool high tech toys and puzzles, but I think my favorite booth belonged to some toy company that specialized in making miniatures for people that are into building models. They had this HUGE miniature scene that will filled with hundreds of people doing all sorts of things. Like welding! ˆ miniature ˆ

Diving off of rock walls! ˆ dive ˆ miniature ˆ

And even sunbathing in the NUDE! Scandalous! (PS - Sorry they're so out of focus, it was really low light and I couldn't use a flash this close). ˆ miniature ˆ

On Tuesday night I met up with Brandon, who I hadn't seen in MONTHS, despite the fact that he now lives just a couple of blocks away from me! ˆ brandon ˆ

Wednesday was just a normal day at work - but around noon, we noticed that something strange was going on in one of the offices across from our building. ˆ meetup ˆ window ˆ

Closer examination revealed that the party responsible for all the commotion... ˆ chimpanzee ˆ chimpanzee ˆ meetup ˆ window ˆ

...was a chimpanzee! Look how cute! The offices belonged to a photo studio and they were apparently shooting the chimp for some ad campaign. ˆ chimpanzee ˆ chimpanzee ˆ meetup ˆ window ˆ

Later that night I got a call from Jeff Scott. The toy fair had ended and he and a bunch of friends were headed over to the big field in Central Park with a big box filled with light-up FlashFlight frisbees! ˆ central park ˆ flashflight ˆ frisbee ˆ

LOOK HOW MANY WE HAS! ˆ central park ˆ flashflight ˆ frisbee ˆ

Incoming. ˆ flashflight ˆ frisbee ˆ

All told, like 15 people ended up coming. It was the most fun I've had in a while (despite how much it hurts to catch frisbees with freezing cold hands). ˆ central park ˆ flashflight ˆ frisbee ˆ

Afterwards, I rode my bike all the way back downtown in the freezing cold and met up with Lisa and Pauly at Niagra. We had a couple of drinks and then decided to hit Odessa for some late night grub. ˆ lisa ˆ pauly ˆ diner ˆ food ˆ odessa ˆ

Lisa went the breakfast route. ˆ lisa ˆ diner ˆ food ˆ odessa ˆ

And Pauly went the, uh, heartburn route. Chili fries, Pauly? Really? ˆ pauly ˆ food ˆ odessa ˆ

On Friday night, I went out with a whole bunch of my Meetup co-workers. Christina left Meetup earlier in the week and still came out to party with everyone - so we decided to turn it up....TO ELEVEN! ˆ christina k ˆ meetup ˆ

Here's Mark Hannah pounding a beer because.... ˆ mark hannah ˆ drink ˆ

...he wanted to make sure he was nice and loose for the inaugural karaoke kick off song! ˆ mark hannah ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Knee up on the table! Off to a METAL start! ˆ jesse r ˆ mark hannah ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Hahaha. This photo makes me so happy. I like how everyone's clapping during his epic last note. ˆ jesse r ˆ mark hannah ˆ rush ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Maya (showing off her former-gymnast skills) and Mark! ˆ mark hannah ˆ maya ˆ best ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ metal ˆ

Next on deck... ˆ brian d ˆ keith c ˆ mary t ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

...Brian D. ˆ brian d ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Who decided to kick a slow-jam with The Tide is High. Check out Mary in the background going BIG on the backing vocals. Nice! ˆ brian d ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Feeling it. ˆ maya ˆ vivian ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Next, Rich totally killed Hold On by Wilson Phillips. Hahaha. I love how Maya's reaching out to "hold on" to Rich in this photo. ˆ brian d ˆ mary t ˆ rich h ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Then Vivian sang. ˆ brian d ˆ vivian ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ yell ˆ

Hahaha. Check out Brian D, down on his knees cheering Viv on while ALSO doing a shot. Man, I love co-worker karaoke! ˆ brian d ˆ vivian ˆ best ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ shots ˆ

Dance it out. ˆ brian d ˆ rich h ˆ vivian ˆ dance ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

Then we came full circle back to Mark! ˆ mark hannah ˆ me ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

He was right in the middle of a tender rendering of Stone Temple Pilot's Interstate Love Song... ˆ christina k ˆ mark hannah ˆ mary t ˆ karaoke ˆ meetup ˆ

...when this dude basically busted in and PULLED THE PLUG ON OUR PARTY! We'd all just ordered two rounds of drinks, and the person at the door didn't bother to tell our party TWENTY PEOPLE that we'd only be able to keep the room for 45 minutes. (PS - Is somebody throwing a tiny, leather fedora at the bouncer in protest? Oh, nvrmnd. Looks like it's just a tiny, leather decorative fedora that's been nailed to the wall. You stay classy, 2nd on 2nd!) ˆ mary t ˆ maya ˆ bouncer ˆ meetup ˆ party cancer ˆ

So we pulled everyone together and regrouped around the corner at The Library. Here's Brian, Maya, Mary and Rush getting LOOSE! ˆ brian d ˆ mary t ˆ maya ˆ rush ˆ meetup ˆ

Oh, and it was also some kind of huge NY State lottery drawing the next day, so the more everyone drank, the better everyone's odds seemed. ˆ mark hannah ˆ mary t ˆ maya ˆ rush ˆ meetup ˆ

BITE THEM FOR GOOD LUCK. ˆ keith c ˆ mark hannah ˆ bite ˆ meetup ˆ

I also randomly ran into Marisol! I think it was the first time I'd seen her since 2004! ˆ marisol ˆ me ˆ

After we finished discussing what we planned on doing with the millions of dollars we were all certain to win in the lottery tomorrow, we pounded our drinks... ˆ brian d ˆ meetup ˆ shots ˆ

...and I convinced everyone to head over with me for a late night dance party at Orchard Bar where... ˆ crowd ˆ hanger bar ˆ

...THIS little niblet was DJing! Sometimes it can be a little nerve-wracking to try to mix your social-friends with your work-friends... ˆ sarah ˆ dj ˆ

...but if this photo is any indication, I think it's pretty safe to say that it went well. ˆ brian d ˆ mark hannah ˆ mary t ˆ maya ˆ rush ˆ vivian ˆ hanger bar ˆ meetup ˆ

NO, YOU'RE THE MAN NOW, DAWG. (This photo also makes me very happy). ˆ brian d ˆ mark hannah ˆ maya ˆ vivian ˆ best ˆ meetup ˆ

It was actually borderline mayhem! Everyone was dancing... ˆ mary t ˆ best ˆ dance ˆ hanger bar ˆ meetup ˆ

...buddying up... ˆ drunk ˆ mark hannah ˆ rush ˆ meetup ˆ

Everyone scream along! ˆ andrew b ˆ me ˆ

...hell, Brian D. even brought his motherfucking falafel out onto the dance floor! ˆ brian d ˆ falafel ˆ hanger bar ˆ

YES! I love this photo of Vivian. (PS - Mark are you nibbling on Mary's neck!!!) ˆ vivian ˆ hanger bar ˆ yell ˆ

This is a picture of the bar from the DJ booth a little before closing time. Good times. ˆ crowd ˆ dance ˆ hanger bar ˆ meetup ˆ

On Sunday I didn't do anything else besides take a photo of the most chillaxed snowman I've ever seen. ˆ snowman ˆ

On Monday Sarah and I got together to celebrate the fact that she'd just received the first galley copy of her second book, Pocket Karaoke. Congrats, Sar! I'm so proud of you! ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ book ˆ

On Thursday night, we went down to R Bar on Bowery to see the debut of... ˆ band ˆ facelift ˆ

....FACELIFT! The metal band featuring Ellen Stagg on vocals, The Fatty on bass, Scott Treude on drums... ˆ ellen stagg ˆ fatty ˆ scott treude ˆ band ˆ facelift ˆ

...and Kip on the guitar! ˆ kip ˆ band ˆ facelift ˆ

Here's Scott and Amanda getting ready to have their faces LIFTED! ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward ˆ metal ˆ

Dude, you gotta love the Fatty! Check him out here doing the old "I will shoot you with METAL!" move that he probably saw Billy Sheehan do in a Mr. Big DVD box set that he probably totally owns. Hahaha. SOOO GOOD! ˆ fatty ˆ band ˆ best ˆ facelift ˆ metal ˆ

Happy February 2008! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ us ˆ