#343 - Celebrate the Spring

Blockheads at World Wide Plaza (aka Heaven)

Anyone who attended our little happy hour this evening can attest to the fact that Blockheads is one of my favorite favorite all-time favorite New York City past times.  I LOVE it.  Moreover, I love that VERY first warm-ish day that the weather allows us to be there.  This is the day I force my friends with flexible jobs to head there at 3pm to fight for tables and secure a spot.  This is the day I spend hotly anticipating the first red-nosed bulldog of the year.  This is the day that everyone stays on lunch break just a little too long, and leaves the office just a little too early.  If I haven't adequately pressed my point, this is one of my favorite days of the year.

I have to say that 2011 was an exceptional success.  Thanks to the hard work of some great guys, we had just enough room for our MASSIVE party.  Most of my favorite people in the city were there, and it was just a great way to kickoff the Spring.  We also managed to rack up a collective tab of $500+, which I previously would not have believed possible at a place known for $3 margaritas.

This is one of those traditions I think I'll be hanging onto into my 30s.  I can't give up everything!! 

#360 - Pretend to be Spring Breakers

Ukulele.  Cocoa Beach.  Insanity.

This photo was taken closer to dusk when a lot of the crowd had dissipated, but let me tell you...  Cocoa Beach on a Sunday during the school year is NO JOKE.  My friends who live in the area have been to this spot several times and claim to have never seen anything like it.  I'm talking full on MTV Spring Break with tents and drinks and girl-on-girl beach boxing matches.  If I could get anything "20-something" out of my system, it was this.

One thing I've begun to dislike in my late 20's is this feeling of being "too-old" to be somewhere.  What is the deal with that??  For our entire lives prior we've felt like we were right where we needed to be.  We were the in, hip, with-it generation.  Suddenly I'm watching kids doing keg stands who were Kindergartner's the first time I went to a frat house.  I'm like five years older than LADY GAGA!  It sort of sucks.

None the less, we tried to move past our bitter "back-in-our-day" attitudes and enjoy the show.  My best friend (who I have previously referred to in this blog as "The Boss") even wound up in conversation with one of the Sunday regulars.  He asked where we went to school and upon finding out we had graduated (cough* six years ago *cough) wanted to know what we had majored in.  Awesome.

New York City has a way of making time stand still in your middle twenties.  You still live a lot like you lived in college.  Most people have roommates.  You're often faced with a choice of happy hour or dinner (where HH typically wins).  Your furniture is all from IKEA and you don't expect any of it to survive till your next apartment.

I think this is why the impending "30" number is such a slap in the face.  What have I been doing to prepare for "grown-up-dom" all this time?  Sure I have a career of sorts, but I hardly feel independent or "set".    I guess I just have to be thankful to have bought myself some extra time in youth.  That I have had the wild wonderful experience that is New York living and trust that it will all come in time.