i saw satan laughing with delight

This is one of those nights when I vow never to drink again, but the memories of this night will be lovely enough that I will promptly forget that vow in an attempt to reclaim them. Today was utterly wonderful, after it got started; I spent the first couple of hours wrestling with the iBookstore, which was not wonderful, but once I stopped messing with that, everything started looking up. I had lunch at Chipotle (don't tell Ritu), and then I took the subway to Grand Central Station, where I met Claudia (aka Claude, aka Claude the Fraude, aka Santy Claud, aka The Devil), who was gracious enough to come into the evil city for the afternoon. Of course the afternoon turned into her needing to crash on Ritu'a couch...but I digress.

We started off tame, with coffee near Ritu's apartment. Then we wandered twenty blocks south toward the place where we'd agreed to meet Ritu for drinks/dinner, and we had a glass of wine and a bellini each at a subpar wine bar with above average people watching. Around six p.m. we adjourned to the Mermaid Inn, which has an oyster happy hour, and Ritu met us there. Ritu confined herself to a dozen oysters, but Claude and I had sixteen each - delicious. We also had tasty tequila beverages and a v. lovely, entertaining conversation.

Then we adjourned to the trashier part of the evening - 50%-off sushi at some nearby dive-y sushi bar, which helped to fill the voids that oysters could not fill. Properly fueled, Claude and Ritu vetoed my suggestion to continue descending the seafood ladder (apparently Long John Silver's is beneath them - I KNOW). Instead, we went to two different speakeasies -- the first, Gin Palace, serves only gin-based drinks, while the second, Death and Co., serves a variety of liquors (not death - confusing, right?). My drink at Gin Palace had cinnamon in it and was the best of the night, but our new best friend Fletcher (the door guy at Death and Co.) hooked us up with a table and called to let me know it was ready, so we only had to wait twenty minutes for it instead of the two hours he quoted to the party who showed up right before he seated us. Score! I had a drink with fennel b/c I'm an idiot, followed by an adult alcoholic version of an Orange Julius, and now I'm quite happy (and soon to be quite headachy). Ritu had left us after the first drink at Death and Co since she had to work tomorrow, but now it's time for me and Claude to sleep as well so that Ritu can go to work, Claude can take the train of shame, and I can pack up and head for the airport tomorrow afternoon. Goodnight!