who's a cockblocker?

aish. i didn't start 2008 that greatly considering i got sick on the night of the 1st and have been battling w/an annoying and persistent cough. blech.

however, that aside, NYE was a totally different experience. the 31st started off good and chill. i took Cousin to Bar Tabac, my favorite brunch spot (i always get the Egg Norvegienne). we just sat and talked and caught up, which we hadn't done since her visit to the east coast. Cousin had plans to eat dinner w/friends at Three of Cups but i opted out due to financial reasons plus i wanted to rest up for the big event.

for NYE i went to a party at PMT Dance Hall thrown by 1 of Cousin's friend's friend. this is such a smart idea: the guy rented out PMT Dance Hall and bought a ton of standard booze and beer, hired a dj, had about 6 friends bartend w/a giant tip jar, and charged $35 per person. you know he made bank. the event overall was fun, tho nothing overly memorable, but for $35 who really cares? i think i'd have been pissed if i'd spent the standard $150-$200 and nothing great happened. there were some highlights tho:

1. Snoopy was completely wasted by the time he showed up. he'd gone to a pre-party and just got completely trashed. he spent most of the night leaning against the wall w/all these girls (that he knew) going up to him and taking posey-pics w/him. it was pretty funny.

2. Boop was just as trashed as Snoopy. turns out when she drinks she turns into a dance machine. she kept dancing just about the whole night. at 1 point she started to dance up on me and went to dip down for a stripper move but leaned back a little too far and (my bad) i couldn't support her weight and she completely fell on her ass. poor Boop... but as long as she had fun that's all that matters.

3. Cousin totally made out w/some random guy. yea, that's right. my Cousin, who's visiting from Cali, gets ass on NYE while i, who lives here, doesn't. go figure. it was disarming to see Cousin randomly hook up b/c she's talking about stringent high standards for guys and how she doesn't want to handle all the baggage that goes w/boys. but i guess she's human after all...

eventually everyone made moves to leave and move on to the next venue. it took forever to get the whole crew together and moving. eventually Snoopy and i got in a cab w/his very drunk friend Weeeeeeee. haha, i have so much fun saying that name. it's like a party! we headed over to Chinatown for some much needed food (i hadn't eaten dinner). i was so hungry that i ate my beef noodle soup, part of Snoopy's beef w/egg sauce on rice, party of Barishnokov's beef and tomato on rice, and part of Boop's beef w/egg sauce on rice. i was hungry. what what?! afterwards, like the gentelmen they are, Snoopy, Barishnokov and Snoopy's cousin (he's not really worth a nickname b/c he lives in Philly so i'll probably never see him again, but if i was gonna give him 1 it'd probably be "Handsy"-ahem) waited w/me until i got a cab. this is only the 2nd time this has happened to me, but i had to have 3 cabs refuse to take me to Brooklyn Heights before i got lucky w/the 4th cab. even tho it's completely illegal that cabs do that, what can you really do? you barely have time to look at their face let alone remember their ID number so there's really no way for them to get in trouble (aside from a sting). i'm pretty sure it was the waiting for 20 mins outside in the windy cold in a dress w/no tights/stockings on that pushed me over the edge into sickness.

and where was Cousin during all this? she didn't come home w/me or w/that random guy. but she did spend the night at a boy's house...

the next night went to Peking Duck House for Cousin's farewell dinner. it was her choice to pick this restaurant b/c she's such a fan of the food. i gotta admit, it is pretty good altho service was pretty shoddy. we were forced to order the prix-fixed menu ($35 per person, w/tip for 6 ppl=$50 per person) and since we were 6 ppl and their menu only goes up to 5, we had to order 2 sets of the menu for 3. that ended up being 2 Peking ducks (which is delicious but so much), 3 entrees (we got the mayo jumbo shrimp, my favorite childhood dish; crispy fish; and lobster), and a fried rice. it was an insane amount of food. sucked that i was starting to feel a little body-achey and headachey but overall the meal was delicious. Cousin had her international flight to Hong Kong the next morning at 9 am and since she's a notorious oversleeper she wanted everyone to go see AVP w/her on the start of her all-nighter before her flight but since i was starting to feel truly ill and she was staying at my place i scrapped the idea. plus i definitely didn't want to spend $11 for a movie i didn't want to see and would be uncomfortable watching b/c i was sick. instead i set her up w/asian soap operas to watch through the night while i popped Tylenol for my fever and slept.