Let me just preface this post by saying that when I say 'past weekend', I'm actually starting from Thursday evening. The reason for this is that in good 'ol Springfield, MO, it's a tradition to begin the weekends on Thursday. I'm not sure how this started, and it's not so much official as it is an understanding among those that like to go out to bars/clubs, events, plays, etc.
So, Thursday night was a friend's birthday. We went out to dinner at Nakato, a Japanese Hibachi steakhouse. I won't lie, it's not my favorite place to eat, and in all actuality, the only time that my girlfriend and I go there is for this particular friend's birthday...which brings me to my next point; this is the 2nd year in a row that I have made it out to Nakato for his birthday and the 3rd year in a row that my GF has made it out for his birthday...which I believe the third time makes it a tradition, so I have gone ahead and marked it in my Outlook calender for next year. I'm going to go ahead and reveal that our friend is Ethen, the owner of Hearts of Fire tattoo (which I'll blog about sometime soon...maybe when I start working on my next sleeve). So, before we even got to Nakato I told Monica not only did I not want to go out after we leave Nakato, but also that I didn't want to drink very much. So, as we go in and have a seat at the bar to wait for the entire party to show up I logically order a Gin & Tonic. At dinner, I order a second Gin & Tonic...oh, but then what? Someone has the bright idea to go and order a round of Sake bombs...then a shot of Tequila for the birthday boy...and I'm done. Literally. Stick a fork in me. I went to bed that night at 11pm as we had to be up by 6:30am to do yoga at 7:25am. Wow.
So, then we get to Friday. I've done yoga and I feel pretty good. I do a half day of work because I'm leaving with some of my best friends for a guys night out in STL. We were headed to Home nightclub at the Ameristar casino for a send-off for my roomate/best friend/whiny bitch Rookie and my friends, we did it proper. We got to out hotel, which does free drinks in the atrium area from 5:30pm-7:30pm, and immediately got buzzed. We ate, got cleaned up, then got to the club around 11pm, somewhat sobered up from earlier. The main DJ that night was Sander Kleinenberg, who is a world-renowned DJ and producer and a talent that I've been wanting to see live for quite some time...let me tell you that it was phenomenal. I love house music, and he did not disappoint with his ability to keep the dancefloor packed with club anthems that people knew the words to put to the grimiest progressive tech house you can imagine. Absolutely phenomenal. Also, we got a table and bottle service, so needless to say we were living the life for the 4 hours that we were there. We danced and drank and danced and drank some more, littering our table with cigarette butts and used matches. After we stayed up and bs'ed til about 5 in the morning. Then we got up and drove back.
Saturday night was my GF's brother's bday, and he is a very good friend of mine so of course I could not miss that! We started the night at Riad, which just did a huge renovation and let me tell you, that restaurant looks ten thousand times better. The great part is the new menu was nice and the food was excellent, and to top it all off the service from our waitress Judy was impeccable! After dinner, drinks and a few shots, we headed over to Zan. Now, let me say that I had only been to Zan once, on a Saturday, and it was an awful experience. I was overcharged for drinks, they made a Royal Flush with well liquor instead of Crown Royal, the bartender was an imcompetent and ungrateful bitch, the place was absolutely packed and the music was shitty. Not exactly a good first impression. This night was slightly better. The drinks were decent, though a bit on the small side for the price. The music was slightly better and the service was a bit better as well. The good part is it was the beginning of spring break so we had lots of room for our entire party to have a good time so that was nice. One thing I do like: it's non-smoking. And coming from someone who socially smokes when they drink, that's saying something. The night was great, I got Justin (Monica's bro) several shots and drinks and he danced like a fool and a nice time was had by all. As we were leaving we decided to grab a hot dog from the vendor out front. Two foreign students walked loudly talking about how America was 'stupid' and that American's were 'loud, obnoxious and generally worthless'. I obviously told him if he didn't like us or our country to get out, which started an arguing match which would have ended in a fist fight if I hadn't been worried about a few things:
1) Both of these jokers were half my size, so it would have been an unfair fight to them even if I was by myself
2) There were no cops in sight and I hadn't seen any all night, so I would have had carte blance with my fist and their faces
3) my GF's bro was inside and he's a 6' 4" cop
4) There were about a dozen or so other guys inside that were with our party that night and those guys wouldn't have stood a chance
So, instead of ruining their night and confirming their perception of America as 'stupid', I decided to take the high road, let them verbally berate me, and hope that they eventually change their mind before they run their mouth to some redneck with a lead pipe in the back of his pickup that doesn't quite have the forethought that I do.
All in all, a very interesting, fun-filled, adventurous...not to mention somewhat expensive but well worth it...weekend in Missouri.
Ah the Ozarks!
