Rock Stars

I had heard about corporate holiday parties. But none of the stories quite prepared me to experience one in the flesh.
Easton's holiday party took place at 5 Ninth, a quaint little restaurant in the Meatpacking District (read: glitzy nightlife hot spot, ie, someplace I rarely go). We had the top two floors, and it wasn't a big sit-down meal, but rather a lot of finger foods and little plates of food set about. And open bar. Mind you, the average age of my company is ohhhhhh maybe 27. Oh, and what a trip to meet all the spouses I had heard about for months and months. Seriously.
So, dressed to the nines, the fab five (the name given to my incoming class- Jon, Courtney, Jesse, Alan, and I) took it upon ourselves to make the most of this night. Our skit went over extremely well. Like people crying in laughter well. Who would've thought that killing off all the partners in our skit would be such a success?
Pictures in abundance- and I have to say that the picture of the 5 of us with our mentor all taking a shot- priceless. And as the night progressed, the pictures also progressed- to more and more ridiculous.
Our after party was at a bar/club called APT- a pretty chill yet slightly hipster place where yet again alcohol was waiting for us. And it was truly entertaining to see who among my coworkers got REALLY drunk... like frat boy style passing-out-in-the-gutter drunk. Wow. Only, there was some drama that involved one of the women in our firm and a 6 foot 300 pound bouncer, aaaand so we all had to leave about 20 minutes after arriving.
From there we went to Buddha Bar- and if I thought the evening couldn't get anymore ridiculous, I was oh so wrong. I was kind of hungry and asked the waiter if we could get some food, you know, something to munch on, some appetizers maybe? (And of course in my head I'm thinking- cheeseburger and fries) Well, about 5 minutes later (I kid you not) 5 men walked out, each carrying 5 plates of food, and set them all down at our tables. I looked at Jon across the table, both of us somewhat in shock, and we silently acknowledged at once the insanity and glory of that moment. For about 4 hours of our lives we got to know what it must be like to be a rock star. Everywhere we went, we walked in the door without waiting, sat down at a table that had alcohol already there, and ordered whatever food we (unknowingly) wanted. Taking a step back, it kind of made me realize why so many movie star/hollywood types fall into the party scene- I mean, if that's what their life is like every day... I can imagine how easy it would be to just... go with it.
A few crowning moments of the evening (all of which are documented, for better or worse, in pictures)... Ramesh taking pictures with the table of foreign models that was next to us- looking for all the world like their pimp. I think that one should hang in our lunch room as an 8x10. Or the German dude who was wearing (again, I kid you not) Uggs and a red suede jacket, who I may or may not have danced with as part of a bet.
I got home at 3:30am.
Needless to say, the next day at work wasn't so productive. But looking through the 102 pictures on Jon's camera made it worth showing up. At 11:00. One of the guys who used to work for Easton stopped by the office that day and after talking to us for about 2 minutes he said, "Wow, you guys are all really hungover, aren't you?"
Thank you, Sherlock.