The legend continues

Tonight was the NFL kickoff game - Colts vs. Saints. I had some interest in the game because Joseph Addai is one of my fantasy running backs. Plus, it's the first game of the NFL season! Come on. I have been dying to get to Tonic East, one of my favorite bars in the city. The views from the rooftop bar are killer and they have something like 20+ HDTVs there that are always tuned to sports. I love sports. I know this is not chick-normal. But the boys get a kick out of it.

I gathered a small crew from work and we got to the bar around 7:30. I hadn't bothered to make reservations because I didn't think it would be a big deal - wrong. The roof was packed and every table was either taken or 'reserved.' Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I got my first taste of NYC rejection. I was pretty embarrassed because three or four coworkers had asked if I made reservations and I said "Nahhhhh, no big deal." Oops. I left with my tail between my legs but my coworkers were very cool about it.

We ended up going to Vertigo, about three blocks away. They seated us right away even though we were a party of 7. The place was fairly crowded and I admired the cute boys in their work suits. The ratio was about 90-10 men to women in the bar - my kind of odds. In a twist, I seemed to be the only person in my party actually interested in the game. They were also showing the US Open (tennis) and the crowd was split between that and the football game. Very interesting.

We left at halftime. I was really missing cable tonight. I got home and had to listen to the rest of the game on the radio. It was painful. I haven't been able to get on the Internet at home all week either. Next Thursday's Time Warner installation cannot come soon enough.

Oh yeah, one other thing - I think this taxi strike stuff is crap. Not the strike itself, but the ridiculous rates the taxi drivers who are driving are charging. A coworker was headed about three blocks away from my place so he offered to split a cab. We get in and the taxi driver tells us it's $10 per person plus a $5 zone fee. What??!? Thanks to the strike, Mayor Bloomberg had authorized taxi drivers to pick up multiple passengers going to multiple destinations and some kind of strike rates went into effect. To give you an idea, I normally would pay $9-10 to get to my apartment from where we were. The cabbie was asking for $25. A few of our coworkers ran into the same thing. I tried to convince my cabsplit not to do it - let's just take the subway. But he offered the cabbie $22 and we did it. Re-frickin-diculous. Price gouging, anyone? Every cab was out last night. The strike was over. It was so lame.