Fight

Saturday was the Monster Ball and despite all our planning and inviting only 4 of us went: Daisy, myself, Latina, and Flag-girl. We were an adorable set, with Daisy as a seductive chic witch (in one of my dresses :) just had to point that out), Latina as a smoking devil, Flag-girl as one of Gunther's Sunshine Girls, and me as a cop. I couldn't find my guns, though. :(

The Monster Ball was held at ArtCentral, a fairly new art gallery downtown. While I'm not usually one to stand for hours in front of art pieces discussing "what does it all mean?" I wanted to get the girls trying out something new 'cuz I'm feeling a bit too old for the club crawl (though Daisy still digs it) and I'm tired of all the 18-year-old skanks and drunken tough guys that usually go on those things. Two things that got my attention about the Monster Ball: absinthe bar and retro 80s music.

The 80s music DJ...well, I could have done better with my iPod, to be honest. The appetizers were barely there, the trick-or-treating promised was minimal, and we couldn't find the vintage games room all night. But OH the absinthe bar!

Oh! Oh! The absinthe bar!

Unfortunately, Latina and Flag-girl drove over to meet up with Daisy and I before the party so they couldn't really drink...so it was all up to Daisy and me to experiment with absinthe for the sake of science. At 5 dollars a drink ticket I immediately put myself down for 4 and headed down to the bar to get acquainted with the "green fairy."

My only experiences with absinthe in the past were with the absinthe martinis at my beloved SoHo. Alas, they don't serve those anymore so it's been a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were serving the absinthe the way it should be done with the burning sugar on the spoon and all that razzmatazz. It's a beautiful thing, really. But, wow, the astronaut sure made mine strong! Or was I being a big wuss? I really don't know. As soon as you bring the glass to your lips the alcohol rushes up to sting your eyes before you even get a sip. My tongue got all tingly. Daisy, the lush, downed hers like it was nothing.

Time to eat some of our candy. I have to point out that I was in a dangerous situation setting myself up for 4 drinks of absinthe with barely any food in me. I had been in a rush myself earlier so I never had any dinner. Like I said, the appetizers were always gone so I managed to nab 2 meatballs all night. Little chocolate bars were all I had.

I've never had a problem with alcohol and guys and that night was no exception. I got hit up by Elvis and a guy dressed as some kind of board game...but all the while I was a good girl.

Absinthe 2 and 3 came and went without much drama, though it was starting to get a bit difficult to dance and walk my sexy self around the place. The 4th one was consumed with a bit of sadness. No more drink tickets for Leah! I nursed it as long as I could, not that it mattered 'cuz I swear each one was stronger than the last.

At some point I dropped my lipgloss on the floor and I can remember Latina laughing at my numerous failed attempts to grasp it as my fingers would flick it further away.

And then by some miraculous Halloween good-times stroke of luck, I found another drink ticket at my feet! Daisy headed for the absinthe bar with the intentions that we'd share this lucky token drink but then she found another ticket at an empty table! Yay, one more absinthe for each of us!

That's right, I had 5 absinthes and I'm still alive to tell the tale. Clearly they don't make it as lethal as they used to back in the day. That's absolutely fine by me.

Having that much absinthe, even if it's watered down, did not come without consequences. Apparently, you should never put an absinthe-fueled Daisy and an absinthe-loaded Leah in the same bathroom. Daisy is one of my closest friends, I've never had an argument with her, until that night. I was fueled by Civic's email earlier about how Daisy complains about her man-situation and that we were hoping that Bizkette would be able to straighten things out 'cuz clearly she wasn't listening to me or Civic. For some reason, that night in the bathroom, I was bent on making her hear me no matter how loud I had to get. Naturally, this brought her to her defensive, bringing up the fact that my man-situation isn't so stellar and perfect, either. It was kind of ugly. We even left the Ball at closing time in the same foul mood as the four of us walked around downtown figuring out where to go next. Daisy was constantly walking a half-block ahead of me.

By now it was 1:30 and when we got to the doors of Cowboys (Daisy wanted to meet up with some old coworkers) we were turned away 'cuz they were already packed. That's kind of funny, they must have been visited by the fire marshall earlier that evening 'cuz they're so money hungry they never turn away extra cover charges. So I suggested SoHo, but they, too, turned us away. SoHo rejected me! We ended up at My Apartment. Or rather, Daisy ended up inside of My Apartment while we looked around outside wondering where she disappeared to. Once we figured it all out we went into the club with maybe 20 minutes left till close. It wasn't worth it but if it made Daisy happier then, whatever, right?

And as the absinthe's hold over us wore off, so did our argument. Everything was right again by the time we had our traditional post-Halloween party noshies at Dennys.