Drinking Away Today

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Frank

Subject: Let's grab a Beer...or three

The door slams shut and Ann tosses her bag on the counter and flops onto the couch. “Ugh!”

“Tough day?”

“The worst. They had me bartending this afternoon, and of course there were two completely trashed businessmen. I guess they'd had a rough day too, and they decided tequila shots on their lunch hour would be a good idea.”

“Drunk businessmen. Doesn't really sound that bad.”

“It wasn't at first, but then they started getting demanding and arguing loudly with each other. Luckily it was only an hour, but there were other things too.”

“Want to grab a drink and unwind? We don't have to go to Catalina's for it, I promise.”

“A drink actually sounds great. You going to come too Frank?”

Frank puts his laptop down. “Let's see, come drinking or play Snood all night. Whiskey wins in a landslide!”

“Great. Lets go before I remember how worn out I am.”

“Can we have three Guinness' please?”

Sara stares at Frank. “Make that two Guinness' and a Sam Adams Summer.”

“One Guinness, and I'll have vanilla vodka and coke.”

The bartender winks at Frank. “Never presume to know what a woman wants to drink.”

“You would think you'd have learned we don't like Guinness by now.”

“Nothing remedies a tough day like a Guinness.”

“Sounds like I'm not the only one who has had a bad day. Cards not being nice to you?”

“Yeah. That's basically it. It's been a rough time.”

“You could always subsidize your poker with a real job.”

“I'm having a little bad luck, I'm not desperate.”

“What's desperate? Bud Light?” Ann asks, as the bartender brings over the drinks.

“Nah. Desperate is probably water.”

“Yeah. I guess that would be desperate. Cheers! To a better tomorrow!”

“You make it sound like we're on a noble quest or something.”

“Aren't we? I think drinking away today is a noble quest.”

“Yeah. It's certainly not not-noble.”

“Not not-noble? You're confusing me. Too many negatives.”

“Well, it's a very negative day isn't it?”

“True.”

“I'm sure we're not the only people in here having a bad day. It's early enough that I think most of these people are trying to forget the day.”

“That's a good point. Most of the time the celebrating happens a little later.”

“And cheerier. Everyone here looks depressed.”

“Us included.”

“Well, booze is a depressant.”

“And misery loves company.”

“Which means, more beer! Keep them coming!” Frank says, putting his drained glass on the bar.

6th Floor Blog Goes to the Movies: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: 6^th floor Blog Goes To the Movies: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This post is about the new Harry Potter movie, and since the book has been out for a while, and the movie for two weeks, this post will be a little more detailed then it would for a different movie. We'll refrain from the big spoiler(s) but if you really want to see this and don't know what happens yet, you probably should skip this post.

“That wasn't too bad.”

“I think I still like the third one the best.”

“I haven't seen any of the others.”

“Really? You didn't coming with us to see Goblet of Fire last year?”

“We didn't see Goblet of Fire together. It came out four months before we moved in.”

“Oh. Who'd I see it with then?”

“The third one was the one with the time travel right? I did like that one.”

“This one was so choppy! The plot didn't flow at all.”

“Did it? I thought it was alright.”

“I was annoyed at all the inconsistencies.”

“Well, it's hard to convert a long book to a movie without cutting some stuff.”

“I don't mean cutting stuff, I mean the stuff that was just wrong. The stuff with Cho, the missing trip to the hospital, and the ending was completely butchered.”

“That ending was pretty cool on the IMAX:3D though. I wonder why they didn't let us keep the glasses like they did for Superman Returns.”

“No idea, I didn't really need to keep more junk though. I usually don't get too tied up in consistency as long as the movie flows by itself, but they could've left in easter eggs for the fans. They don't necessarily have to mention that Ron's a prefect, even though him getting the badge and Harry not getting it would've added to his anger at Dumbledore, but they could've at least given him the badge for us to see. Or at least a shot of Hermione rolling her eyes or chastising George and Fred about their business and testing on first years. Of course, they barely mention that they're going into business anyway. It also wouldn't have been too much of an effort to show a knitted sock or shirt or something in one of the common room shots. One of the items of clothing Hermione was knitting to try to trick house elves into being free. Something.”

“I agree. Adding in those little details would really add a depth to the movie that might have made the die hard fans really enjoy it.”

“It kind of felt like a clip show.”

“I know what you mean. It's almost like they chose random scenes, made cool CGI stuff for them, and then just pieced them together. They left out so much of the overall plot it's not even funny.”

“I didn't really get what was going on. They were focused on the school and that teacher, but every once in a while they'd mention Voldemort. Then suddenly they're dispatching the teacher in the forest and run off to fight Voldemort at the ministry. Fred and George dropped out of school then? Or got expelled or what?”

“Yeah. They start selling all those prank candies as a business. Harry actually funds them with the money from the Goblet tournament. Which reminds me, they really glossed over a lot of the Weasley parents' stress. Between them not talking to Percy who is siding with the ministry and worry about what Fred and George are up to with the pranks and their bad O.W.L. scores, they had a lot of depth in the book that was overlooked in the movie.”

“I really liked how they did the Black house though. It looked just like I thought it should, and they even had Kreacher being a pack rat. Of course, they neglect the part about Kreacher being the one that tattles on them later.”

“They left out a lot of the school stuff. Classes, the centaur teacher, how hard they study for O.W.L.s and how overworked Harry is between quidditch, detention, homework and studying.”

“Yeah. I find myself more and more disappointed the more I think about it, and the more I remember from the book. They really should have Rowlings in on the script writing.”

“Well, she's not writing books now, maybe she can help with six and seven. I doubt it though, It's almost like the five movies are barely related, they really gloss over the series-wide plot points.”

“Oh well. 16 months until we can be disappointed with the next one. Are we seeing the Simpsons movie this week?”

“Yeah. I'm in for that. I actually heard it got good reviews and all.”

Tourist Watching

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Sara, Frank

Subject: Tourist Watching

Sara and I had just gotten coffee at Starbucks and since it was a beautiful day we were just hanging around on the street corner and enjoying our coffee.

“I can't believe you got a hot drink. It's a nice day, but it's still warm out.”

“I just don't like my coffee cold, what can I say? There's a little breeze, so it's not that bad.”

“Did you know they opened a new Starbucks in the LIRR terminal of Penn Station?”

“Another one? Wow. Who would've thought we needed yet another Starbucks.”

“I guess they wanted to open one closer to the 1,2,3 lines. Those poor 7^th avenue travelers had to walk all the way across Penn Station to get their coffee!”

“Woe is them. If they're drinking Starbucks regularly, they may need to burn those extra 12 calories anyway.”

“True. Only fat people take the 3 train.”

Sara snickers. “Ha! You know, standing on the corner talking like this really sets us up to be on Overheard in New York.”

“I'd love to see myself quoted there! My 15 minutes of fame!”

“Ann actually entered us into the headline contest a couple of weeks ago. She got us featured in the 'runner up' section, with a link to our blog.”

“Neat. Well I hope if they quote me, they at least spell my name right.”

“Is there any other way to spell Frank?”

“You never know.”

“I suppose they could give you a stupid last name. Call you Frank Futter or something.”

Frank groans. “And you say Billy makes bad jokes?”

Sara points across the street. “It's a little warm out, why is that woman over there by the newspaper machine wearing what looks like a parka?”

“She must be crazy. She's also eating Tasti D-lite. Who eats ice cream in a heavy jacket during the summer?

“And Tasti D-lite? Eat some real ice cream!”

“You know what I haven't had in a while? Ben and Jerry's. I love me some Phish Food.”

“I'm a fan of the chocolate fudge brownie myself, but I don't recommend we buy any. We're supposed to be being thrifty this week.”

“I know. That's why we only got talls instead of ventis right?”

“True. Although had Billy been working we probably could've super-sized.”

“Did you know Mcdonalds doesn't call it supersizing any more?”

“Yeah. That's old news.”

“Oh. I guess I don't get to Mcdonalds enough.”

“Or you're not paying attention. I'd probably go with that.”

“Thanks. I don't care what they call my food size anyway. Tall, small, supersized, medium, love it.. food is food.”

Sara points to a 20 something guy wandering past with a map. “That guy's come past here twice already. I remember his silly Atlanta Braves hat.”

“Ahh, tourists. He's probably holding the map upside down or something.”

“Think he's looking for Times Square, or the World Trade Center?”

“Maybe he's looking for Penn Station, to head back to Atlanta.”

“Oh well. Maybe if he wanders around New York enough he'll lose the silly Braves hat.”

“The Braves are a joke, I don't know why you still even think about them.”

“I'd be less worried if the Mets could string together a good week here, gain some distance.”

“If everyone that stepped into the outfield stopped exploding, they'd be okay. I'm done with my coffee, I want more though.”

“You addict. I'm only halfway done with mine.”

“Well if you weren't drinking it hot, you'd probably be done. Let's roll; I can make more coffee back home if I want.”

The Thrifty Six

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: The Thrifty Six

“Wow. We all spend a ton of money this week. Maybe we should take it easy for a little while.”

“Isn't that why we went to that bar with an open bar special Friday night? To save money?”

“Well yes, but if you factor in the cab ride we took home because we were too lazy to walk to the subway, and the massive amounts of food we ordered at the bar it ends up being more than we expected.”

“I also splurged a bit too, buying things I probably shouldn't have.”

“What did you buy?”

“Well there was Harry Potter, and then I realized I didn't own the first three books, I'd only borrowed them to read from my sister, so I bought those too. Then I saw the new Jeffrey Deaver book and bought that also. It was a bit more than I should've spent.”

“I wasn't great this week either. I went and bought myself some new clothes for work. I went a little overboard though.”

“I had been wanting to buy a new game for the Playstation, but I couldn't decided between Rainbow Six, the Bigs, and something else so I bought all three. I then coupled that with a really bad week of poker, I just couldn't catch any cards.”

“Should've used a bigger glove.”

Ann groans. “My schedule's thrown off still from working at Catalina's and I find myself eating out way more than I can really afford. Coupled with the bar and everything else It's putting a damper on my bank account.”

“You guys should really take some money management classes or something.”

“You didn't overspend this week?”

Scott hangs his head. “Actually..I lent Mitch some money. He was very convincing, but of course it didn't work out.”

“That Mitch. He reminds me of Edward Norton's character in Rounders. I spent too much money this week too, but I couldn't help it. My sister needed to go to the doctor, but she didn't have insurance or any money. I doubt she'll pay me back.”

“Kerri's sick? Anything serious?”

“Nothing serious. I don't remember the specifics, something about a cough and bronchitis I think.”

“Well, that was good of you to pay for her. Who knows, maybe she will pay you back.”

“Maybe. I'm not hopeful though. So we're going to be thrifty and take it easy this week then?”

“Yeah. Let's try to cut down on the expensive stuff a little.”

“10 cent wings at ..”

“No!”

“How many beers did you have last time we got cheap wings?”

“Three..or four..I don't remember. I guess you're right. So you're cooking tonight then?”

“Why don't you cook? You never cook!”

“I'll cook. I just hope you like frozen pizza.”

“How appetizing.”

“I'll cook.”

“That's alright Scott..I'll do it.”

“Don't like my cooking?”

“Do YOU like your cooking?”

“Haha! Burn!”

“Fine. I'll just lay here and nap on the couch until dinner.”

“Don't strain yourself or anything.”

“What are you going to make? I'll help.”

“I don't know. Grab that cookbook and we'll pick something.”

Harry Potter and the Butterbeer Birthday Party

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha

Subject: Midnight Plans

“I got a phone call from Amy yesterday. She invited us out Friday night for her birthday.”

“Oh yeah? Where to?”

“She's trying to pick a good bar to hang out at. I don't think she's decided which one yet.”

“Anything is good with me, you tell the guys yet?”

“Does it matter? It's not like they're going to say no to getting a drink.”

“Well, every once in a while they have a baseball game or something.”

“I don't think they do. The Yankee game isn't anything special Friday and the Mets are in LA. They play at 10, a perfect time to watch at the bar. I can only stay a little while though.”

“Why? Where could you possible have to go?”

“I guess it depends where we are, but I want to go get my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at midnight.”

“Oh right. Well if we're close to home you could just run over and get it. Or did you want to stay for one of those parties?”

“I'm not that crazy. I'll laugh at the wackos when I get my book, and then just leave.”

“Then you can come back and drink. Although I think you might get laughed at if you have a Harry Potter book in a bar.”

“Certainly possible. I don't know that I'll feel like going home just to drop it off though.”

“Amy knows the bars around here best, so she might end up picking something close by. I can read it after you right?”

“Me too. I might buy it myself though, I'm not sure.”

“Billy's buying a copy too I think, so one of you could borrow his. He reads fast.”

“Billy's a Harry Potter fan? I don't think I knew that.”

“Well Billy will pretty much read anything. Once you've started reading a series, it's silly not to see how it ends.”

“I'm quite excited. I wonder what J.K. Rowling is going to do after this? Think she'll keep writing?”

“I don't know. I think she probably will write something at least. Part of it probably depends on whether she killed Harry or not.”

“I don't think she will.”

“Me neither.”

“I actually think Harry's going to bite it. Guess I'm in the minority. I doubt it, but I wonder if there is a bar out there serving butterbeer on Friday night, that would be interesting.”

“I always wondered what butterbeer would taste like, it sounds good at least.”

“Is it actually alcoholic?”

“Yes. Although having just one didn't seem to affect them much when they went out to Hogsmede. J. K. Rowling has been quoted as saying she thinks it is 'a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch'.”

“I see. I don't imagine anyone's serving it around here though.”

“Well there are recipes online, that involve mixing it with cream soda and butterscotch syrup and such things.”

“I was thinking of an actual brewed beer though. I actually have read some discussions about it, and If I was a better brewer I'd experiment.”

“It's been a while since you've brewed up a batch of your own beer.”

“I keep putting it off. I don't like to do it in the summer because it's harder to keep the temperature down to the proper level for fermentation.”

“Start preparing to brew something in the fall then. By the time you get around to it, it'll be fall.”

“Good point. I'll have to settle on a type of beer to make.”

“I just like drinking it, so pick something yummy.”

“Amen to that.”

Tabitha's Monkey Dew

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha

Subject: Tabitha's New Job

Me and Sara are watching a rerun of Scrubs when we hear Tabitha's phone ring. A couple of minutes later she comes out, looking all excited.

“You get the job?”

“Sure did. This will at least keep me paying my bills.”

“Do they know you go back to school in August?”

“Yeah. I'm going to work part time. I guess If I can't handle that I'll quit.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Answering phones, running to the post office, some filing. That sort of thing.”

“So you're a gopher.”

“I guess you could say that.”

“What kind of company is it?”

“They're a small software company. So hopefully I won't even have much to do.”

“Or they'll constantly be behind and need you to work hard.”

“That's true. They did see rather disorganized when I was there.”

“If they're programmers, they'll probably have you running out to buy cases of Mountain Dew or something.”

“Mountain Dew. That nasty looking yellow color always makes me want to call it Monkey Dew.”

“Monkey Dew? Eww. Well there is a Gristedes right across the street, but hopefully they'll stock their own Dew.”

“So any of them good looking?”

“Not really. One guy, but he's married.”

“Figures. So when do you start?”

“Monday. Diving right in.”

“Should we celebrate or something?”

“Celebrating is what made me broke in the first place. How about we wait until my first paycheck and then celebrate?”

“That works for me. There is nothing like blowing a paycheck on a high quality drunken binge.”

“Did I ever tell you I admire your money saving skills Sara?”

Mario Kart Eats More Chicken

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Mario Kart Eats More Chicken

We had a little respite from the heat today and we all decided to walk over to Starbucks, where Scott was currently at work. We grabbed the coveted spots around the big coffee table and started chit-chatting. Scott came over while neglecting his customers and his cleaning duties.

“Happy Cow Appreciation Day Scott.”

“Cow Appreciation Day? We supposed to chow down on lots of burgers or something?”

“That wouldn't be very appreciative of the cows would it? It's on my Chick-Fil-A calendar. Their motto is 'Eat Mor Chikin'. If you go there dressed as a cow, you get a free combo meal.”

“Do we even have any of those anywhere near here?”

“I know there is one in the Paramus Park Mall in Jersey.”

“I don't know if it's worth it to drive to Paramus for fast food.”

“Frank Bruni said there was one in one of the NYU food courts.”

“Who the hell is Frank Bruni? Your secret boyfriend?”

“Huh? No Frank Bruni is one of the food critics for the Times. He took some fast food trip a couple of years ago and mentioned the place. I haven't heard anyone else mention the food court, and I don't know if it's open in the summer anyway.”

“Even if they let us in, it's probably manned by college students that don't know we'd get a free combo with a cow suit anyway.”

“True. Maybe one lazy weekend we'll goad Frank into driving to Paramus.”

“Hey, today's Friday the 13th!” says Billy, looking up from a discarded newspaper.”

“No full moon though.”

“We should watch scary movies tonight.”

“I suppose it's fitting, even if it is rather cliché.”

“We never watched a lot of those Horrorfest movies. We should rent one or two.”

“I'd be in for that. I actually found this blog that reviews horror movies for fun. It's a Scream says that Dark Ride was good, but Wicked Little Things was not much of a horror flick.”

“Okay, so we'll skip Wicked Little Things then. We saw Unrest and Abandoned already in theaters. Abandoned was really freaky, but it was certainly scary. Unrest was also a little scary, and made me glad I wasn't a med student for sure.”

“It still bothers me where she was staying. There had to be better housing right?”

“Yeah, but that probably wouldn't have been as frightening. We'll pick up the movies on the way back to the 6^th floor.”

“Why are you referring to the apartment as the 6^th floor now?”

“Whoops. I must be reading the blog too much. Ann's gotten to me I think.”

“Excellent! Oh, did you guys know it's National Ice Cream Month? And Sunday is National Ice Cream Day? Ronald Reagan's idea.”

“I'm Ronald Reagan, and I approved this sundae.”

“How do you celebrate National Ice Cream Day?”

“How do you think? You're such a dope.”

“Dope.” Billy says, punching Scott playfully.

“Did any of you see that video from E3 about Mario Kart for the Wii?”

“They're making a new Mario Kart? Awesome! Did it look good?”

“Yeah, it did actually. They hyped up the online aspect of it, and they're debuting a new Wii toy, a steering wheel, with it.”

“A steering wheel? That's pretty silly isn't it?”

“Yeah, the remote kind of fits into it. The video kind of made me feel old though. He said the Wii Wheel will offer a new feel for those who 'first started racing with Mario Kart, 15 years ago.' 15 years! Has it really been that long?”

“'92? That IS a long time ago. I still think that one is one of the best Mario Karts of them all. Did they mention battle mode?”

“Yup. There's going to be a battle mode. You'll be able to play that over the Internet too.”

“Sweet. We'll be able to whoop some kid's butt in Alabama or something. I look forward to that. I hope it's good.”

“Aww, be nice to the little brats. The Mario Kart games are actually older than they are.”

“Now THAT makes me feel old.”

“If you guys are done salivating over video games, we should head back and pick up the movies. Besides, Scott's getting an evil eye from George.”

“He's just upset I haven't refilled the milk yet. I'll just tell him we shouldn't serve milk today because it's Cow Appreciation Day.”

“I'm sure that will work wonders.”

Drinking During the MLB All-Star Game

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Tabitha, Frank, Billy.

Subject: All-Star Drinking Game

“Sara and Scott want to watch the All-Star Game tonight. You guys in for that?”

“Sure, I don't have anything else planned.”

“Is there going to be drinking?”

“You ask that about everything.”

“It's always a valid question.”

“Not in response to 'Let's go play laser tag.'!”

“If you think laser tag is fun sober, you should try it drunk.”

“I'd think they'd frown on that.”

“You'd be surprised. As long as you don't puke on the guns they're pretty much okay with it.”

“Enough about puke. Sara actually devised an All-Star drinking game, so we can actually drink if you like.”

“Sounds like she had a productive day at work yesterday.”

“She must have. You did hear Frank say she made up a drinking game right?”

“I'm sure her bosses loved that.”

“Well they should. It looks like a good game, well thought out. We actually have to split into teams, and drink based on what either the National or American league do.”

“Sounds decent. Do we have beer?”

Billy goes to the fridge to check. “We have some. We should probably pick up another case.”

“We'll leave that to you. When is the game on? Seven like normal?”

“Actually, it's on at eight. It's a national broadcast so they want it on in prime time on the east coast. It'll be five in San Francisco.”

“Why do we care what time it's on in San Francisco?”

“Well, the game itself is being playing in San Francisco.”

“Oh. Well Billy's going to get more beer, I actually have a job interview now. I'll be back later.”

“Job interview? Decided to actually earn money this summer?”

“Yeah. It's an office job. I'd just be answering phones and that kind of thing. If Scott and Billy are going to keep insisting we drink pretty much every night I'm going to need more cash.”

“Well good luck!”

“Break a leg.”

“I think they only say that in show business.”

“Oh. Well, at least if you break a leg getting the job you'll have insurance right?”

“I doubt breaking a leg at the job interview would leave a good impression actually. I probably wouldn't get the job.”

“They frown upon drinking games in hospitals too.”

“Good luck!” Frank calls as Tabitha leaves.

“I don't really understand this gainful employment stuff you guys are so into. Seems like such a drag.”

By the way, the drinking game Sara devised can be found at MLB All Star Drinking Game. Enjoy!