Here's a photo of the "afterhours" party we went to in an abandoned building that got shut down about 20 minutes after it opened because a big fight broke out (that may or may not have been instigated by a drunk and belligerent Meredith! Ha!).
The door had one of the those locks that requires a key from the inside. After we finished our game, we woke Pauly up and tried to leave, but the bartender totally misplaced his keys and we were all stuck inside 15 minutes until he found them. Pauly just wanted to get into bed.
In the summer of 2008, word of Nicole's freakish strength had spread through Manhattan like wildfire and each night scores of gentlemen were lining up to see if they were man enough to pin her! Lefty (who was arm wrestling with his right hand?) went first! I think he came really close...
The timestamp on this photo says 4:06am. The bar is closed and the gates are down. With all that squared away, that meant it was time for AFTERHOURS ARM WRESTLING!
Scott, Alexandra and I piled into Ramses car and headed for club ECHO (you have to whisper it: ECHO!). When we got there, the place was closed. Ramses explained that afterhours clubs in Aruba only open if they feel like there will be enough people for them to have a good night. So what you do is, hang out outside the place and wait for more people to show up. When a large enough group has congregated, they open the joint up. We were only outside for 10 minutes or so and VOILA, they opened the place up.
So by this point in the night, we'd told everyone that we'd flown in without a place to stay and that we planned on partying ALL NIGHT our first two days and sleeping in the car for a few hours each morning. So when when the Paddock had last call at 2am, the group (still clearly riding high from our Jersey-pride fueled rendition of Bon Jovi's seminal hit "Livin' on A Prayer"), was only too happy to indulge the "crazy New Yorkers," and suggested we all head to an all night karaoke afterhours club. ("An Arubian all night karaoke afterhours club." Is there a sweeter phrase in the world?)
By the way, as we were getting ready to leave the Paddock, the bartender put a stack of plastic cups on the bar. When I inquired what they were for, our new friend Inge explained that they were "to go" cups for your drinks. She mistook my blank stare of disbelief and explained further, "You know, in case you're not done with your drink - you pour it in one of those and then you have it with you for the car ride to where ever you're going next." Me: "Um, but isn't it illegal to drink and drive?" Inge: "I don't think so. Wait, maybe it's illegal for the driver to be drinking, but it doesn't matter. Everyone does it anyway." Me: "Isn't that dangerous?" Inge: "Not really, there are only a few roads and the speed limit is 35mph everywhere - so even if you crash no one really ever gets hurt." Um. Yeah. O-kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
