A Weekend and a Night

We had a wonderful weekend with our guests; showed them some places, learned about some new places ourselves. The more time I spend in the city, the more certain I grow that I know nothing about it. Gotta love that.

Saturday night saw us in our first New York nightlife hotspot. Shocking, no? A library school student and a guy who writes computer programs for fun hadn't hit up the clubs yet? Unbelievable, I know. There we were though, sipping our $15 martinis and looking sooo underdressed in our jeans and sneakers. It was one of those bars you'd expect to see in a Sex and the City knockoff, with clusters of 20 and 30-somethings strutting from door to bar to table. The women were impossibly (and fakely, no doubt) blonde and their dresses looked gorgeous and expensive. A swivel of my head took me from table to table in the dining area, where plates of food were picked at and glasses of wine sipped. A suave-looking dj mixed music in his little elevated booth.

At one point, some time after we had arrived, it struck me how fragile the whole scene seemed. How much money does it cost to keep a nightlife wardrobe up to date? How often do these people eat $40 dishes with $100 of drinks washing it all down? Are they all making salaries that can sustain this sort of life? Maybe, maybe not. And what happens if they lose those salaries? Could this have been my own glimpse into the Roaring '20s? A lifestyle that can't last? A regular Saturday night?