Jersey and music and shopping, oh my!

This week has been full of events we just couldn’t seem to say “No” to.

Let’s start with Saturday…
Hoboken’s official St. Patty’s Day parade and bar crawl. We met up with a couple of Jackie’s high school friends and roamed around the streets of Hoboken before deciding to pay the ridiculous $20 cover charge for Hennessy’s Public House, an Irish bar near the PATH train station. We danced around for about an hour, bought a $6 Bud Light (in a green bottle, of course), and caught a free t-shirt some ancient bartender threw into the crowd. When you do the calculation, we really each paid $26 for ONE beer. Yea, I know, it’s pretty silly—but we had to experience a Hoboken bar during the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

After finishing our overpriced beer, we went a few parties along Washington Street, Hoboken’s main drag. At one party, where we met up with Brie’s friend from grad school, we hung out on the balcony that overlooked Washington, hooted and hollered at some bag pipers and got them to serenade us with their Irish tunes. Not only did they put on an impromptu performance for those of us on the balcony and 800 block of Washington, but, per our request, they entered the party (at which we only knew two people, who didn’t even live there), formed a circle in the living room and played for the entire party!

Furthermore, we were probably the only two people in all of Hoboken who stayed sober that day. We walked around, enjoyed the 60 degree weather, had lunch at Pita Grill (which we highly recommend) did a little shopping, and ate some delicious Tasti D-lite (with rainbow sprinkles of course!). Yes, we were berated by some of our friends for not pounding down the lager, but it was worth it to remain in a sober state.

Because of the drunk antics of 99.9% of Hoboken’s crowd this “St. Patty’s Day,” next year’s parade/festivities might be cancelled. Supposedly, a girl and a guy were having sex in a window as the parade went by and some jerk spit in a fireman’s face! That’s classy Hobokenites. However, we had quite the time experiencing Hoboken sober and chatting about the ridiculousness which occurred all around us.

And Sunday:
David (the Geek Whisperer) and the two of us spent a lovely Sunday afternoon wandering around Midtown and planning for our upcoming trip to Costa Rica. We munched on fruit and David sipped on a chocolate shake from the Shake Shack, while spreading out our Costa information in Madison Square Park and chatting about our possible itinerary. That evening, the three of us met up with Dan, someone Jackie knows from high school, for a diner dinner before heading to a Southside Johnny concert at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill.
The show was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. David said that it was the most fun at a concert he ever had and we might have to agree! The two of us are used to being the only peeps rocking out and dancing around during live musical performances, but this wasn’t the case at B.B. Kings. The dance floor was filled with Southside Johnny lovers, all of them dancing and singing along to his awesome tunes. We were, by far, the youngest people there (most of the other concert goers were old enough to be our parents and grandparents), but we didn’t feel like we stood out at all.

The performance was killer, but the encore was even better! Steven Van Zandt (Little Steven) of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band (and founding member of the Asbury Jukes in the mid-70’s) joined Johnny on stage and the two had an impromptu jam sesh. Johnny has an amazing stage presence and really engages the audience, often taking requests and chatting with fans in between songs.

We should also mention that B.B. King Blues Club & Grill is a superb venue. It’s small and intimate with great acoustics and a rad line-up of performances, including a weekly Saturday “Beatles Brunch” which we are dying to attend!

Can’t forget about Wednesday’s Girls Night Out:
On Wednesday night, we left our (non-existent) boys at home to attend Shecky’s Girls Night Out, a giant sample sale with nearly 100 vendors! It was heaven. The tickets are free to www.sheckys.com visitors, or you can pay $30 and get a goodie bag filled with $100 worth of swag. Needless to say, we obviously had to get the goodie bag!

We spent nearly four hours wandering around Terminal Shops, visiting vendors, sipping on free cocktails, snacking on chocolate fondue, and rummaging through unique jewelry and clothes. We spent a bit of money (we are two girls who love fashion), but we got some killer jewelry, dresses (never anything we can wear to work—we are also two girls who love to play!), and unique Indian tunics (incredibly beautiful!). Below are pictures of some of the amazing things we purchased and links to the websites.
Get this dress, and many others, at www.vfishdesigns.com.
More Indian tunics for sale at www.lishkarausa.com. They will fit each piece to your body, and, if you are in the NYC-area, will hand deliver to your home.

XOXOXO,
Jackie and Brie