Being the day before Independence Day, my friends and I decided to go out with my promoter. Nobody worked on the 4th, so a little unruliness was in store. My promoter was going to meet us in meatpacking at 1 Oak and Avenue, where he had a table for the night. We showed up to 1 Oak at 11:45 and were asked to stand in line for a little bit. Clubs make people stand in lines, to make it look like the club is hoppin,’ even if there is no one on the inside. Being with a promoter meant we got to cut the line, but for some reason the burly man wasn’t letting us in at the time we were assigned.
My New York friends decided to come with me and we all agreed on dressing in red white and blue. I think they misunderstood the term “patriotic” because most of them ended up wearing their blue dresses from recruitment. I was sporting a cropped tank with two bald eagles on it, one starred and one striped. I paired this with a black sequined skirt (to dress it up a little bit) and some 6” blue suede wedges. I got a lot of compliments on my outfit, but was practically the only one dressed patriotically. I was so surprised that people in New York City weren’t really going all-out in 4th of July costumes! People in Idaho dress like red neck ‘murricans, so the night crawlers of NYC should have been overdoing themselves.
When it was time to check our ID, the bouncer reached and grabbed me. He told me to go into the club and that I couldn’t wait outside for my group of friends. He said “move, move, move,” as he patted my back through the doorway. I feel like sometimes they treat women as cattle at these clubs. I went into 1 Oak all by myself. I waited and thought it was strange how they were letting us in to sparingly. For some weird reason, the bouncers weren’t letting most of the other girls in. Because of this, I left 1 Oak. I wasn’t going to stay if my friends weren’t getting let in. 1 Oak is one of the harder clubs to get in to, my promoter said, but the bouncers were also on a huge power trip. We were a little snarky and joked about how, in 30 years, we would all have good jobs, and they’d still be bouncing.
We walked to the Number 8 club instead, where there were a lot of people inside and less-restrictive bouncers. The club was decorated like a tropical paradise. It had rosy pink walls painted with a palm desert mural. An insanely tall blonde girl seated us at a table. Her proportions were that of a real life Barbie. With her long legs, she stood over six feet tall. She was wearing a hot pink dress and matching lipstick. She had the longest, straightest bleached blonde ponytail that I’ve ever seen. This hair was definitely an extension as one of the girls I was with pointed out. Yes, she was beautiful, but at the same time almost creepy. Personally, I just like more wholesome looking people.
At three, the party was dying down, and I decided it would be best to get some rest in preparation for the activities that the 4th would hold. My original plan was to attend a rooftop party that my friend Lynn invited me to, but I had to turn that offer down in order to check Long Island off my summer bucket-list. There are not a whole lot of places in the city to get out and relax in the sun, so when I was extended an invite out to the beach, I decided that I couldn’t say no. Plus, how could anything possibly go wrong with our nation’s birthday, iced cold beer, and BBQ?
Always,
Alena Netia Horowitz
