All that was missing was the guys' ties knotted around their heads

It's 10 p.m. and my husband isn't home yet.

But this isn't anything unusual. In fact, it would be unusual to see my husband before 9:30 p.m. Such is the life of a banker in NYC.

This is why it was so great that both of us were able to let loose on Thursday - something he doesn't even really have an opportunity to do - starting at the ridiculously early time of 7:15 p.m.
The sushi place near where Brent works was running an all-you-can-eat-and-drink special last Thursday, so one of his work buddies, Max, made reservations for a few of the guys for dinner. (I met Max in Cancun because Brent and I happened to be on vacation in the same place at the same time as he and his girlfriend, so we all, obviously, went out and got wasted in Cancun.)

But because the fiancee of one of the guys was in town, they decided that wives/girlfriends could be invited to join. That meant, essentially, that I was able to join the four guys and the one guy's finacee for dinner, but I didn't care because it meant that I was able to actually spend time with my husband during the week.

So after getting to the restaurant and making fun of Max for making reservations - seeing since we were literally the only six people in the place - we began to honor the precedence we set in Cancun by ordering several pitchers of (all-you-can-drink) beer and glasses of sake. And then I proceeded to order several rounds of what has become my absolute favorite sushi: sweet potato! Mmmmm!

And the fiancee, Kelly, was actually really sweet and cool - and essentially is in the exact same position I was in in late 2007 (fiancee living in New York, getting ready to move from a small town to the big city, nervous as hell about it, etc.) So I spent a good part of dinner telling her how much fun she was going to have in the city, and told her to drop me a line when she got here so we can hang out. Yay for more friends!

After more than two-and-a-half hours of stuffing ourselves with sushi and filling the gaps with alcohol, the restaurant owners started shutting off the lights and telling us they were closing up. At 9:45 p.m. in New York. Unheard of.

So we did what anyone would do after about seven or so rounds of toasts of sake bombs: find a bar to go to.

We settled on the bar right across the street from where the guys all work - somewhere I've always suggested to Brent that we should meet at since it's right there, anyway - and Brent decided it would be a good idea to order everyone a round of tequila. Tequila does not an early night make. We ended up shutting down that bar, which wasn't too hard, since those owners informed us it was too slow to stay open, even though it was just about midnight by then.

WTF? A bar closing at MIDNIGHT? Did we accidentally migrate into Jersey?

To prove a point (I think we were trying to prove a point, anyway; we were all pretty drunk by then) we started walking in search of a bar that was still open. So we wouldn't have to walk aimlessly for too long, I used the "Around Me" iPhone app to find one. Yay for the iPhone!

But since we were going to pass two bars on our way to the one that the iPhone GPS was telling us to go to, we decided to go into the bar without the rude guys in front who didn't answer me when I asked them if they were at a fun bar. Or else they didn't hear me ask: I didn't really care; the bar we chose had a pool table! And it was open!

After nearly two more hours of drinking and eating several plates of bar food (as if all-you-can-eat-sushi wasn't enough) I convinced the guys to call it a night. We had been drinking for, oh, seven hours and I had to work the next day (the guys had the bank holiday off).

It wasn't until we were on our way home that I mentioned to Brent that while the one other couple we were with would often be holding hands, the two of us didn't interact much at all. Heck, we didn't even sit next to each other at any of the places that we visited. I spent the majority of the evening talking to Kelly, listening to the guys tell stories about how Brent is at work, and sharing a bunch of how Brent is at home.

"It's because we're such a strong couple that we didn't need to," he replied.

Though I would have liked to spend a little more quality time with the hubby, as I originally expected, it's nice to know that he is right.

Burgers, beer, and owls?

If you ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a different restaurant in Manhattan every single day, it would take you FIVE ENTIRE YEARS to eat at every restaurant on this island. While that statistic includes all the Olive Garden and TGI Friday’s chain restaurants peppered around Times Square, it also counts tiny wine and cheese bars spread out like gems around the city.

So on one of my very first free weekday evenings – where I don’t have to worry about going from my main job right to the coffee shop for another eight hours of work - I decide to spend it with my former coffee shop colleagues – Rigo, Deirdra, Maxi and honorary colleague, Blair. At Hooters.

Full disclosure – I was in mixed company, meaning one person who I very much like and wanted to hang out with, is 20 years old. That automatically disqualified any and all bars (thanks Maxi). Secondly, I was with several college students, so that, understandably, automatically disqualified anywhere expensive. Thirdly, I was not going to Wendy’s or McDonald’s, so we settled on Hooters on West 56th St. and Broadway two blocks away from my apartment

Now before you go making any judgments, at least this particular Hooters location has a claim to fame. The final scene of the movie Big Daddy starring Adam took place there. Yep – that’s how I’m justifying it. And hey – it was a place with beer and burgers. What more could you want?