The bachelorette party!

After the wonderful, classy bridal shower, us ladies got down to the real business at hand: the bachelorette party. Erica and Kelly handed out purple beads, sunglasses, and a special giant, blinking engagement ring for me to compliment our outfits. I had no clue what was planned; I was told to show up at the curb outside our apartment at 10pm. Initially, I thought a scavenger hunt was at hand.

I should have known better.

Awaiting us was a sweet limousine and Tanesha the driver. I was completely flabbergasted. We all climbed into the limo and Erica and Kelly doled out the champagne as we headed into Manhattan. Erica also made the most amazing mix of songs to ever grace my ears - the entire time we were in the limo I believe we spent it singing along to our favourite songs and seat-dancing (old pastime).

Our first stop was the bar Maritime, underneath the hotel of the same name. It was pretty sophisticated and we drank prosecco and danced. Angela also showed up at this point, as she would travel with us for the rest of the night!

[I should also say here that Jiscilla is still working on the photos from the rest of the night - this is only the beginning! It's also why we look so coherent. Don't worry, you'll be able to tell the time of the night by the deterioration of my crown. These pictures are from Maritime, and the rest I'll soon have up in a photo album.]

After the Maritime, we piled into the limo to head uptown to Barcelona, a bar with an amazing selection of....shots. We entered the bar and a space cleared for our rowdy party. We proceeded to order the Harry Potter shot in which the bartender put on a scarf and glasses and held a wand above our ten shots which he then set on fire. Don't worry - we have visual documentation of this amazingness, you'll see it soon. We downed it.

I believe it was Katie Brown who threw on a slew of amazing songs on the juke box and returned to tell us that there was another bachelorette party in the small bar, at the back. They were definitely not having as much fun as we were - simply standing together sipping their drinks while we hugged, laughed, and screamed. They promptly left.

Before I knew it, "Just a Girl" came on over the jukebox and we all started singing. This may or may not have sounded like screaming or yelling - the night became quite a whirlwind at this point. I do know Amber climbed on the bar and got underneath the beer tap for a swig, which the bartender was loving. We took some sort of orgasm shot that was quite gross in demonstration, I wouldn't want to recount it, but since it was the raunchiest thing that happened at THIS bachelorette party, it was the perfect touch. I took two of those.

Mandy Moore's "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" was our next scream along. Then Paramore's "Misery Business" - at which point we were all standing on the bar step and dancing and yelling and slapping the bar to the beat. Yeah. THEN Motion City Soundtrack's "LGFUAD" came on - I think it was that one, I know it was MCS! - and we were all screaming and the girls were all "You're marrying this guy!" and Perry had a great quote from the night on her blog:

Bouncer to patron: That girl is marrying the dude in this band.
Patron: What band?
Bouncer: The one playing in the bar right now!

Then two of us did the Top Gun shot in which we were instructed to put on a hat and aviators and they played "Danger Zone." Classic. So, then we (the life of the bar) left Barcelona and headed to Niagara for some dancing and utter randomness.

Here's what we could gather. A group of us headed to the basement to dance, and then we all came up to the non-working photobooth and talked to a bunch of curious people. Gaby was talking in Hebrew to a couple of men, and people thought Jiscilla was our hired photographer for the evening. One woman managed to get into A LOT of our pictures. Christy nearly yelled at the woman's friend who was wearing a t-shirt with the British flag on it: "ARE YOU BRITISH?!" At some point she also yelled at a guy on a rickshaw who tried to talk to me. Love her. Oh, and I kept on slamming my amazing fake ring on the limo window to see if anyone on the outside could see it. By this time, my crown was securely on crooked and bent.

We exited Niagara to get some pizza across the street. All I remember is pointing at a slice of white spinach pizza and plopping down at a table, slightly hunched over, scarfing, and eyes half-open. I was also highly amused my Amber's purchase of a pig-in-a-blanket.

The girls in the wedding party bid adieu to the rest of the ladies who lived in Manhattan, and we climbed back into the limo. WHICH HAD BEEN SWITCHED! Seriously, we got into the limo and it was a completely different one! But we took it all in nonchalantly, and continued the party. The next morning we affectionately called this the "tumbling" part of the evening, as Christy referred to all of us like being in a washing/drying machine in the back of the limo. We were all over the place. We were still singing and dancing, but also half asleep.

Note: this picture is NOT from the end of the night. Those look A LOT different. Ha.

We made it home safe, and as I was washing my face Amber walked into the bathroom and I apparently tried to make her harmonize with me while singing a single note into the mirror. Typical. Kelly was doing her Barry Gibbs impression. Jiscilla has an incoherent and dark video of these final, break-of-dawn moments (never to see the light of day) and we all fell into our beds with smiles on our faces.

We all had so much fun. The next morning we woke up like zombies. But with some water and a few motrin, we were ready for brunch. The weekend continued for us on Sunday, and I'll have more on that tomorrow.

Jesse remarked on how glad he was that "nothing bad happened," since sometimes a group of people embibing a lot of spirits and traipsing around the city could lead to some pretty harried hijinks. However, I was surrounded by my best friends all night. There's a reason I keep them close - I know none of them suck. None of them are drama queens. None of them would ever endanger us. We all like fun! We all have our wits about us! I will be friends with these girls for life. As it always is when we hang out, there's never an awkward moment or negativity. We cherish each other and celebrate our friendship. MY FRIENDS RULE.