The Happiest of Hours

drink and give thanks

If you ask me, there are few things in life that are more sacred than "Happy Hour", say it out loud. Happy... Hour.... it rolls off the tongue and sends shivers up the spine with the promise of post-work revelry and camaraderie between co-workers and loved ones alike. I love Happy Hour and it usually accumulates in a perfect storm of my three favorite things; not working, cheap booze and my roommates. It's hard to go wrong with drink specials in general, and I think my three roommates and myself have proven that we will drink just about anything, anywhere if we're together.

$4.89 bottles of "champagne" in our kitchen.

Moonshine made out of like, roots or something at a friends BBQ in Queens.

Sparks on the C train

Infamous Cheese-Tinis at the revolting Manhattan Bistro.

NINE bottles of wine in a single night with my GRANDPARENTS at their home

Sketchy unlimited "sangria" at the sadly now-out-of-business "Playa"

And what we liked to call "breakfast" in our old kitchen

Yes, our standards are unusually low (barring the amazing grandparent -wine situation) but every once in while we like to class it up by democratically choosing a Happy Hour destination that will meet as many of our varying needs as possible.

I prefer dive bars and $2 PBR that I can drink with a straw while listening to old Modest Mouse songs surrounded by plaid, Chrissy likes the 1/2 priced martinis, velvet wallpaper and cozy fireplace at the Dove Parlor, Kristy likes a strong "vodka-diet" (not to be confused with the "vokda-rum" she once ordered) and business men with their neckties loosened, and Holly likes... tequila and Jewish dudes (and this certainly carries over to pretty much every other area of her life including her dancing preferences and work environment).

So, if one had to draw a vendiagram with four circles representing each roommate and their Happy Hour desires, there would be little overlapage. Wherever could we find a bar that has a cheap beer and tequila shot combo, plaid velvet wallpaper, with jewish business men drinking 1/2 price martinis by a fire place?! Does such a heaven-on-earth exist? And does it have unicorns as bartenders??

Probably not, still the prevailing theme of all of our Happy Hours truly is, well... happiness. We are happy to be done working, we are happy to be with each other and we are sure happy to be dinking syrup-ey "swamp water" from a fish bowl at Brother Jimmy's.

I can tell you with the utmost sincerity that hearing my roommates laugh their asses off recounting their workday and making plans for the weekend can totally make up for Brother Jimmy's (or similar) fratty clientele, top-40 tunes and the fact that there are televisions that are showing... gasp... SPORTS. So while we email each other back and forth, making suggestions, frantically searching NYMag.com and citysearch for our unicorn utopia of cheap booze, dudes and places to sit we are comforted by the fact that the week is almost over and we will have two full days of FDP fun.

Forever Your Girl,

Paige