I have made a complete transitioned into piratehood last night as everything I drank was made with rum.

Rum. Yum.

I can blame Master Greg for this new addiction.  The orange juice + 7up + rum that he had at his 4th of July party got me hooked.  So if I’m don’t feel like a beer and can’t really handle a martini, I ended up asking the bartender to surprise me with “something with rum, just not coke”.

Last night, as you might have seen the updates on my Twitter, was hell of fun.  One of my rare impromptu night out, and the first one with my coworkers Dave and Nik and former coworker Erin.  It all started innocently enough.

I got a few usual suspects together after work last night at Suede to congratulate Nik on his upcoming wedding.  Great turn out for this non-bachelor party for the Groom To Be!  [Insert 1.5 servings of the OakMonster: orange juice, grenadine and rum.)  Dave kept trying to leave to head home so he could party in his neck of the woods, the east end of West Hollywood, without having to worry about driving.  After much discussion and convincing, the Groom, Sequoia, Erin and I decided to converged with Dave in a few hours.

First stop, Bar Lubitsch.  This is where I had the best rum drink ever, served up by our gorgeous bartender.  Dark and Stormy consists of dark rum, lime juice, and ginger beer.  Obviously a rare find at bars because most place doesn’t carry ginger beer.  So. Totally. Delicious.  Here an absinthe drinking lady befriended us.  I got to finally taste absinthe.  And it wasn’t pretty.

I did enjoy the taste.  However, if there is no chance that you’d hallucinate on the U.S. version, why bother, really?  Without the real green fairy, absinthe is just like fancy licorice Everclear…

…which when Nik arrived, he ordered a properly prepared glass.  And the boy DOWNED it at the encouragement of 2 Ruskies next to us.  I mean, Nik shot the fucking absinthe!

The rest of the evening was filled with more booze, a little dancing, equal parts of trash talking about other people and some soul gazing, deep conversation.

Oh, and then we hopped the bar over to our original first choice (which Sequoia couldn’t locate and therefore went on with her friends to party elsewhere), Winstons.  Very cool bar.  Here I sipped dark rum, pineapple juice, triple sec and soda concoction.  We also had stopped counting what number of beer Erin was on, nor the vodka and cranberry or Greyhound Dave and Nik were having.  We did, however, took notice that I seriously banged my knee on one of their chic black  wooden chair.  The girls at the table went “Ooooh!” when I hit it.  I kept walking on to walk off the pain.  But I mean, seriously, a BLACK chair in a dark club.  Whose fuckin’ brilliant idea was that?

Not a few minutes after Nik left, some big Asian girl grabbed Erin and started dancing with her.  Erin laughed her butt off and looked at Dave and me.  The Asian Girl saw Dave and dragged him off the bar stool to dance with her.

Well, more like groping Dave and molesting him for a few minutes.

Erin and I couldn’t even sit on the bar stool we were laughing so hard at Dave’s desperate and feeble attempt to get away, and his pleading expression for us to bail him out.

On that high note, Erin and I left Dave to himself and headed to Astro Burger.  And wow, the BEST veggie burger I’ve ever had in my life!  Then again, I was buzzed and hungry.  But man, that sounds REALLY good right now!

I got home around 2 a.m.  And predictably passed out.

And now, here I am, nursing a minor hangover and a swollen welt on my left knee cap.

But my god.  That was THE BEST TIME I’ve had this year!