  ...or at least industry parties. So my new BFF Victoria (whom I met at church) was nice enough to call and invite me to join her at an "industry party. " She has explained her job to me at least twice, and I still have not even the most elementary grasp of it.
From what I can gather, it has to do with the business end of the fashion industry. I think. She had to drop off a CD to a client, but wasn't sure what the "lameness factor" would be, so she wanted to insure a fun time by taking a friend, in this case, me. The party was in the Meat Packing district, which is way downtown and west in Manhattan. It's one of those places that you can tell is the next big thing, like Soho was, and then Williamsburg in Brooklyn was. There are uber-chic restaurants, clubs, and...warehouses. Entire streets of empty warehouses, which gives the whole neighborhood a rather empty, creepy feel. We pull up in front of one such warehouse...the cabbie goes "we're here. " and we look at one another. Other than a bouncer and a tiny portion of velvet rope, there's no one on the entire street, and no indication that this is a club at all.
The front of the place is graffiti-laden and dilapidated. It literally looks like somewhere meat is packed, and until a year ago, it probably was. We walk in to find a very swanky club, and a surprisingly unpretentious crowd. A fair share of beautiful people, but everyone seems to genuinely be enjoying themselves. I pick up a magazine sitting on the bar, and am informed that the staff of the magazine are hosting this particular soiree. I can tell from the cover that its all about...techno. Illlllch. My heart sinks...I guess there's no hope of the music improving.
Everyone else seems to be enjoying it, so I try to go with the flow. Victoria was great to go out with, and definitely made me feel included in her conversations. However, there was one point early on where she had to speak with her client, and she politely excused herself to do so. Enter awkward situation. I immediately thought three things: 1. Oh, no. Awkwardness. 2. I love to hear Jessi Dobos's anecdotes about awkward situations. 3. I am totally going to blog about this.
I survey the room and try to figure out what to do. What is the best way to look cool without looking like I'm TRYING to do so? Hmmm. My first inclination would be to simply go to the bar..it's a time killer...I can wait for the bartender to take my order, get a water or club soda, and just wait it out there. This was not an option because we'd just done that, so I had a full cranberrry juice in my hand. Crap. I could sit down....but Victoria had said she's only be a minute, and I would have to cross the room and abandon her in order to do so. So, it looked like I pretty much was left with "stand there and try to look non-chalant. " I looked around, and noticed at least three people looking at me as if to say "why is that girl just standing there by herself, not moving, looking about nervously? " Double crap, non-chalance had failed. I needed a prop. So I reached into my purse, balancing my drink, and dug around for my cell phone.
I found it, and pretended to check the time or something for a few seconds. Anywhere except a noisy club, I could have just made a non-important call, but the dull thud of techno was much too loud for any hope of that. Once, twice, three times a-crappy. I began to feel that Junior High part of me rise up, to my horror. I suddenly felt very unsure of myself, very "least cool girl at the party" I then notice that the man standing beside me is buying, only mildly discreetly, some form of designer drug.
Gooooooooooooooooood. I try to put a "I don't want to buy any drugs" face on...it seems to work. I also gave the guy doing the drugs a little bit of a dirty look, hoping my obvious disgust would be enough to make him re-think the choices he's made in life and possibly enroll in re-hab. The look did not seem to work. Eventually, Victoria introduced me to her client, who ended up giving me his business card and telling me to call him regarding an internship/part-time job.
He's the Creative Director for urlLink Spiewak . Spiewak is a clothing company that also does music and some other related PR things. urlLink Urban Outfitters carries a lot of their line. He also seemed fairly confident that he could get urlLink The Pretty Weapons on their concert series bill (which is in conjunciton with urlLink Revolver Magazine ) I did not mention that it happens to be my boyfriend's band, since I knew that would blow my street cred in getting them on the bill. Speaking of my BF, he's on his way here as we speak. I am so so so excited. Like Jessi Spano. That is not a sufficient amount of "so's", but the right amount would be really annoying. So.......that's all for now. (so.
) 
