don't tell my mom...

last night after posting, i took an excedrin PM and forgot about the whole thing. well, i didn't forget forget, it just stopped mattering. this morning i woke up hazy and a little hungover (because Excedrin PM just does that). i was downstairs eating my breakfast when my mom says, "did you hear about the fire in the club in Argentina? like 150 people died." no, i hadn't so i went to look it up. there is an article at new york times about this. i wanted to know which club it was at, because i do still have a lot of friends in Buenos Aires. it was at a club called "republica de la cromagnon," and most of the people who were there were teens. it's horrible what happened, but i don't think anyone of my friends would have been there. i do know about a handful of "teens" (namely my host sister and brother, who are like 16 and 18), but i don't think they would have been there becuase they are the field hockey and rugby playing types, and judging by the name (which isn't always the best but we'll have another example shortly to follow) i don't think they would have been there.

a similar situation almost happened to me when i was in buenos aires. it was in november or december of 2002, and i was hanging out with my girlfriends that night. one of them had another friend, who was cool, but she really really wanted to go to this club called the Roxy. i groaned upon hearing the name, but we compromised by going to milion (this posh bar built in a huge old mansion - my favorite spot in buenos aires) beforehand.

the roxy was in this place where there a few other bars and clubs i'd been to before. one of these was Buenos Aires News, which is definitely NOT my favorite club, but i'll go there if everyone else is going and we can't think of anywhere else. anyhow, the roxy was located underneath the tracks in this area. we first met up with the boy toy of one of my friends. Sebastian arrives, and we enter the club.

i guess upon entering i realized that this was not my type of club. it's not that they were playing cumbia or anything, but they were playing rock, and it was just not my scene. all the boys had mullets, and there were no lacoste/legacy/RL Polo shirts (the uniform of the chetos) to be seen. so i figured, ok, i'll just chill with my friends a while and if it sucks so bad i can just leave by myself. one of my friends started flirting with her sebastian, and the other one was just hanging out with them on some couches. i was over there with them for a while, and then their other friend suggests we walk around and maybe see what's going on in the other room. i believe this was kind of a fortunate move. the club had two rooms to it, but in each they were playing pretty much the same kind of music, if not the same song. anyhow, cynthia and I left A, L, and Sebastian on the couches, and we went to see what was going on. i was a little annoyed upon arriving at this other room, because there were no boys that i liked, and it is kind of annoying to be at a club with just one other girl, esp. one that you don't know very well. but anyway, we were dancing and i guess by instinct or intuition, i stopped and looked at the front of the room, where there was a stage. i saw flames engulf the curtains that were surrounding this little stage, and i stood there for just a second, until i felt actual heat on my face and realized oh, that's fire! by instinct i turned an exact 180 degrees and started walking in the opposite direction, not really knowing if this was the way out. i had gotten a little turned around from entering this second room, so i didn't realize that you had to turn to the right to get towards the front door. so when i stopped walking, i found myself in this patio kind of room that was surrounded by walls. in the middle of a mental debate over go back the right way or not, a girl walked in front of me and opened one of the windows, and climbed out. i followed her.

phew. so i found myself on the outside of the club. i followed the walkway to arrive at the street, where everyone who was once inside the club was now gathering. i yelled at this one guy because he kept insisting that i kiss him. hello you freaking moron, i just jumped out a window to escape smoke and flames, i am separated from my friends and you want me to kiss you? are you retarded? and then i left him to go find my friends. cynthia was the first one i found, so we walked back to the curb and stood there, figuring we'd see the others sooner or later. smoke was pouring out of the back of the club. fortunately, everybody was pretty calm, either because they were drunk or horny (and nervous men don't get the action they're seeking, so they had no other choice than to be calm). we heard from some other people that the fire had been contained quickly, so it wasn't a catastrophe. that was good to hear. eventually, we see A and L and sebastian. we waited for what seemed like hours, because we still had our stuff in the coat check. so after everyone had found their stuff, it was already getting light out, so we decided that we would just go to breakfast. i love that about clubbing in buenos aires - you stay out so late that the only after party you're thinking of is breakfast. or you could always go to pacha where they have after parties that last till 3 the next afternoon.

i never told my mom this story. i didn't want her to get nervous.