Okay friends, sit back and relax because this story is gonna be a good one!

This story takes us all the way to The Big Apple – New York City! My friend and I were visiting NYC for a continuing education conference and I should have known something was up from the moment we tried to leave RVA to get there. Everyone knows the best way to get to NYC is Amtrak, so we booked our train tickets and arrived at the station about 45 minutes before our train departed. Once we got there, we found out our train was delayed. Okay, no big deal – we’re not really in a hurry to get there. Little did we know our train would be delayed for SIX HOURS. After a trip to Starbucks and breaking into our stash of train wine early, we were finally on our way to NYC. We made it as far as D.C. before being delayed another TWO HOURS. Honestly, at this point all we could do was laugh. Good thing we had enough drinks to get us through the ride. We finally arrived at Penn Station at 4 A.M. and made it to the apartment where we were staying.

The next day, we arrived at our conference bright and early, determined to get our credits in early so we could spend the rest of the time having some fun. After the first day of the conference was over, my friend wanted to walk around Time Square because she had never been to NYC. We walked around a while, got roped into seeing a comedy show, and ended up getting drinks at Hard Rock Cafe. Obviously, this wasn’t really my scene, so I started searching for some nearby dive bars. Luckily, there was one just around the block from where we were – Rudy’s Bar & Grill.

I knew we were at the right place when I noticed the huge, Instagram-worthy pig statue outside the bar. Rudy’s is a cash-only bar that serves up cheap pitchers of beer and the only food they have is $1 hot dogs. Obviously, this was the place for me. We ordered a pitcher of the namesake blonde beer (only $8 a pitcher in NYC, which is basically unheard of) and took a seat at one of the cracked linoleum booths in the corner.

After a little while at our booth, a guy we’ll call Zack came over and started talking to my friend. I defaulted to sitting there and drinking my beer while they chatted until Zack’s friend walked through the bar. He said a quick hello to Zack, then went out to the patio area in the back. After sitting by and listening to my friend and Zack flirt, I decided to give them some alone time and headed out back as well.

It was early enough that there weren’t many people in the bar at this point and I sparked up a conversation with Zack’s friend – we’ll call him Isaac. I’m not usually the one to start a conversation with someone else, and I’m still not sure why I did, but we wouldn’t have this story without it. I don’t remember exactly how we continued the conversation, but eventually, all four of us ended up outside sitting at a metal picnic table getting to know each other over pitchers of beer. We stayed at Rudy’s for a little while before heading out to a couple of other bars that night. I have no recollection of the names of any of the other bars, but I remember the night ended with Zack showing my friend of video of him fighting with some guy, which was our cue to head back to the apartment.

It was almost 4 A.M. and of course, almost nothing could go right on this trip, so when we arrived back at the apartment, we couldn’t get the key to the front door of building to work. We tried for about ten minutes before finally getting into the building. On the way up to the apartment, I tripped and fell into the recycling bins sitting at the bottom of the stairs and could barely catch my breath from laughing all the way up the stairs. The next morning I woke up to a dead phone and a headache. Once I had finally charged my phone, I was pleasantly surprised to find a text from Isaac. My friend and I slowly made our way to the conference, where we struggled through another day of lectures.

The next night, we went back to Rudy’s to meet up with Isaac. Of course, we ran into Zack, but my friend didn’t feel like talking to him anymore so we sent him on his way. I sat and talked to Isaac the whole night (I’ll spare you guys the details about how I felt like we were the only two people in that bar and how my friend noticed that he would watch me walk away whenever I left the table…) and my friend met a Turkish guy who made her a rose out of a napkin. We talked about the big things: where we were from, what kind of music we like, what I do for a living; and we talked about the little things: his favorite dog breed, the time he cut his head when he was a kid and his mom freaked out…

We left Rudy’s and ended up a shitty karaoke bar before we decided to call it a night. For the first time in my life, I made the uncharacteristic decision to go with Isaac after making sure my friend was okay on her own, to which she replied she would “take one for the team” for me. I still don’t know if this was one of the most fun nights of my life or the worst idea I’ve ever had…but it was definitely a good time and the reason I have this story to tell. The next morning, I met up with my friend again and we still laugh about being the “best decision makers” of 2017 to this day.

I’m still not convinced Rudy’s isn’t some kind of weird undercover drug operation, but it never disappoints. I’m someone who truly believes in fate and everything happening for a reason, so if nothing else I got a good story and a new friend out of the trip. Isaac and I met up a couple of other times after that night and we’re still friends to this day. I’m still trying to find out why we ended up at that bar, but I’m glad we did.