The Easy Lounge...

... on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland may be my new favorite bar. For one thing, it's called the Easy Lounge; do bar names get any better than that? For another thing, it seems to be open during the day... at least on Saturdays. And to a person like me, who likes to get her drink on but still go to bed at a decent hour, daytime drinking hours are a huge bonus. If all of that isn't enough, the proprietors of the Easy Lounge buy fresh fruit from the local farmers market and use their haul to make fresh, satisfying cocktails.

Yummy.

I discovered the Easy Lounge yesterday when Mindi had her birthday party there. The special cocktails of the day included a fruity concoction made with fresh muddled strawberries, a raspberry margarita and this Frangelico thing. The Frangelico thing had no fruit in it, but it did feature Frangelico, cream, Kaluha and lord knows what else. It probably packed about 1000 calories per sip, but it was worth it. I could have thrown back six or so seven of those little rich numbers. In fact, here are Mindi and myself enjoying our cocktails in honor of her birthday. We are ever so slightly out of focus (and I'm a little shiny; how about some powder, Sassy?), but you get the idea.

However, there was no time for overindulging at the Easy Lounge because after about an hour at Mindi's party, Tom and I took off for Stephanie's wedding in Santa Clara. Tom had never met Stephanie before watching her get married, but he was still game for the party. We got a tiny bit lost on the way, but we made it. The reception was quite fun, especially since Tom and I were seated with Alexandra, a woman we both know and like but hardly ever see, and Stephanie's friend Isabel, who was super fun. We all decided we wanted to be the rowdy table, but we failed in that endeavor. For one thing, our table was only half full (by the way, who rsvp's "yes" for a wedding and then doesn't show up without letting the bride or groom know?), and for another, there was a much rowdier table than ours. Well, the best laid plans.

If an afternoon birthday party and evening wedding weren't enough, at about 11:00, Tom and I made our way back to the City for a party at Eric's place. The party was winding down as we arrived, but we livened it up a bit. At one point it became a sing along, with all eight or so of us lingering partiers singing songs like "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Don't Stop Believin'" to Eric's acoustic guitar accompaniment. Yes, those songs are cheesy, but they're fun, and it was 1:00 in the morning. What else would you expect at that hour?

Needless to say, I had taken the day (or night, I should say) off work to accommodate all this socializing. And I'd say it was totally worth it.