Ate lunch at Duffy's today... good food, good service, nice atmosphere. Also got a sneak-peek tour of AVA... its not finished yet, but it definitely has potential to be THE hotspot in Hagerstown. VERY nice.

Also, there's a New Years Eve party at Duffy's and AVA... black tie optional. More info at www.downtownlivehagerstown.com

I would LOVE to do something like that for New Years. My friends are not the "black tie" optional type, unfortunately.

Wanna be what?

wannabe mugged!

Hey Peacefrog. My friend and I were actually looking into this Downtown Live thing...not the red head friend you met the one night...but a different one...

Doubt we'll go though. We're pretty big on planning all sorts of fun stuff to do but wind up crashing back down to reality when we seriously consider our money situations and work/school/real-life schedules.

I am seriously considering AVA's for NYE.

I wannbe having fun

I want to go.

I'd love to do a New Year's Eve out sometime with my wife, but we don't feel like spending the whole night partying with just us two (at least not until later ). All of our friends have kids and are unwilling/unable to find babysitters.

boy, SMan, I hope me and hubby are not the only ones who buy tickets. That would be no fun...

Heather, you should come down with your friend. I am sure my hubby wouldn't mind!

I know there will be people there, I just like to roll in with a posse.


I'm telling you though, it's was easier to find a good wife than it is to find a good kidless (or willing/able to send kids to a babysitter) couple to hang out with occassionally.

We have a built-in Nana (my Mom.)

Thank goodness. For our pack o' kids, we would never get to go anywhere without getting a group package deal :-)

Well I have comp tickets, so I will be there, not in a tux though.

Ok... ok... If we turn this into an H-M forum party... I *might* be able to convince my buddies to cough up the dough.

Sman... I feel your pain. Our friends are all single dudes. Not that I mind it... but every once in a while I wish I had a couple to hang with. We have two sets of couples, but they both have kids, which makes things a little more difficult.

Sounds like us. As the only female in my "posse," I am always responsible for making the plans. (Why is that?) Anyway... work schedules and cash flow are always a b*tch, ya know?

Well, I am going to hit my DH with "All I want for Christmas is these tickets."

My friend and I have promised ourselves we'd buy tickets to this several times now but we keep forgetting. Might see y'all there if they don't run out of tickets by the time we finally do it.

How should I do this? Me and my friend want tickets, but we only want one hotel room to share. I don't want to buy one ticket with room and one without and then they tell me that we can't share the room. Should I buy one couples ticket w/room instead?

Is coma wearing his silver pants instead of a tux?

Weiner costume?

Got my tickets.

Moms, you need to come too!

I didn't really think of that but that's not a bad idea at all!

I'll make sure a picture is taken and loaded for your viewing pleasure, Moms.

I am calling today to find out what the tickets include (unlimited drinks?). Then will pass along the info to my friends. We'll make our decision tomorrow. Hopefully there will be tickets left if the group decides to go.

I am going to get mine too!

Does anyone know what these ticket prices include? I can't find info anywhere. Any drinks included? And what are VIP passes, and how do you get them?

Alternatively, does anyone have a phone # for Duffy's? I can't find one of those, either.

VIP passes include free lap dances. At least, that's what I'm hoping since I was given one!

Duffy's #301 745 6648

They will sell out of tickets by the end of the week.

Just get 'em. All the cool people are.

My crew, posse, whatever includes some very serious drinkers. No way they'll go for it unless some drinks are included.

We're cheapskates.

The tickets that you buy INCLUDE food & most drinks. By most drinks, everything except for top shelf liquor ($200 bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label, for example) is included. So... beer, wine, most liquor & mixed drinks are included in the ticket price and you have access to all three floors, live music, etc.

The tickets ARE vip passes, so, EVERYONE is a vip.. not just me. Dammit.

Can you pass the info to me too, please?

Sweet! Thanks for the info!

No problem, look forward to seeing you there if I can pick you out! I know I'll recognize a couple of our forum beauties.

I just passed the info along to my friends... told them to make their decision by tomorrow afternoon! Looking forward to meeting some other H-M folks!

Heather: My friends want to know if the friend you're bringing is 1) female and 2) single.

Probably won't be hard to pick me out. I'm the short, Asian woman with long hair. My "posse" consists of 3 white guys. LOL

Oh I don't think there will be a shortage of single ladies.

So, keep an eye out for a short Asian woman with long hair and nice legs? Got it.

Yep. She's single. Purty too.

LOL! Well... my legs are short, too! Unfortunately, I am not blessed with lean, long legs.

Yeah... I told 'em there'd be plenty of single gals. We hardly ever go out to bars/clubs, so they often forget there's a wide world of single ladies out there!

There is a wide world of single ladies out there, yeah... but in Washington County there are seriously slim pickings. I could easily get a chunk of the single female population here to stone me with my opinion of them.

Desirable single women don't have it much better choices either.

I could write a whole essay on single life in this area.

Fodder for a blog, perhaps?

I'd like to go, but we already made other plans, and, (gasp!) I'm one of those people who don't like to shove my parental duties off on someone else so that I can go out and get hammered. So, we won't be there, but I will be looking very forward to the pants pics!!!

Tickets are$100.00 Per person. $150.00 If you want a room.
$200.00 per. Couple plus $50.00 each for a room.
Drinks and food plus 3 floors of entertainment.

IMO, To much for this town.
But it keeps the Flees out.

Eh, its not too much for this town... there are people willing to pay it, and they are going to sell out of tickets pretty soon.

OH Hell Coma, I forgot the transplants can afford that.
Not the locals. Unless your in the in croud.

I suspect these are the people that can afford it:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/b...local-headlines

From the Baltimore Sun
Daily bus riders are in for the long haul
More sleep, less stress on lengthy MTA routes

Click here to find out more!
By Michael Dresser
Sun reporter

December 18, 2006

HAGERSTOWN -- Jocelyn Grindle was hauling a heavy blue cooler full of Joe Corbi pizzas to deliver to her co-workers, but the extra burden wasn't enough to push her into a car for the grueling commute to downtown Washington.

Instead, she kept her standing date with Maryland's longest commuter bus line -- an 80-minute ride on Route 991 from Hagerstown to the Shady Grove Metro stop in Montgomery County.

"I said, 'No, I'm going to carry this bag,'" said Grindle, who is in her 30s and works as an accountant for a Washington nonprofit organization. "That's an hour extra sleep I'd rather have."

Grindle is one of a growing number of Marylanders -- most of whom work in Washington or its suburbs -- who regularly ride the Maryland Transit Administration's long-distance commuter buses rather than drive to their jobs.

According to the MTA, the number of commuter bus riders grew 18 percent over the past four years. Under the Ehrlich administration, the MTA added 27 round trips on such routes, including three on the well-used Hagerstown line. A proposal to provide five more rides, including an additional one on Route 991, will go before the state Board of Public Works on Jan. 3.

The growth in long-distance commuting is a reflection of the increasing willingness of Marylanders to put up with brutal schedules to own homes they can afford in the far-flung reaches of the state.

"We get a lot more house for our money," said Grindle. "What I make in D.C. goes a long way in Hagerstown."

The choice to make that trip by bus is largely a reaction to the stress and cost of driving to Washington and its inner suburbs through some of the nation's most congested traffic corridors. The number of riders on commuter routes to Baltimore, which include such starting points as Laurel, Churchville and Havre de Grace, has been stagnant.

"The demand is greater on the routes to D.C.," said Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan. "The difference is the level of congestion, the cost of parking and the growth of jobs in downtown D.C. versus Baltimore."

That congestion became apparent on a recent Thursday morning as soon as the 5:25 a.m. bus pulled out of the park-and-ride lot under the glowing Sleep Inn sign on Route 65 and onto Interstate 70. Even at that hour, traffic on I-70 was heavy as the bus made its way over South Mountain.

"It seems people are getting on [I-70] a lot earlier now," said Elaine Lunsford of Hagerstown.

Lunsford, who describes herself as "60-ish," has only recently begun taking the 991 because her job was transferred to downtown Washington. She calls the daily bus commute "a new adventure."

She said she has noticed an influx of residents to Washington County over the past five years.

"All the jobs are down the road," said Lunsford, who works for a Department of Energy contractor. "There's really no employment in Hagerstown."

Like most of the riders, Lunsford was heading for the Shady Grove Metro station, where she would continue her commute by subway. She said that what she saves in gasoline makes up for the $5 one-way fare on the bus.

Brian Ellis, 29, of Hagerstown lives five minutes from the stop and travels to Shady Grove to catch a second bus to his job at First Advantage in Rockville. He said he and his wife chose to live in Hagerstown because "there's no way we could afford a home in Montgomery County."

Ellis said his commute is far from the longest on the 991. "I know people who come from Hancock to catch this bus," he said, referring to a town 30 miles west of Hagerstown. Other riders said they were coming from Martinsburg, W.Va., 25 miles away.

The bus was about half-full as it departed for its first stop in Frederick. Ellis said it used to be more crowded before the addition of buses earlier this year.

Heather Stevenson, 28, said she spends more than four hours a day commuting from her parents' home in Hagerstown to her job in the AIDS division at the National Institutes of Health and back.

"Because I'm studying, I don't have a life anyway," said Stevenson, a master's program student at the University of Maryland.

Stevenson was one of the minority of riders planning to stay on the bus after Shady Grove for the leg of the trip serving the Rock Spring Business Park in Rockville -- the location of major employers such as the Marriott Corp. and the NIH.

That final destination pushed Route 991 into first place for the longest MTA route at 67 miles -- narrowly edging the 64.7-mile Route 909 from California in St. Mary's County to Washington.

Route 991 is also among the fastest-growing, with a 59 percent increase over four years. Its "fare box recovery," the percentage of its costs recovered from passengers, stands at 46 percent -- compared with 37 percent for Baltimore-area MTA buses and 36 percent for all commuter buses.

The commuter buses are in many ways better equipped than their metropolitan counterparts. Most have toilets, and the seats are more comfortable than those in a typical MTA bus. In most cases, the commuter buses are operated by private contractors such as Eyre Bus Service Inc., which provides service on the Hagerstown run.

Route 991 was near capacity after stops at the Monocacy MARC station in Frederick and the park-and-ride in Urbana. Just after 6:10 a.m., the bus pulled onto Interstate 270 and predictably ran into bumper-to-bumper traffic in what might be Maryland's most congested traffic corridor.

Ram Randad, 46, said it would be 30 minutes faster to drive from his Frederick home to his job with the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville. But he prefers to board the bus at the Monocacy station.

"When I drive, I'm all stressed out, all the road rage. When I'm on the bus, I'm at peace," he said.

Andrew Pollara, 36, of Thurmont said he spends more time reading, sleeping and working on his BlackBerry since giving up driving all the way to his job at the NIH. He said he prefers catching the bus at Monocacy despite the two-hour trip door to door.

"My stress level has gone down considerably. My wife says she has noticed a drastic improvement in my mood when I get home," he said.

The morning bus pulled into the Shady Grove station at 6:45 a.m., and Grindle hauled her cooler full of pizzas to catch a subway for the half-hour trip to Farragut North.

As she went through her morning ritual of applying makeup on the Metro, Grindle talked about the toll of a commute that takes, all together, about 4 3/4 hours four days a week. She said she depends on her husband -- who works 10 minutes from their home -- to get their 4-year-old daughter ready for school. Grindle said she often falls asleep before the girl goes to bed.

But Grindle said there are consolations -- such as the people she meets aboard the bus.

"We all make friends," she said. "We have things in common -- our schedules and our family life. It's nice to know you're not the only one with this kind of schedule."

F' that. That is crazy. Just how much more money do you have to make to be willing to throw away almost 20 hours of your life per week commuting?

/hijack

amen brother! There is no price that can buy my family time.

Mcgee,
Who wants to stick around hagerstown anyway? I'm going to jump in the helicopter pick up a few of my fellow transplants and head downtown (DC) for a night on the town. Maybe on the way back we'll throw $100 bills out of the chopper and watch the locals go nuts

Last year Stinger's (which is where I went for New Years) charged almost $100 (think it was $60 or $70) for dinner and entertainment... and that didn't include all your drinks if I remember correctly. A bachelor party in WV, DC or Baltimore could easily.. EASILY cost you over $100. I know.

So $100 for dinner and all you can eat appetizers and the like, plus all you can drink, and 3 floors of entertainment in an upscale atmosphere isn't too bad, but high enough to ward all of the regular Hagerstown barflys away.

This price is very reasonable for an all-inclusive couple's night on NYE. coma is right. I would blow way more than that at a WV bar.

this comment should posted on the website.