Saturday's Sense of Gravity

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Saturday's Sense of Gravity Current mood: cold After running to the city to retrieve my phone, having Nini's and then working for the rest of the day, Saturday night can't seem to come soon enough. I take a short nap and reload with a bonne sante sandwich, before showering and jumping in the car. Weird to have a starting destination other than Mike and Julian's place, but it's to Damie's I go to meet up with them and Charles. Apparently, they're all a wreck. Actually, that's probably an understatement when you're talking about three individuals that left the Cat Club the night before, passed out, and then got up and started drinking at 10 in the morning, not to stop all day. I come in with three 12s of coors light, and hear nothing but groans and moans over the fact that I'm going to make them drink more beer. It's a later start, but I get into a rhythm with the Beirut, and learn their new three player version of the game. The party we're aiming for is one of Pat's friends birthday parties. They've rented out Gravity, and I can tell you from experience that whenever one of Pat's friends or group rents out a bar for a party, you should always try to attend. On the way, Charles tells me that there's an evite for the party, and he's not sure if he put plus one to get us in or not. There will be a guestlist at the door. We hop out of the cab and head up. Bouncer asks the name, Charles says Charles. "Which guest list are you on?" Charles hesitates, the bouncer smells fear. "The evite one." "Whose?" "I don't know, the evite." "Have you two been smoking pot?" (in unison) "Yes." "I'm just fucking with you. Come on in, have a good time." We walk in and see the usual suspects…Pat, Vincent Chang, Matt Goldstein. The place is fucking packed. I feel like a sardine and a fish out of water all at the same time. I spend ten minutes trying to get 12 feet to the doorway to the bathroom, only to be told that that's the kitchen, not the bathroom, and I can't come in. I then fight ten minutes back to the original spot I left, to have to change direction and go towards the bathroom. While I don't remember all that much of it, I can tell from the evidence this morning that I spent quite some time taking pictures, most from about waist level up (as in I was holding the camera at my waist and taking pictures). My morning consists of a walk from Hayes and Clayton to 8th and Judah. Next up…Sunday night tomfoolery at Behan's.

Cell Phone Stupidity

February 24, 2007

Cell Phone Stupidity
Current mood: grateful

"Adam, wake up."

"go away."

"Adam, wake up. You need to go to the city."

This is Jessie poking me. "Call Eddy, in the city, he has your phone." I'm not sure how that happened. I better retrace my steps. I'm not wearing my clothes, so at least I know I got them off before getting in bed.

My shoes are in the bathroom, that's a good sign that I brushed my teeth. I remember coming in from the garage, I think I was singing, and Jessie was telling me to be quiet.

She drove us home. We walked back to the car from Mike's place after I went up there to get my backpack and ipod. I had gone up after the cab dropped us off. Shit. There goes my phone.

The cab picked us up after I had finished my bacon wrapped hot dog with everything on it. That hot dog was pretty special. Especially the bacon. I thought I was dying and being reborn all at the same time.

We got the hot dogs after I stumbled out the front door of the side entrance to the upstairs part of the Cat Club. I finished my drink after I ordered it and talked to some people. Before that, four girls molested me in the back room, taking seductive pictures with me. They do this with so much glee and energy that the only thing I can think of is they're trying to get photos with a random guy to make an ex boyfriend jealous. This all happened after I came out of the bathroom, where I didn't throw up.

I had been in the bathroom giving myself a pep talk. My stomach wanted to get rid of the tequila I had put in it, and my mind was telling me that this was a poor idea. I found my way there after almost tripping down the stairs in a hazy fog. I had been up in an office when everyone was ready, locked and poured the tequila shots.

It was great tequila, or so it must have been by the way everyone raved when the owner of the building pulled it out. This guy was tight as hell. Of all the people I could imagine owning the building that the Cat Club is in, I don't know that I would have pictured a fortyish year old asian guy with hair down to his shoulders. Good old Patrick.

Patrick knows Goo and David, whose birthday party we were there celebrating. The upper room there I usually not available, or very expensive to rent out. In fact, Patrick says that they rarely open it out to anyone but their good friends, and obviously, as we're partying there, Goo and David qualify. I got the pleasure of sitting next to him after he waved me to the chair and told me to have a seat. Everyone there had followed for the joint. I swear, sometimes I feel like the pied piper for pot heads. Patrick says to spark that. He doesn't hit it, but I must say that smoking in the building owner's office upstairs was pretty awesome.

I had been looking for a place to smoke when David told me to follow him upstairs. I had just come from talking to Jessie's co-worker Murray, who I briefly considered chucking into a brick wall. I knew that this type of rage would not go unpunished, and headed away from him.

We're three drinks or so deep when the Jessie work crowd shows up…Robin, Murray and some others. D-amie, Charles and the rest are already there. Go go dancers shake that shit as I finish my first drink at the bar.

I walk up the stairs very confused. I've been to the Cat Club, but since when is there a separate entrance to go to an upstairs bar? Since when is there an upstairs bar for that matter?

The cab drops us off at the corner and Jessie and I head for the club. There's two lines, and I can tell from the drunk straight guys waiting by the second door that that's the birthday party we're looking for.

We walk to the bart station to catch a cab. It's fucking freezing out.

We tidy up Mike and Julian's place after our last game of Beirut. I amuse myself by arranging the empties to spell out "JC" on the counter. Either they'll think Jesus is sending them a message or they'll know that I have much love for Julian.

Mike, Sonya, Julian and Sean leave to head out to some bar somewhere. I can't get more detailed than this as I have no idea where they went.

We play a few games of Beirut after I park my car.

Jessie and I leave the house about 8 o'clock to head up to the city. Rockstar/vodka in hand for the ride.

So let me tell you about the night I lost my phone.

Grown Ass Men and Women

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Grown Ass Men and Women Current mood: chipper Let me tell you about the party. I'll tell you about the party that ends all parties. Let me tell you about the evening to end all evenings...about jokes and tokes, chicks and blokes, friends and home folks. Let me tell you of the endless vodka, the bottomless platters of food, the joints that would not end and the music that would not stop. This, my friends, is the story of the Grown Ass Man Party. The evite, titled, "Somehow I became a grown ass man," is for Alan's 25th birthday. As this is a milestone, and as law school graduation is fast approaching, his parents decided to throw a bash for the occasion. And let me tell you something...Alan's family doesn't fuck around. At all. The evite lists 66 yeses, but we're probably talking a bit over 120 when you start counting the family members and family friends that never got the evite. Hosted at the Fandorin restaurant in Burlingame, the venue is beautiful. One side of the restaurant/club are windows looking onto the water, tables are set up everywhere and there's a bar/dance floor at the front. At about 7:45, Julian, Cella, Sonya, Kelsey, Morty, Christina and myself roll in to find the first event of the night...a red wine social accompanied by the soft sounds of a jazz trio. Everyone's there...we're talking Miller, Masarsky, Avidor, Vic, Charles, Loesche, Fong, Ferrer, Lane, Arturro, Phil, Jordan, Will and Carew, JK, Dawson, Sandra, Derek and Mamie, Sutton, Mona, Vitaly, and really, I can go on, but who wants to read a list? Let's just say it was a reunion of sorts. The tables are filled with the appetizers and strategically placed bottles of Ketel One. Everywhere. Everyone meets and greets for a bit, and about 8:15 or so we get the call to sit down. People start digging into the food...raw fish, cold meats, shrimp cocktail served in hollowed out pineapples, tomato and mozzarella salads, more vodka. People dig in while speeches are made, Alan's dad who tells of Alan's mom worrying that he had a non-existent social life in middle school, ironic considering the three full tables of friends that grace the event. Vic and Alan's mom give speeches, and then a bunch of people I either didn't know or don't remember. By the time the main course arrives at the table, I'm 2/8 joints deep (don't ask me how I ended up with 8 rolled joints, it certainly wasn't my intention at the time I was rolling), and several drinks in. As people shoot vodka or mix it with orange juice or cranberry, I've secretly set up a private bar underneath my chair that consists of numerous cans of red bulls to mix with my vodka. I start getting drunker. More drunk. Whatever. I think it's at this point that an unnamed couple goes outside to have sex. They leave soon after to head back to the city. Derek's looking shifty about this time, and the pictures I have prove it. The food comes out in droves, but everyone is a bit too fucked up to care about eating...in fact at this point, most of the concentration is on drinking, dancing or smoking outside. A moment of hilarity ensues when Sandra introduces herself to Christina as "devil woman," or something along those lines, which is a bit shocking to me considering I hadn't said anything negative to Christina about her...seems a bit overly self-persecuting (pitying?) as well. I think, "I'm Sandra" might have worked just as well. I watch from afar as they have a conversation, which I'm sure has Christina wondering why she wasn't able to avoid it when she was definitely trying to. I'd interrupt, but hey, really not my place! At this point, the party turns into a haze. There's an amazing couple of moments as Dawson and Alan rip a drum duet to the delight of the entire crowd. They jam for a good ten minutes, ripping it apart. Crowd goes nuts. More smoking, more drinking. DJ comes on and people start dancing. I remember one point, that sums up the extravagance of the evening well...I'm sitting at the table pouring myself a drink. I'm literally the only one sitting at a table, everyone else is up and about, dancing or outside. As I'm sitting there, I watch as four waiters start bringing out trays of cakes and desserts, placing them strategically throughout the tables. I look at all this food and realize that not only am I the only one sitting down, but no one in the room is gonna even come close to touching those desserts! But they keep bringing them out, putting more food down on already abandoned tables. The party starts dwindling around 3 am...Derek comes to me and tells me, "Mamie says she's cool to drive." to which I start laughing uncontrollably and ask him just how drunk he is. I'm fucked up, but I know I'm not getting into any car driven by anyone who's been at this party. I tell him to send Mamie over and she tells me, "the pot straightened me out," to which I laugh even harder. The order comes down for a cab, it shows up, we hop in and get home around 3:30. For all the hype about this party beforehand, I must say, it lived up to all of it. A bottle of vodka would get finished, and a new one would show up. There was so much food people stopped eating and it piled up on plates on empty tables. The DJ was sick and everyone danced, including a very drunk Alan's dad, who when I left was standing in the corner of the club smoking cigarettes. Mass congrats to my boy Alan, who joins the ranks of 25 year olds among us, and to his parents, for throwing one of the most unbelievable parties, both in terms of amenities and crowd, that I've ever had the pleasure of attending. For those of you interested, there's a few pictures of the party up in the profile...I'll be working on uploading more throughout the week, as there's some good ones. The rest of the weekend is pretty much recovery...Saturday night I fall asleep early, even after trying to nap in the day so I can party again. Sunday, I run the open house. By the way...Sunday nights at Beehan's on Broadway? Check it out...one of the only open bars, they have karaoke, and everytime I've been there, it's been ridiculous. Stop by on a Sunday, you'll probably find me there from now on! Up next...Part 2 of "I don't like this cat, it reads minds" followed by the USC Alum mixer on Wednesday night. Shit, with a holiday week, that's tomorrow! Awesome.

Days of Hearts and Flowers

Friday, February 16, 2007

Days of Hearts and Flowers Current mood: working Yesa, I'm speaking about Valentine's Day. I'm speaking of that day of days when all the sad sap relationships that haven't had any romance in ten years break out the flowers and candy to try to rekindle it all again. I'm speaking of the day where relationships freshly budding find more stomach butterflies to lift them up on gossamer wings of the giddy feeling that only that feeling can give you. It's the day when shit gets ruined if it doesn't go well, things go up if it does, and others stay stagnant if they're simply moving sideways. Finally, it's the day for the single people of the world to do one of two things...wallow in their misery and sorrow and cry for themselves, or go out and have a great time because they're not spending money or worrying about shit but themselves. Personally speaking, I see a few sides to Valentine's Day. I've been in relationships during, I've been single during, and I also try to keep the third eye looking at the fact that seriously, it's a great consumer day for selling more in between Christmas and Easter. So this Valentine's Day, I tried to think about the last few. Although it seems like a year since my last relationship, it's not even close to that long, so I count back a few and realize that this is my first single Vday in 4 years. I feel like I should have some sort of graduation party to dance in the street. I know that the best person for this type of dancing is probably Aliza. The plan is to get a few games of beirut in before meeting her somewhere in the mission, but on the drive up 101, I find myself next to Wolfklain. We pull a talk on cell phone while driving next to each other move that certainly has those behind us ticked, and when I ask what he's doing tonight, he tells me that he was just about to call his ex girlfriend. GREAAAAT Idea I tell him. Come with me instead. We get to the Mission, La Rondella is the destination for margaritas. Try them there, they're strong. The three of us then migrate, but there's a bit of a problem...Tyler keeps trying to lead us places and all his moves are wrong. I think secretly that in the back of his brain a late night ex girlfriend call is on his mind, and he's leading us blindly to a slaughtered evening. He takes us to Blondie's, which for as pleasant as the bartender is is pretty dead. We have a few drinks and then get the word that T and the rest are at the Lex. Now, I have a funny relationship with the Lex. It stands for the Lexington Club, down in the mission. I first heard about it when I saw a bulletin board post asking for people to do a survey about it. I thought lex might stand for something I had tried, so I got two questions in and when I said, no, I hadn't been to the Lexington Club, the survey was over. Ooops. So my chance finally arrived to visit the infamous lesbian bar, and I was impressed with how chill it was. It's got a pool table, spacious bar, attentive bartenders, and you didn't feel like you were constantly elbowing for room for yourself. Maybe this had something to do with the fact that it was a Wednesday night, but it was good. There's no glares of "what are you doing here, you're out of place," just a good relaxed atmosphere. T, their new roommate Rene(e?), Julia and some other girls were there. Now, the funny part is that Tyler, who last weekend (blog "Transfers") took me to a gay bar, get's alllll uncomfortable at the lesbian bar. Someone tell me what that bullshit's about. Charles shows up a little later in the evening to meet everyone, and Christina follows. The amusing part of the evening is when T and Aliza's new roommate wants to leave and I tell her she should stay and be entertained, and if I can't keep her entertained for 2 minutes, she can go. Before she has a chance to question this, I start talking...real animated, questions, answers, hand gestures, comments about the bar and my evening in general...I get to the end and I look at her and say, "guess what? I just entertained you for 120 seconds." She sticks around after that, and damn if I'm not stoked that two of the coolest girls I know have an awesome roommate. We leave the bar to hit Taqueria Cancun, steak and sour cream burrito, what what! After that, it's a morning hung over car ride back to the Peninsula. Tune in this weekend for the party event of the year, The Grown Ass Man Party.

Throwin Bows (Saturday)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Throwin Bows (Saturday) Current mood: cold Saturday was probably the most sluggish I've been on an evening out lately. A hung over Saturday teamed up with a ridiculously large Nini's breakfast put me pretty much under the table all day. I had to rally at 6 to go to the housewarming party for the couple I bought the condo for. They've created in an incredible home, and it was excellent to know I played a huge role in that process. As a result though, I get to the city late and start beirut late, and the food at the housewarming didn't really agree with my drinking agenda. It takes me two red bull vodkas, a lot of heckling from Charles to get my game face on, and that doesn't even happen til around 11. We've accompanied Julian and his friend to City, and we both start getting antsy to go. He calls up Will and we hop in a cab to the Mission to meet up with him, his roommate, and his girlfriend Carew (sorry if I'm butchering that). We head out to the Elbo Room, another venue I hadn't been to before, and this place was tight. Pool table, packed lower floor, and a room upstairs we elected not to go to for virtue of saving cover. Charles and I sit there, and see Will's roommate talking to a girl, so we don't want to interrupt. We spend five minutes chatting about his chances, what's going down, and how the girl looks a lot like Will's girlfriend. It isn't until we walk over to kick it with him that we realize it is and feel like we've had the dumbest conversation for ten minutes. We stay out until about two, cab it back from Will's, and you can get the lack of craziness in the night by the fact that we drove home from Mike's when we got there. It was a good, fun, relaxed evening in comparison to the insanity that was Friday. In other news, I got my HD tivo in and connected. Tivo helped free me from the family room, but I still had a teather when it came to HD. Now, the leashes have all been cut, and I'll never, ever, not even for an HD sporting event, need to stay home again if I have something better to do. Not that I made any sort of habit of that before, but now it's all out the window and all bets are off. If you or anyone you know wants to buy my old Tivo, I'm offering a fantastic deal on it, so get at me. In the meanwhile, prepare for Friday night debauchery.

Transfers (Friday Night)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Transfers (Friday Night) Current mood: chipper So Alan pointed out to me this weekend that I should now refer to beirut followed by pre-party at City Tavern as "Default." I thought the idea was stellar. Friday, I play a few games of beirut before Jullan, Cella, Sonya, Sean, Eric Boyle from UCLA and myself head out to Ace Wasabi's for dinner. We don't even get there until around 10, but we get seated right away. Sets of sake ensue. The food comes and for some reason the smell just doesn't sit right with me. I go outside to smoke. As I'm back inside, waiting for the bathroom, a waitress walks by and says, "Is someone smoking pot in the bathroom?!?!" She's very concerned, but I give her the very firm, "no," and she looks at me with a suspicious grin and asks, "were you smoking it outside?" This happens to be Cella's favorite part of the evening. From there we head to City Tavern where Julian has created a new drink. He calls it the Wizard's Sleeve, although it's pointed out to him that that's actually a slang word for a vagina, so he changes it to a Merlin. Merlins consist of Rumpleminze (yea, see my fabulous description of that in a previous post where I almost would have rather drank vomit), butterscotch schnapps and something else. The resulting drink tastes a lot like a thin mint that you could destroy yourself with. It almost puts me down for good. I get the call to bounce and head to North Beach to pick up Tyler who's with Matt and Amara. From there, we cruise to Cat Club, only to find out that there's a cover that neither Matt nor Amara want to pay. I'm down for whatever at that point, but they don't want to so we head to another bar. I miss the name of it. When Matt and Amara cut out on us, Tyler tells me that there's two girls he knows at another bar, and we should head over there. Two girls sounds great, so we go. We walk in, and I don't see any girls. Like, literally, I don't see ANY. As I start looking around, I realize that not only is it short on girls, but most of the guys are locked into some type of embrace. This is when it hits me that Tyler has taken me to Transfer, a gay bar on 14th and Church. Now, this is exciting for me...I obviously have to give up any ambitions I had of meeting someone for the evening, but it does get to be chalked up as my first time in a gay bar, and I'm all about the new experiences, so that works out fine. And the girls Tyler had us come out for are very cute. And very tricky. They ask me what I do in a polite and curious way. I tell them, filling them in on details when they ask. I politely return the question to get, "guess." Now, my mom didn't raise an idiot. I might have dull moments, but I'm not an idiot, and the "guess" is like a woman asking, "how old do you think I look?" there are no winners here. So I go with the safety response, students, to get a "that's right, but what kind of students?" I guess art, and I'm right again. Turns out they're metal workers. Interesting. I had guessed sculptor and digital media. We're there so Tyler can see this girl Monster. Literally, they call her Monster. I don't know why, but I'm also fairly certain that I don't want to find out. And I won't get to. The lights come up, 2 am is upon us, and they start moving people out of the bar. I start wandering along and Tyler grabs my arm and goes, no no, stay. Turns out, one of the bartenders is celebrating his last evening, and as soon as the last of the regular patrons are out, they lock the door and keep serving drinks. I've never been in a full bar past 2 before, as I was pretty sure it was illegal, so drinking free drinks in there until 3:30 is a novel idea. About that time, it's time to go. Miraculously, after I leave the bar, I end up exactly where I wanted to be. Where's that, you might ask. Well friend, that's for another story.

Drunk, Stood Up, Fed and Crazy

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Drunk, Stood Up, Fed and Crazy Current mood: bouncy Wow. That's all I have to say this morning. Wow. That was a doozy of a night. Probably one of the more random, drawn out and surprising evenings of the last six months. I'm not sure where to begin, so I guess I have to start with this....if you're with me, and I need to go meet up with someone, either don't go, or don't allow me to go. I apparently have wretched luck with people telling me to meet them places and then leaving before I get there, or right when I get there. I guess this all starts on Tuesday with an IM from Erin. She says the blogs are fun and she and some girlfriends need to have a good time out and wanted to know if they could tag along with me. Now, the way she says this, it sounds to me like they're coming up for the city night with me experience, so I feverishly start working on a plan for the evening. There's tons of things going down, so it doesn't look like it will be too hard to do some mass hopping for the evening. However, then I find out that "tag along with you," actually means, "we're going to dinner in the city and might try to meet up with you"...two very different things, but I think, hey, that's cool, saves me planning an evening for girls! So you might expect me to jump into starting with beirut at this point. Not the case. I actually start earlier, at 5, at Tres Agaves in the city. Margaritas at happy hour with Julian's work buddies. From there, I hit McD's for a quick snack and then head to Mike's place where we start beirut at around 7. Derek shows up around 8 or so and we keep playing until a little later, 9 or 10ish, and then head out. We're in the process of looking for a cab when Charles picks up his cell phone and is actually just minutes away, nay, seconds, as he turns the corner and picks us up. We head out to North Beach for Miller's housewarming party. Props to Miller on this new place...it's huge, beautifully redone hardwood floors, small balcony, updated kitchen, immaculate. It's a no heels party, so girls are taking off their shoes and putting on little slipper things. It's at this point that the rampant text messaging starts, and where I learn the lesson I should have learned with Brandon last week...don't go someplace in the city just because someone says they're there. They won't be by the time you make it there. Charles and Derek are ready to bounce, so we decide to head to Dolce where Erin and her group is. Big mistake. After walking blocks to get there, we get in line and the text message reads, "we're not at dolce anymore, we're at Boss," wherever the fuck that is. Charles laughs at me for once again being stood up, first by Brandon last week at Zebra/Velvet, and this time by Erin. He wants to be absolutely certain that I'm not intending a trip across town to Boss. I assure him that this will not be happening. We head instead to Fuse where we get a drink or two (at this point, I really have no idea), and Charles and Derek are ready to go. But Charles' car is one way, Derek's place another, and Mike's, where my car is, in a third. I tell Charles to go ahead and take Derek home, I'll catch a cab. This is not as easy as I might have anticipated. Every cab has someone in it. Every cabbie I know isn't driving. I start walking. Now, keep in mind I'm around the strip clubs in North Beach...I light my joint and keep walking. And walking. And walking. My trek takes me through downtown, across Market and I end up in front of the Gold Club. At this point it's around 2:30 am or so, I call Victor thinking that he might be home to smoke a joint. He's actually a block away from Gold Club with his crew of merry pranksters. Their intent...breakfast at the strip club. Now, at this point, I'm too faded too say no, but I'm also too faded to understand why we don't end up going in. I think they might have stopped serving food, and everyone had to eat. Instead we head to Mel's. I order a patty melt and a vanilla malt. The girl across from me, with some name Biata or something (I think she said Miata with a B?) tries to take most of it. I inform her this will not be happening as I hover over my food like a guardian troll. We finish eating, and big money bags Simon at the end of the table tells us about this game that he likes to play. Credit card roulette. You put everyone's credit card in, and have the waitress draw them randomly behind her back. The last card in her hand is the one that pays for the entire meal. We're sitting 8 deep at Mel's now, but I figure, there's no way I'll get this tab, so I agree. As the waitress starts pulling cards, it's Alan that's in the clear first, then JK, then Vic, mine, and then bam, like some stroke of ultimate cosmic karma, the last card she's holding is Simon's. And he's not happy about it. Apparently, while he brought this game up with a smile on his face, and had played it before...he had never actually lost. Having never tasted defeat in credit card roulette before, his jaw drops and he proclaims, "I'm never playing this game again." Yea, that must suck to lose, but if he always plays, and always plays because he's never lost, I can only say he had to be due. We head back, but I know what happens if I go up for a smoke at Vic's, and I'm not spending the night there. No no, instead, my brilliance leads me to walk back to Mike's. On the way, I start a new habit of clandestine videography. I pick a place, set the camera up on the ground or on a railing, hit record and dance. You always see the iPod commercials with the dancing, and I've always wished more people danced in public, so I've decided that late night, or in odd spots where I can put my camera down for a bit, I'll be doing some undercover dancing...I take two or three videos last night before I pick up my shit, jump in my car and drive home, arriving at 4:30 am, almost twelve hours exactly since I left for Tres Agaves. That was just about as crazy as one evening gets. And now to do it again (with some variation, I'm sure), tonight. Followed by the super bowl tomorrow. Hopefully I'll still be living on Monday.