Oh hai...

I love New York in the summertime....

Drinks w/ work
Sailing w/ Vasilia
Des's party in Brooklyn
Dinner w/ Simón + Serials w/ Holly
One Man, Two Guvnahs + Momofuku + 7S w/ Holly

Ah, what a great work trip.  :) 

Shake it all about

The Butterfly Effect.  

I have so much in my head...  

I'm presently freezing my ass off in an apartment on the 22nd floor of an air conditioned building in the middle of Manhattan.  It's very much summer outside, and the feel of it makes me long for it....   

I've been working on this trip since the beginning of the year, but the pieces didn't fall into place until last Tuesday...and then everything happened so fast that I feel like I can't remember how I got here.  ...though, the 7 hours I spent on a plane next to an old woman whose first question to me was, "Do you speak English?" should jog some memories.  Well, that and the cab driver who somewhat shyly asked me if I was Japanese and if I knew the Japanese baseball guy who was transferred from Seattle to the Yankees.  I'm pretty sure he meant to ask if I knew of him....even though that's not at all how it seemed.  Oh, New York... there's something about you that's always so real.  I love that.

I'm missing someone right now.  

Boom

I just confirmed the venue I wanted for the next EIGHT.

Hells. YEAH. :)


I've been slacking on blogging so here's a bit of catch up.

Fourth of July weekend was awesome. I say "weekend" because, even though it was on a Wednesday, my work gave us the rest of the week off so -- perfect 5 day weekend it was. 

It started with Brian and Teresa's BBQ -- a great spread, bean bag game, champagne tasting, yummy dessert, and of course Brian and Teresa and friends... all good things.  I went from there to Alex's BBQ -- beer pong, random burnt BBQ, fire crackers, hot (almost) 24 year old following me around all night, and of course Alex and Joe and friends.  It was an excellent day all around.  The rest of the weekend managed to be the perfect balance of doing nothing and having fun, and included a great night of dancing with Stella bella, and seeing Brave with Joan.

And then, last week was perfect in so many ways... I had a great dinner with Michael and Michael at their gorgeous new condo in Burlingame, my soccer team had an epic farewell karaoke party for one of our teammates who just moved back to Mexico, I went on a great date, we played a great soccer game, Gabriella and Morgan had a fabulous BBQ, I went to see some improv with Joe, I did the Color Run with Alex and friends, saw Truffaldino Says No w/ Gabriella and Morgan, went on a nice hike, and had another great date. 

Next week, I go to New York... then Teresa's bachelorette, then Max's wedding, then...the next EIGHT....? Hopefully, it won't all happen quite that fast.

Absurd

*flashback*

I'm 21 years old playing capture the flag in the woods, and a bunch of 14 year olds are following me around because they think that I'm also 14.  I eventually have to show them my ID to convince them to stop following me and that I am not, in fact, 14.

*present day*

I'm 37 years old playing beer pong (yes, I know) at a party, and an almost 24 year old (he was about to have a birthday) is following me around trying to get me to give him my phone number.  I tell him my age and he says he doesn't care. He somehow manages to impress me, so I give him my number with the disclaimer that it is not to be abused.

I suppose this has been happening to me most of my life so I shouldn't find it so surprising, but I can't help but feel continuously surprised by it. I guess as I get older and more aware, it just seems more and more absurd. ...but, there's a part of me that wonders why it should? I mean, I hang out with a lot of young people, and they are still single and normal, so... maybe I should just be grateful. Who knows... ?

...and, does everything happen for a reason?

And beyond...

I've been doing my best to take some real time for myself these days because not relaxing, in the middle of All The Crazy, has brought me to the point of wondering if exhaustion will actually be the cause of my death...  

By the way, apparently "real time for myself" means watching the entire series of Scrubs.  (It takes a big turn in the later seasons, which I didn't like at first but... the new cast is growing on me.  ?)

Anyway, on to the crazy...  Where should I begin? 

After Palm Springs I was still sick, so I took it easy for a minute and then I played soccer -- which I think helped... And then, I had an amazing, but painfully over booked weekend. 

It started out on Friday night with the lovely Laura Lee.  We had intended to go the Liz Roman show (a dance performance whose lighting was done by Jennyb!), but we showed up to find the show completely sold out.  I had some friends djing over at the Beauty Bar, so we headed that way instead.  As it turned out, Laura Lee also had some good friends hanging at Beauty Bar that night, so we had a great night with friends.  :)  

Saturday morning, I was having a dream about being late to Miss Lily's first birthday party and then I woke up late for Miss Lily's first birthday party.  Damn... Dave and Maureen live in a beautiful house in San Rafael, about 40 minutes from me, so I hopped out of bed, picked the best outfit I could come up with for the day's activities, and managed to get to the party just in time for birthday singing and cake demolishing... whew!  It was a really nice time with Maureen's family and friends. 

After the party, I picked Anthony up at West Oakland to take him to a hip hop battle in East Oakland.  My directions had us driving down International blvd all they way, so we had a solid dose of ghetto by the time we got to the venue -- which looked like it was maybe in the back of a tattoo parlor, and had a bunch of thug life kids hanging around out front.  It was a rougher scene than what we had expected.  Anthony didn't seem comfortable, so we skipped the battle, and I took him on a tour of the nice parts of Oakland instead in an attempt to correct his first impression of the East Bay.  Yeow! 

After a good drive and some walks in the pretty parts of Oakland / Berkeley, Anthony and I headed to the city to join Star and Cindy for an Asian American magazine party.  The party happened to be booked with a bunch of performances, including some hip hop dance.  :)  Awesome.  We hung out there until Alex started texting me to head over to Joanna's birthday party at Orbit. 

Joanna's party was full of soccer friends, which is always fun.  We hung out until the bar closed, and then I headed home because I had to be up early on Sunday for the Odyssey. 

The Odyssey was a 5 hour interactive theater adventure / hike on Angel Island.  It was staged as a journey on which we were to accompany Telemachus following the footsteps of his father in hopes to find him.  Really fun show!  The performances were great, the settings well thought out, the interaction appropriate and playful, and I found it to be a very enjoyable production.  I had some friends performing in the show, who were fantastic. 

After the show, I got right on the ferry to head to Matt and Jessica's for a nice dinner.  :)  A perfect way to end a crazy weekend...