Colorado Springs

This is the smallest bar in the world. It's literally as big as it looks in this picture. I think maybe 6 people can fit in there comfortably.

Colorado Springs keeps getting bigger and bigger, but seems smaller and smaller everytime I come home. I think it's the small town attitude that makes it feel that way, and the way everything tends to look the same... Even the new developments -- track housing on repeat... People dress the same too, like they always have and like each other. And, anything "out of the ordinary" stands out and is pointed out. I've stopped trying to fit in here. Actually, I've never been good at trying to fit in here...

The mountains are always peaceful and beautiful.

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Brunch, hackers, theater, and goodbyes...

What a freaking long day...

It started off great. Brunch with our good friend Roland at a nice French bistro. The weather was nice, food was great, and Roland is always good company.

Next, we're driving home and Josh goes to login to email from his phone to find that his password isn't working. Yup - HACKED. His paypal was hacked a few days ago as well. We spent the afternoon talking to customer service reps, changing passwords, and trying to not freak out... It's scary to think about how much information lives in your email.

We were able to recover his email in just a few hours luckily, just in time to hightail it over to the city for a show. We had tickets to the Exit tonight with Steph.

As soon as the show ended, we headed off to a well deserved dinner in the Mission. Then we took Stephanie home and said goodbye. Steph leaves for Montreal on Monday... :(

I'm exhausted.

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Avatar

Haha -- we kept trying to take pictures of us smiling, but they all looked cheesy... :D

Stephanie's only here for a few more days, so we're trying to get in as much fun in as possible before she heads to Montreal.

Tonight we went to see Avatar in 3d. It followed the epic movie formula closely...but, I have to say, it did it quite well. The result was a very satisfying, visually spectacular film.

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Opening night, again.

We opened tonight and close again tomorrow night. A quick return to the stage.

I still love this little show and all of its little parts.

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Back in rehearsals

We're bringing the Halloween show we did in October (about the little girl who turns into a warewolf) back to the stage for two more shows in December. We'll be playing in a small theater in Union Square this time.

This pic was taken by Scott while he was terrorizing me.

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Thanksgiving

I moved to California just before Thanksgiving in the year 2000.

After years of the same suburban Thanksgiving on repeat, full of family, friends and feast, it was a very different experience for me to head from my house in the ghetto to another house in the ghetto to celebrate my first Oakland Thanksgiving with a guy my roommate barely knew. We drove through vacant dusty streets with...was it macaroni Matt made to contribute to the dinner?

We actually had a big Thanksgiving feast that day...and then sat around listening to each other tell stories and play the guitar while everyone got high (besides me). When the hosts locked themselves in the bathroom for about an hour, in what appeared to be an effort to resolve an argument, we decided to leave.

The Thanksgivings between then and now have varied greatly, from a lonely diner meal, to a drive up the coast, to Josh and I trying to make our own dinner, to finding ourselves with a wonderful group of friends...

This Thanksgiving was spent with part of Josh's family in Temple City, CA. Turkey, tostada salad, Chinese rice, shrimp, squid, mashed potatoes, and a giant squash like vegetable from the neighbor's yard made up our feast. It was an incredibly random assortment of goodness.

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November

Geez -- and I thought October was rough... !

The last two weeks at work have been BRUTAL. Luckily, I've been having tons of fun with Josh and friends outside of work to balance out the madness. Well, luckily THAT, AND that my work is big on drinking on the clock, so ... lots of late afternoon drinking to get me through the day... When your boss just starts handing you glasses of wine saying that you deserve it, it's gotta be bad. I've been desparately waiting for Friday since Monday night...

Today, I celebrated Friday with Brian, Teresa, and Josh. We had an excellent dinner at Brian and Teresa's beautiful new flat, then headed out to Beach Blanket Babylon (always a good show), and now we're at home trying to unwind.

Tomorrow, I sleep in as long as I can...

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More or Less

At work this year, we're doing an electronic Christmas card for our clients, families, friends... Our assignment is to take a self portrait, with words or pictures, saying what we'd like to do more or less of in 2010 to make it great. This is mine.

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Jason Alexander

I don't know what this picture is of...

Rick Reynold's Love, God, Sex (and other stuff I don't have) DIRECTED by Jason Alexander... That's what I get for skimming my emails, I thought this show was starring Jason Alexander. He was in the crowd tonight, though!

On the surface, this show was a 90 minute personals ad for a middle aged man looking to get some. :) On a deeper level, it was a glimpse at humanity and what we're all capable of, where we connect, and the humor that is available to us if we choose it.

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American Idiot

This show had one of the most incredible sets I've ever seen. Wallpapered to the ceiling with newspaper, drawings, black and white photos, and old TV sets -- it transported me into the Bay Area underground rock scene instantly. The set was reminiscent of Oakland warehouses I frequented not too long ago (but longer than I wish) to watch The Mass, Lower Forty Eight, Greenlight the Bombers...

Once I got over the set, I was faced with an hour and a half of Green Day.

Now, I like Green Day, but I'm also familiar with why the Bay Area rock scene has sort of rejected Green Day, and the first half of this show felt very... :/ Yeah. Luckily, the second half managed to transcend the "limits", and I found myself quite moved and a bit nostalgic by the end...and I can honestly say that I loved this show.

I was in the wonderful company of Roland and Josh tonight. :)

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tings dey happen

Great show tonight at the Marines Memorial Theater with Steph. A show featuring a white man portraying a slew of characters from Nigeria to comment on the oil industry and how it branches much farther than the Middle East.

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Tommy!

So, I'm unpacking some boxes at the apartment about a week ago and decide to drink wine to lessen the pain. It works. Unpacking becomes less painful... so, I keep drinking wine. Then I get on the phone with my friend Holly from New York. She has some stories to tell, so I listen and continue to drink wine. We talk for maybe an hour and a half and by about 1 in the morning, I'm pretty drunk... I go to bed and wake up to a hangover and the Bay Bridge closure. Yay! My usual 30 minute commute is lost to an hour and a half journey into the city via car, ferry, and Muni.

What does this have to do with Tommy, you ask?

I arrive at work, frantic, with about 15 minutes to solve all of the problems of the morning before a SalesForce guy shows up for a set up and training session. He arrives early. I can't get things done fast enough. I'm desperate for coffee and am not in a good state of mind to be trained. As I sit with my coffee and my lingering hangover, he talks faster than I can keep up with, but manages to mention he's in the middle of opening a show in the city. It's the only thing he says to me that really sticks. Theater? YES.

As the training continues, our mutual passion for theater slips through the cracks of formality until we just go to lunch and gush about how much we love theater. This ends in me getting 2 comp tickets to the show he's produced -- Tommy. It was AMAZING!! The music! The acting! The production quality! The story! The story? The lighting! The set!

The lovely Gabriella joined me for the performance, and I randomly ran into Joan for the second night in a row!

Ah, life. :)

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The Alley

I learned tonight that The Alley opened in the 30s and was eventually bought by a waitress who worked there, and it's stayed "in the family" ever since.

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Full moon

My last day of commuting by ferry.
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