August 2005

I work with this guy, Mark. (Well, technically, I work with a lot of guys named Mark. And Eric. And Mike.) Mark and I both went to UOP, and even overlapped for a year while we were there. Because the school is so small, we were always surprised that we never ran into each other, but never really thought anything of it. Turns out he was a Phi Delt who lived out in the townhouses with our friend JD, so I definitely saw him at events like Beers of the World and what not.

The world got much smaller when we were chatting at a party last week. Mark’s girlfriend Kari (I’m making up a spelling here) also went to UOP, and she said that she recognized me. After some “do you know so-and-so” and “did you go to this-and-that” we realized that yes, we knew each other. And Kari cooked me breakfast once too! I’d gone to a Phish show with my friends Chris and Ruben. This was three years after Mark and Kari had finished up at UOP, but Kari’s sister was still attending. The sister and Ruben met at that show, and ended up dating for two years. We all spent the night at our friend Jo-mama’s house, and in the morning, Mark and Kari were the first ones up, so they got breakfast stuffs and made a feast-like spread. I remember the food, even if I don’t really remember Mark or Kari from those two days.

I mean, it was a Phish show. Draw your own conclusions.

Last night, Bryan put laundry in before we went to bed. We woke up to a bathtub full of laundry water, flowing onto the bathroom floor and into the hall. Joy. Plumber is coming out today. Luckily, I have the option of taking a shower at work. In any case, our hall carpet is squishy. Eeew.

I’m all the way to the left, in the yellow helmet. And today was Sarah’s last day. (Not Sarah, but this Sarah.) We’ll miss you girl…have a great wedding!

Bryan and I are terrible. Terrible at moving in, that is. We’re ok at the moving part, mostly because we’ve done it so many times. Once a year for the last three years, plus I’ve moved everything I own overseas and back. Eeew. Anyhow, we’ve been in this side of the duplex for just over five months now. After today, we almost look like we live here.

Friday afternoon I went over to my parents house and got all my stuff. Everything that was still there came back to our place, much to my mom’s pleasure. Saturday morning, my dad drove his truck over and dropped of four bookcases I said I’d take. (Mom is still trying to get me to take the giant coffee table, and god only knows what else.) Sunday morning, Jo came over with a bed for the guest bedroom. So we actually started to unpack. Now, we’ve been “mostly unpacked” since the first week we were over here. But the guest room and office have been 50% boxes up until this weekend. The office is now boxless, and there are only a few left in the guest bedroom. I even think we can put the bed together tomorrow night.

How did this happen, you ask yourselves. I have no explaination. It’s like Bryan and I have always gotten to a certain point where we’re unpacked just enough, so we feel like we can get to the rest of it later. Where “later” is “the twelfth of never.” It’s quite a shock to feel moved in for once. Tomorrow, even if the bed doesn’t get assembled, I’m planning on organizing the boxes we’re giving to Goodwill. You have to figure, if we’ve gone this long without unpacking some stuff, that we don’t even need it at all. You’d be right. There are probably two good sized boxes right now, that can be taken directly, and another box just waiting to be filled. Not to mention CDs and videos that we can take to Rasputin and sell back for store credit.

Next thing you know, we’ll be eating at the kitchen table! Ooooh.

[FYI, I've closed comments on several old entries that were becoming spam comment catchers. Much praise goes to Kitten's Spaminator plug-in, which catches all but a few.]

Sarah and I went to SBC Park on Saturday night to see Black Eyed Peas and Dave Matthews Band. Woo! It was a really good show. BEP was on stage for about an hour, and did a really fun set. DMB played for nearly three hours, including the encore, and it was fab. Just a rocking set, with lots of energy and an amazing (and huge) guest trumpet player. I do wish I’d been at both shows (they also played the night before), as they did two totally different sets each night. Alas. There were definitely songs that I wanted to hear that they didn’t play on Saturday, but did on Sunday. However, opening with #41 was pretty sweet. :D

In non-concert news, I also ran into an old friend on the way to the show, as she was rushing off to catch the train. Alison has not died, folks! No really, we were so convinced she’d fallen into a crack in the earth or something, it was good to know she’s around. ;) Sarah and I were walking with our sammiches, and Alison saw me and yelled my name. Quite random, but wonderful. I was able to pass her my business card between hugs and “ahhh!”s, so hopefully we’ll get together before too long.

“Sweet mother of god, where did you ride? My bike is filthy!” –Sarah

On Wednesday, the managers at my store went and had our annual summer mental health day. We left the store in the capable hands of two other managers from other stores, stocked up on snacks and beer, and drove out to the coast. While it was quite warm, just over the hill it was foggy and cool. A perfect morning for a ride. It was planned that we’d ride Waddell Creek and then hike up to Berry Falls. It was a great ride, which kicked my ass a bit, but was super fun. I’ll have photos to post too, but I need to get the CDs from my manager. We were plenty dirty by the end. There were about three nice mud puddles, and lots of dust in between. Several coats of mud and dust, going to and from the falls. After the ride, we drove to Davenport for some lunch, where our waitress was unhappy to have us. Apparently a cheery party of nine is too much. Then down to the beach for some relaxing and a few competitive games of horseshoes.

I came home, and jumped in the shower. Then Bryan and I got in the car and went to San Francisco, where we had tickets to see Wicked. Oh, what a great show! I wish we’d been able to see it while we were in New York a few years back…it would have been the original cast. I do want to see Idina Menzel on the stage. I think it would be grand. Or maybe I could see her walking along 43rd, like I saw Audra McDonald. Anyhow, the show was fantastic. Our Elphaba was good, but it was Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda (or Galinda, with a “Guh”) who totally stole the show. Also, what a treat to get to see Carol Kane on stage. This is the cast we saw, with the exception of Elphaba, as ours was Eden Espinosa. Viva la Wicked!

Let’s see, what have I promised to blog about?

The Hitchcock thing was sweet. Now it was a double feature, with Strangers on a Train first, a pseudo-Q&A, then Rope. I say “pseudo” because it was. The interviewer was Jan Wahl, who is a local “film critic.” Please use appropriate finger air quotes there. Jan the Flapping Windbag only asked questions to which she already knew the answer. In addition, she would begin to answer said questions, and then stop herself and tell the guests, “No you tell it.” (I should probably mention that Bryan called her something much worse than “flapping windbag” all the way home, but I’m not willing to type it…which tells you how bad it was.) So unfortunately, the interview portion wasn’t as good as it could have been. But it was so incredible to see Strangers up on the big screen. Woo! Criss-cross indeed. We were so tired (and hungry!) that we didn’t stay for the second feature, and instead went out for some pizza at Escape from New York.

But today…oh today! After a bit of a snafu with the brown-socked delivery folks involving them actually forgetting my giant box in Ohio and getting it on a different truck…my subwoofer is finally here! In expecation of delivery, I’d already wired the living room on Friday, so the sub cable was all set up, and I got a new surge protector for it. Today Bryan and I unboxed it (60 pounds!) plugged it in, flipped it on, and put in The Matrix. Went straight to the lobby gunfight and let it rip. Listened to it at reference levels (which we never do) and I swear my internal organs were humming around in my chest. w00t!

We’ve been running through every bass-heavy movie we own. Whee!

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I will soon get up the energy to blog about seeing Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train at the Castro, and getting to hear Pat Hitchcock talk about her dad. Very fun. But this morning I was at work at 6am, which is four hours before the store opens. Feh.