February 2006

Thanks to my handy moleskine notebook, some coffee, and an idle moment at work, I’ve come to some conclusions about the direction of this blog. Both design and method are going to change soon-ish. I’ve got a good handle on what I want, and even mostly how it’s going to look. Just a heads up that things may take on a new look in a few weeks. Be inspired as I was. :D

Two days of work, and two kids vomited. Huzzah!

Yesterday, I was walking around the store, and I saw a boy around eight years old with a plastic bag (the kind you’d get in the veggie aisle), sort of walking around and using it as a kite. I fought the urge to say in a monotone voice, “this bag is not a toy.” Later, I’m helping one of our cashiers, and he comes up to the register with his mom and his sister. I duck down behind the counter, and when I pop back up, I appear just in time to see him puke into the bag he’d been holding. His mom didn’t react at all, just kept doing what she was doing. In the end, her only reaction was, “Hmm, guess it’s a good thing we had that bag.”

Today, I was in the back helping out with hanging clothes. I’m up to my ears in cycling clothes, when one of the girls comes into the back to tell me that a kid has again thrown up in the store. One of the other managers goes to get me the mop (it’s kept in the men’s room), and by the time I get out there, his lovely father has all but eliminated the mess. Yay! He did let his son continue eating strawberry yogurt-covered pretzels, which probably contributed to the hurling, but he didn’t blow chunks in the store a second time, so it wasn’t that bad.

Never a dull day at REI.

I’ve been enormously negligent of this here blog. I apologize. Stuff has been busy. Plus I crashed my car. D’oh. It’s quite sad, and I’m without my car for at least another 10 days while it gets a new hood and front grille. I rear-ended a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and while he suffered very little, Roy (my car) and I suffered greatly.

In other news:

• I’ve gotten up before 9am on two of my days off to have coffee with Amanda and Savannah. I now qualify for Best Friend In the World.
• Amanda has a new man, Tommy, who I quite like. He was up for the weekend and we had a lovely time.
• I went to San Francisco and saw an “art exhibit” for one Frank Chu. It was odd. He is just as weird as you expect a former child-star from an intergalactic soap opera might be.
• We also ate at a Japanese restaurant called (no, really) Country Station, which was playing Willie Nelson when we walked in, and was later visited by a traveling mariachi band. The food was fairly good, but they definitely get by on ambiance.
• I still haven’t gotten to interview for the new job yet…maybe next week?
• I’ve been watching way too much Olympic curling, but not much else Olympic-y.

And because you also need links to keep you in the loop with my random internet browsings:

• Make a paper case for CDs instead of using a jewel case.
• Our friend Peter is working on new photography stuff. Stuff under “Houston” is new.
• I’ve just bought: Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Death Cab For Cutie’s Plans, Prefuse 73’s Security Screenings, RENT on DVD, these cookies called Lemon Melts which are fantastic, and a new knife
• Peter Cohen (yes, of MacCentral et al) rules. And so does his cat.
• Lorilee asked me to post this. So I am. I hope you didn’t eat just now. If so, do not, for god’s sake, click.

That is all for now. More soon, I hope.

High school pals Alan Chang, Greg McFall, and Tom Jackson (L to R) and the without-drummer version of The Cosmic Giggle. They played the “grand opening” of our old high school performing arts center. The one I used to perform in burned down about two and a half years ago.

A typical night doing nothing at Amanda’s. Where “nothing” is throwing food at each other. Watch the flying goldfish!

The Cake show, with the two gals from Gogol Bordello helping them out.

Amanda posing outsite our friend MJ’s house. I was originally trying to take a photo of something else, when she walked into the frame and started posing for the camera.

Just a few photos of the trip.

Definitely a full-fledged three-day birthday celebration. Thanks for all the phone calls, the lovely singing (either in person or on my voicemail…you know who you are), and overall making my birthday quite fun. Jam-packed with fun! I can’t possibly blog about the entire three days, so I offer this condensed timeline.

January 31

• 6:30pm Dinner with Dena and Melis, Amanda and Savannah at Cafe Torre, which was both Christmas and birthday since I haven’t seen either Dena or Melis in ages.
• 9:45pm Drinks at Khartoum with Amanda and Savannah. Jeremy from work came out and bought me a drink. I had lots of drinks.
• time unknown Miles (my favorite bartender) comes in when he’s not working to have a drink with me for my birthday. Miles rules!
• later time, still unknown, probably before midnight Knock Amanda’s half-full beer off the foosball table onto the floor. Party foul. Go to bar, yell at Steve (the bartender) for service. Tell Steve, “I don’t think I should drink any more. I just knocked over a beer. Can I have a shot?”

February 1

• around 1:15am Call Bryan for a ride. Go outside with the girls to wait for him. Savannah tackles me onto the hood of Bryan’s car when he arrives. The girls give me an official birthday spanking. 28 whacks from each of them. Ow. [1]
• 7:30am Wake up, still a bit drunk. Have a glass of water, go to the bathroom, then back to bed.
• noon-thirty Get up for good. Manage to take a shower.
• 3:45pm Stop being peeved at Bryan for not making the birthday waffles he’d promised me while I was showering. (He went back to bed. Pthbbbt.)
• 5pm Bryan and I go rescue my car from the bar parking lot.
• 5:30pm Bryan and I head up to the city, where we have a great dinner at sanraku and I gorge on two faaaaaaabulous pieces of toro and unagi donburi.
• 8:30pm Walk to the Warfield where we see Cake. They performed after Gogol Bordello and Tegan and Sara. Fabulous show. Golgol Bordello was a rockin’ surprise!

February 2

• 12:30am Leave San Francisco and drive home.
• 2:15am Finally fall asleep.
• 4:15am My alarm goes off and I actually get up.
• 5:05am Knock on Amanda’s door, but she’s not ready yet.
• 5:30am Get on the road and drive to Tahoe.
• the next 4ish hours Singing along to music, having a generally giddy drive up, with rain from Colfax to 267.
• 11:05am Arrive at Northstar for REI NorCal employee ski days. Amanda convinces Sarah that she’s dropped me off in Auburn “to see friends” and has arrived on the mountain by herself. Good for a laugh or two.
• 11:15am We go down to the lodge, register for the day, I win Amanda some goggles in the raffle, we walk back to the car where I try and take a short nap before the snowboarding. Amanda succeeds in talking to me so much in the car that I can’t really sleep, and we get on the mountain.
• noon-4:30pm SNOWBOARDING! Amanda’s first time back in seven years. I’m riding my new board and new bindings, which RULE. I get to ride with people I adore for my almost-birthday and it kicks ass.
• 5:30pm Arrive at our friend MJ’s house in Incline Villiage, Nevada. I start a fire in the fireplace while we wait for MJ to get home from work. Amanda and I shower, and while our co-worker Michael is in the shower, we fall asleep on the couch.
• 7pm-10pm Amanda and I sleep on the couch.
• 10ish We eat soup with MJ, who has been home for an hour. We brush our teeth, and lay on the couch some more.
• 11:30pm Sleep!

February 3

• 7:15am My alarm goes off, and Amanda and I wake up just in time to see the sun coming up over the mountains and over the lake.
• 7:45am I’ve gotten onto the couch again, and we decide that we should probably get ready to leave.
• 8:15am We depart Incline, and head back home because I have to work at 1pm.
• 12:05pm We make really good time back, and stop at Una Mas for burritos. They’ve changed the menu, which doesn’t make me happy, but we were starving and it’s still tasty.
• 12:25pm Drop a salsa-laden chip on my lap, making it look as though I’ve been stabbed in the groin and have bled salsa everywhere. Not enough time to go home, and the only pants I have with me are ratty track pants and my snowboarding bibs. Amanda says she’ll give me pants when I drop her off.
• 12:35pm Get pants from Amanda, but now I don’t match at all, so I get a sweater too.
• 12:58pm Make it to work with time to spare!
• all day Get compliments on my outfit. haha
• 10:30pm Arrive home, finally.

[1] Amanda claims she and Savanna weren’t hitting me that hard, but I contend that because I was drunk and it still hurt, they must have been whacking me pretty good.