This weekend was pretty damn spiffy. It all started on Friday night. It was Barbie's b-day bash that night and after work, I went out in search of an appropriate gift. I ended up going to CD spins to buy her Faithless' "Outrospective" and DJ Colette's "Our Day" and went to Ozone to get her a "Hottie" bracelet. Actually, I didn't go in there intending to get that for her. I was in there to scope out the new clothes. Finding the bracelet was just a bonus. So I meet up with the lot of people there for Barbie's b-day dinner already in progress. Following dinner, myself, Barbie, Carpenter and Medi-Girl go to Life to dance. Yay, clubs! Coincidentally it was also my old boss at the Weekly Dig's b-day bash as well. I guess it pays to be connected, especially on your b-day. It was a lot of fun dancing to the deep house that is always pumping at Life. I think it's one of the best house nights around. No pretense. No dress code. I can usually get listed there too... It's all good. The great thing too was that we were lindy hopping to the 4 on the floor house beat. It was mad fun. It amde me wish they played that kind of stuff at some of the swing events.
After getting home at around 2:30A, I went to sleep and promptly woke up at 11:30 so I could be on Newbury Street by 12:30 to meet up with Carpenter to go down to Providence for a benefit dance for cancer research (can you count the prepositional phrases?). Carpenter was running mad late because he got stuck on Storrow Drive with all of the traffic from Earthfest. Earthfest is this big free concert at the Hatch Shell (an outdoor bandshell) featuring acts like Garbage, Lisa Loeb, Bonnie Raitt and Midnight Oil in support of the environment. I kinda wished I had gone, but alas I had told Groupie that I would go down to the benefit. Well, anyways, Carpenterwas supposed to go to his bank to deposit a check, but his bank closed before he could hit downtown. So he met me on Newbury. We looked around for some music that we had heard the prior night and then head down to Providence. There were some interesting mishaps on the way down that wouldn't really be worth explaining, but it seemed like the driving gods weren't with us.
Anyways, we ended up getting to Providence sometime around 3:30, I think. We saw the last three songs from Bombay Jim and the Swingin' Sapphires. They were okay. When we got there, I was supprised to see the lack of lindy hoppers and the plethora of east coasters. It was actually kind of disheartening. There was a dance contest too. Tattoo Girl and Scoops entered and they were the only ones who entered for a long time. They coerced Groupie and I to join in just so that they wouldn't win by default. Later on, a couple of people from Brown joined so there were three couples and then Carpenter and another chick were coerced as well. Since there were only 4 couples they were gonna cancel the contest, but Tattoo Girl convinced them to keep it on. So as a joke we danced the first dance with our partners and then we had a steal for the second dance. It was amusing. I have to say though that I honestly believe that either Carpenter or I were the best leads there and Groupie was the best follow. We were at this dance until 12:00A and got home around 1:00/1:30.
Sunday morning I woke up at 9:00A in the morning to meet up with Glare, Totoro and The Violent One for brunch. Originally it was supposed to be just Glare, Totoro and I, but I decided to mention it to The Violent One and invite her along. We decided that we wanted to have a really good brunch, so we went to the Blue Room in One Kendall Square (about 5 blocks away from where I live). I had to meet the crew at 10:00A, but The Violent One called me at a little past 9:00A and told me that she was running late. So essentially, I didn't rush to meet them at the Marriott (they didn't know where they were going so I met them there.). I got there at around a quarter past and we went to the restaurant. We got there before they opened, because we thought that they might get crowded and we didn't know if reservations were nessesary. Evidently they were. However, we were lucky. We got the last table. Though it was in a rather unfortunate spot (right near the beginning of the buffet line), I didn't mind it so much. The food was AWESOME. I don't know if I have ever had a brunch that good. I think I'm going to have to take my parents there or something. We sat and ate the most wonderous foods from 11:00A to almost 1:00P. It was an exercise in sport eating. I give the Blue Room brunch two thumbs up plus and extra finger lick. It was that good. It would be a kick arse date spot provided that you date someone that A) eats copius amounts and B) is not a vegetarian.
After brunch I left the gang and left them to do all of the things that they needed to do. I ended up going home and digesting until Shaft (a friend from New York) came to get me to hang out. We ended up going with another one of his college friends from Tufts to go and shoot some pool. We must have had the least attentive waitress ever known to man. She was HORRIBLE. The good thing was that my game was on. I was making some fantastic shots. It was like I was playing like I was back in high school. I won 4 out of 5 games of cut throat and my team won 2 our of 3 games of 8-ball. I had a great time. Shaft left for New York at around 8:00P and I just stayed in for the rest of the night. I watched some not-so-quality TV and just veged out.
That was my weekend. It was a good time. I hope the next one is good too.
Okay, so I'm here. I'm doing well... Good even. I'm living life and I'm having fun. I'm not sad. I'm not deppressed. I'm not angry. What's wrong? Nothing. I'm just really amazed that my life has been going so well lately and that I haven't found anything really to bitch about aside from the occasional "There's not enough time in the day," or "I need to sleep!" Here's the truth about how I feel. I feel like I'm a good looking guy (see the hair? Are ya jealous yet?), in a pretty cool city with great friends and a reasonably well paying job (though it's nowhere near what I want to do with my life). I have a life. I do things. I eat good food. I pay no rent. I have just come back from Japan almost a month ago. How much better could it get unless I was still in Japan, eating up a storm with all of my friends in the world right there with me. That would be a lot better, but I've got it damn good now. I hope it lasts.
On Friday, I was punchy as hell. Actually I still am. I was obnoxious as hell at work. I was making fun of everything and everybody. I was loud too. It was funny. Everyone at my office thought I was insane... Well, I am. That night I went to Swing City to go see Ron Sunshine & Full Swing play. They're as great as I remember them from seeing them perform at Atlantic Dance on Disney's Boardwalk. I had some kick ass dances. One with Tattoo Girl, one with a girl we'll call Hop and a couple with a friend from out of town (we'll call her Groupie). After dancing one of the more kick arse nights I've danced in the past year, a bunch of us went to IHOP. Twas fun. I had hashbrowns and a strawberry sundae. Something cool happened that night too. Dawn Hampton, a jazz vocalist and swing legend, actually remembered my name. She came out to IHOP with the lot of us and I told her that I was going to try to make it down to NYC for her b-day party, and she said to me, "ZEN, I knew when I met you that you had taste!" I was pleased.
The next day I ran around trying to get Rebound Girl's b-day gift together. I ran here, ran there... I had to get a card and re-burn one of the CDs that I made for her, because it seemed like there was an error in the CD. When I re-burned it, it seemed like it had that same error, so I think it could be linked to the original CD. I uploaded the CDs onto my MD recorder and packaged everything up. I was planning on being at the party early, like at 8:30-ish, but due to the fact that I had to go grocery shopping and I had to upload the CDs on to MD. To tell you the truth, I really didn't have to upload the CDs... I could have just made the same mix from the original source CDs. But noooo... I was too dumb to see that.
Anyways, I got to the party around 9:00p. Most of the people that I knew were gonna show were there already: No Legs, Perv Girl, Jeeves, Carpenter and Emerill. Swank and Greaser showed up later. I made hitipi (my garlic/feta dip) and it went over famously. The funny thing was I used jarred garlic (YUCK!), because I thought Rebound Girl would have had some in her kitchen. She did have some garlic. Too bad it was about 6 months old. I think if it were there any longer it would have asexually reproduced and plotted with itself to take over Rebound Girl's kitchen while making strange screeching/squealing noises. But people liked it anyways. It could have used something else, but I didn't really have the time or the materials to begin playing with it.
When I got to the party, the gift I brought was taken to another room to be opened at a later time. I think they were planning on opening everything at once in front of a lot of people. I really didn't want everyone to see what I got for her and what kind of work I put into the gift. I thought it was fine that No Legs, Perv Girl, Carpenter and the lot of them that were there early were there to see her open it, but I really had no desire to have people who didn't know me or my history with Rebound Girl peeking into the gift. Though it may not have seemed it, some of the gifts were rather personal. I mean, I can tell you here, because this is my journal, but I mean, really... The first part of the gift was a stuffed Shaun the Sheep from the Wallace & Grommit claymation series. She has a thing about sheep. They make her laugh uncontrolably. There was one night in CT where she just wouldn't stop laughing. The second part of her gift was a 2CD set of mellow tunes. I put it in storybook form. There was a storyline in the songs. It was like a soundtrack or an opera. I put a lot of work and thought into those two CDs. I'm actually still working on the liner notes, because when I gave the gift to her, it wasn't up to snuff (as far as my standards go). Finally, I got her a baby blue fleece hoody with ears and paws. This is significant, because a while ago, when we went to Ozone together, she saw the same hoody, but they only had one and it didn't fit her. I searched for a good month online looking for this hoody. It came to one week until her party and I took a shot in the dark and I guessed the brand and the website and I was right. It was right there in front of me, so I got it for her. I dunno, maybe I was just being weird.
The rest of the party was kind of fun. There was a lot of play with whipped cream, but alas no nudity (damn!). There were some attractive ladies there, but I really didn't talk to any of them. You know me. I'm always afraid of being considered sketchy. The party pretty much died and everyone (myeslf included) left shortly thereafter. I was really tired and felt the need to sleep for a while.
Sunday, I did very little. I did laundry, developed some pictures and watched some TV. Exciting, huh? Well, that was my weekend.
It's 9:50 on a Wednesday night and I'm at an MIT library writing a blog. I kinda wanted to go out and hang outside in the beautiful weather, but I don't think it's happening. I was supposed to go hang out with Special K tonite, spin some reckidz, drink some beeahz, but he flaked again. He had a mid-term in his grad school class. I can't blame the guy from skipping out, but I figured that he would have known before we made plans on Saturday. Alas no.
After Special K flaked (I just love saying that too much), I called up The Violent One and Chocoholic to see if they wanted to go and get some ice cream on this oh so summery spring night. The temperature is perfect and the breeze is awesome, but alas no. I was beaten out by laundry and a presentation for work. Yay?
So I'm just out wandering around town looking for something to do or somewhere to go. I could go dancing, but I'm not really in the mood for it. I'm saving myself for Friday when Ron Sunshine & Full Swing come to Swing City. I'll spend myself there. It's too nice outside. Wish I had someone to go sit at one of those bars that have a roofdeck or those front window/walls that open up so that you can feel the breeze on your skin and so you can watch all of the ladies walk by. Hey, ya can't win every day. Maybe someone will grab a beer with me some other time. There's always another time.
So, The Violent One shared with me what I actually did on my birthday. Isn't it sad that she had to remind me. I don't know what I would do without her. Over the past year and a half, she has easily become one of my best friends. She always has something intelligently amusing to say and a unique view on life and how to live it. She can be flighty and grounded at the same time. I can and have spent hours talking to her. Damn I love that girl. She'z so cool!
Back to my birthday and that'll be that. On my birthday, I woke up relatively early to meet up with The Violent One for some reason or another. I think we were gonna get brunch, but we just ended up going to get falafel in Central Square followed by coffee/tea at 1369 a couple of blocks down from there. That was one of the examples of how we can talk for hours about everything and nothing. We sat in that coffeehouse just chillin' talking about the perspective objects o' our desires. I think we both have pretty fuct love lives so we can sit there and discuss without the hinderance of others' rose coloured glasses. I think we eneded up hanging out from 11:00 to about 6:00.
Following our hang out period, I got a call from Barbie asking if I wanted to go and hang out/watch a movie. The Violent One was invited, but she declined. Instead it was Barbie, myself, Carpenter and we convinced Rebound Girl to leave her homework behind to come too. We brought "Swing" and "Ghost World," but we only ended up watching "Swing" after we got depressed over the September 11th documentary. Rebound Girl hadn't really seen much of the footage by choice, so she was a bit rocked by the documentary. I think all of us were a little rocked. The wine, Bailey's and Ben & Jerrys helped too. I don't think I got home that night until around 1:00 or 2:00. I had to work the next day. Business as usual.
Now onto current events. I apologize for not keeping up the Life Update more frequently. My life has gotten busier with downloading Japan pictures, which should be online within the week, and taking care of business. I have to say that I feel that Japan has really changed me. I feel different. I think differently. I don't respond to the drama in my life like I used to. I keep things nice and calm. Here's an example.
Before I went to Japan, I ended up hooking up with one of my friends. We'll call her Lullaby. So Lullaby and I hooked up. It wasn't anything serious. We were just friends that were having fun. We made this clear. To be honest, it was something new for me, but I ran with it. Hell, I was gettin' some play. I was cool with it and she was cool with it. Everything was cool. While I was in Japan, it turned out that she found someone special and told me about it upon my return. Now, prior to Japan, I think I would have been a little more "Grrrr" over this whole thing, but the thing was that I wasn't She had seen my dealings with Rebound Girl and was really expecting some retribution. When she did tell me, my response was that I was happy for her and I'm sorry for me. I don't know to what extent I was sorry for me, because I was kind of prepared for the whole deal, at least I think I was. Japanaphile and I were talking about it in Japan and he basically told me, "You reap what you sew, so don't be surprised when this comes back to bite you in the ass." He told me in a very nice way, basically telling me to watch my ass in a very brotherly way. So, when it happened, I was prepared as well as I could have been and I rolled with it.
We finished on the note that we're friends. I firmly believe that I am her friends and want to be friends with her, but I get the feeling she's waiting for the hammer to fall, sort of like it did with Rebound Girl. I don't think she believes me that I'm cool with the whole deal, but hey. I can't change the way she looks at me. I have no (nor do I wish to) have control over her or her mind. In can only be me and do what's best for me. If it turns out that she doesn't want to be friends with me, then so be it. It would be unfortunate, but at least she would doing what's best for her.
Time for me to fly. I'll try to keep up a little better. Keep on the watch for the Japan and hair hacking website. Kay?
I'm sorry I have been away for a while. Since my birthday weekend, my life has sort of spun out of control in good and bad ways. I've just been busy as hell all of the way around. I'm not going to try to give you all of teh details of the birthday weekend or my trip to Japan, but I will summarize my birthday weekend in this blog and I will set up a travel journal/photo gallery at the first chance that I get. So, let's get on from where I left off on the life update.
After I got my hair hacked, I felt a great deal lighter. Glare and PJ, in addition to the hairdresser told me that I looked taller. That really made me happy. After we left the hardresser's. I ended up taking PJ around Cambridge. Well, it was more like around Harvard. We chatted it up, went shopping and had dinner. Before we knew it, it was around 8:30 and I was supposed to meet the peanut gallery at Jillian's to go see Carl Cox spin at Avalon. I kinda wished PJ could have stayed longer and could have come out to the bar and club with the peanut gallery (eventhough I know that it's not his bag), but alas he had a football game the next day. He had to go home.
I knew I was running late the second I looked at my watch and saw that it was 8:30. So when I went into the house, I called up Rebound Girl to tell her that I would be a little late and that if she saw the rest of the troops at Jillians, to let them know that I got wrapped up. Instead of just going, she got No Legs and Jeeves to come and pick me up. They were on their way there, so she decided that it would just be easier and that way I wouldn't be late (seeing as it takes about a half an hour to get to Landsdowne Street from my house via the T.
After they honked and I stepped out of my house, they saw my new haircut. It got rave reviews. I was pretty happy. It's not that I put that much value on what other people think about my self-image, it's that my friends would tell me if I looked like an idiot with my new haircut and they didn't say that I looked like an idiot. Therefore I came to the conclusion that I didn't look like a tool with my new haircut. Speaking of hair, No Legs had kick ass hair that night. Rebound Girl did it for her. Normally No Legs has plain, vanilla-flavored, straight, brown hair. Nothing nappy, but nothing to write home about either. (Though the day she hacked off 10", she looked like she had Pantine Pro-V commerical hair. It was amazing) So she had her hair twisted in bundles so that it looked a little like cornrows. It looked really cool. In addition, Rebound Girl glamed her up with some club-wear. It was an altogether amusingly cool sight.
So, we hit Jillians and we were the first ones there besides Carpenter. I guess he had been waiting for a while. Everyone else was nowhere to be found, so we started drinking. Actually, upon receiving the first round, OMG and her man arrived. I went and played Time Crisis II for a while and when everyone arrived, we hit Avalon. The total list of people were Carpenter, Rebound Girl, Jeeves, No Legs, OMG and her man, The Violent One, Totoro and Glare. Carl was playin some great tracks. I was really vibing with his set. Eveyone else seemed to be too. The amazing thing was that there was no real pushing or shoving going on. All of us had space to dance that was only occasionally distrupted by someone passing through. The one time that we were more than slightly disturbed was when this big beefcake boy came walking through while I had my eyes closed dancing. He stopped in the middle of the circle for a good 10 seconds just staring at Rebound Girl. I finally realized this and gave him the evil eye as Rebound Girl sort of was like "Help!" Carpenter had his eye out too. He said that if the guy didn't go away in like 2 seconds he would have thrown down. Totoro and Glare peeled off early. They were tired from working hard. Totoro was pulling 6 day work weeks for the past month and a half or so.
After clubbing, OMG and her man went home. They were tired as well, but the rest of the lot of us went to Apollo for some sushi. We were all really goofy. Some more than others. Carpenter had this strange need to catapult things with his chopsticks. We had to take them away from him like he was a kid. Rebound Girl was famished and everyone else was pretty normal. I didn't end up getting home until about 5:00 in the morning. That was the second night in a row that I got very little sleep.
Sunday... I don't remember whan I did on that day, but I remember doing something... If anyone can let me know what I did on Sunday (my actual birthday), let me know.
Well, that's it for now. I'll continue the Life Update tradition on this page from now on.
