I Hate Liars. Listening: Inertia creeps, inertia creeps. See she cums. See she cums...
Last night's practice wasn't at all what I expected it to be. We were supposed to have a few people from the Liason team coming to paddle with us. I was under the impression that they had paddled before and just needed a bit of dockwork before they hopped on the boat. I was under the impression that someone from their team was going to be running the dockwork for twenty minutes while my crew went out and did the hardcore stuff and we would come and pick them up for the second half of practice.
No one was there to do the dockwork. There were two, not four or five people from the Liason team there. Neither of them had ever paddled before. So I had to have Fester do the dockwork with them. That ate up my sunlight time, so my practice was even more abbreviated than it was already. Furthermore, I couldn't do what I wanted to do for that practice. It was thoroughly aggravating.
Another thing that went wrong for practice was that half of the people who said that they were going to show up didn't show up. I was counting on those people being there. It was unfortunate. It kinda put me in a foul mood. It's a shame that I can't seem to get the attendance. Some people think that it's because of me. Some people think that it is because of the changing of the guard. I don't know. I don't really care either. All I know is that people expect to paddle in races without coming to practice and that is just wrong. I don't quite know how to deal with it all. It gets me angry at the paddlers and at the club, and I'm sure it gets them angry back at me. I just want to push for greatness. I feel that others want to push for mediocrity. It sucks that there's no other game in town.
After practice, no one was up for food, so I went and got a meatball sub and some fries from Aram's House of Pizza down near Lechmere. When I brought it home, I finally cracked open the bottle of vlammse mayonnaise that I brought back from Amsterdam. *sigh* Last night I had the best fries that I have had since I came back from Amsterdam. The mayonnaise was just what I needed to brighten up my day. It's amazing what a little condiment will do for me, or food in general for that matter. Yummy.
I actually passed out early last night too. I really must be getting old. I went to sleep at eleven again. Maybe I need to rebuild my tolerance. I didn't even have time to read before I went to sleep, I was so tired.
Tonite is record night. Special K and I are getting together and we're gonna spin some rekkidz. Yeah, baby! I get to bust out some of my new vinyl. It's gonna be awesome. I think we might also try to go see Hybrid at Axis tonite too. Well, I'll see if he's up for it.
Anyways, that's it. Tomorrow should be interesting. FOP is out and I'm retaking the monster funds that I haven't touched in months. It looks like I'll be ready to run a practice tomorrow. Lotsa frustrations to work out. It'll be great.
Up Until Last Night I Didn't Like Monks Listening: It was late, Friday night. Couldn't get you out my mind.
Ahh... what can I say about last night? Well it was certainly fun. The time for dinner kept changing. See, originally, I thought dinner was at seven thirty, but really it was supposed to be at seven, but when OC Girl called the East Coast Grill, they said that they couldn't seat us until half past eight. So things got swicthed to eight thirty. All of the swicthing went down at around five, so there were all sorts of alternate plans being made. Totoro was originally supposed to come to dinner. Then he bailed. Then he said that he would come. Then he bailed again. He kept teetering back and forth, but fortunately he decided to come out (though he was late). Yay!
Glare and I met up early. It takes her fifteen minutes for her to get from work to Cambridge, but an hour and a half or so to get home to Quincy. I think she pulled up to my place at five thirty. From there, we went to Inman Square and hung out at 1396 Coffeehouse for an hour or so chatting and drinking iced coffee. There were several phone conversations during that hour. It seemed as if a lot of people were calling either Glare or I. I think most of Glare's calls were from a debating Totoro.
At seven, we met up with OC Girl and one of her friends from "The Hood," as she calls it, at Christina' Ice Cream. Yes, the four of us had dessert first. I had fresh mint ice cream. It was tres yummy. Anyways, we sat there for about an hour and a half just shit shooting before we went to the East Coast Grill. Of course, we were the first ones there, but soon Emerill and another swing dancer showed up, then Ye-ah. We knew Totoro was going to be late, so we got seated without him.
Luckily, Totoro wasn't far behind us. He got there just before we were going to order apps. So, here's the run down of my meal. I had the clam and corn chowder with sweet potatoes and cornbread croutons as my appetizer. For my entree, I had a crusted grilled monkfish served with mint marinated artichoke hearts and eggplant marinated in pomegranate. For eggplant, it was rather good. I don't like eggplant, but this was decent. Maybe it was because it was cooked with pomegranate and I go apeshit for that stuff. Finally, for dessert, I had key lime pie. Now I've definitely had better key lime pie. It was a bit disappointing. In addition to all of this, I had a drink called a "Lychee Typhoon." It was vodka, passionfruit juice, fresh mint, orange and a whole lychee muddled together. It was very yummy. I was very pleased with it, but I was hoping that it had more alcohol.
The dinner experience was nice. I had a great time hanging out with my bunch of foodie buddies. I think I spent too much on dinner though. The monkfish was really good and the bites of everyone else's food was good too, but I don't know. It wasn't the best meal that I have ever had. I think I got much more value out of eatnig lunch at Mantra and Maison Robert. I would go back there, but I think it wouldn't be for a soup to nuts meal. I would go for an entree and then I would get dessert at Christina's. Their drinks are good. I would go there to drink, though there aren't many places that I wouldn't drink at.
The question of "What kitchen item would you be and why?" came up again. I was harping on OC Girl's answer of The Knife from a couple of weeks ago. We came up with some good ones like Emerill's answer fo the Kitchenaid Mixer, Glare's kitchen table, and Totoro's meat tenderizer. It was all really amusing. I don't think people agreed with me that no one can be The Knife. I still hold it to be true though. I would call her a serving spoon, because she enables others to enjoy quality food. But that's just how I see it.
Last night Ye-ah lent me a book by our old creative writing professor. When we knew him, he was a he. Now he is a she. The book I'm reading is her memoir. I've only gotten in one chapter, but I can totally hear his/her voice. It's got that abusrdist sound to it. I really like her writing style, maybe because I can hear it all in my head, because I know how she used to talk in class and how she used to narrate things. It's very good so far.
Tonite, another day, another practice. I'm supposed to have pretty close to a full boat. I hope it happens. It would make me happy.
My lips hurt. Damn the sunburn. What I need is a nice cooling kiss from a cute girl. Heh heh heh. I know, I know... Prolly won't happen. You never know. Things can change in the blink of an eye. I try to keep hope alive.
I'm Like A Banana... No, Not Like That... Not Like That Either. Listening: He sat me down to talk to me. He looked me straight in the eye. He said, "You're no son, you're no son of mine."
Since there's not much to say about last night, I won't really say anything aside from, I came, I saw, I went to sleep. Yah... Sleep. Maybe I'm catching up with all of those nights that I pulled all-nighters. Sleep good. Maybe I'm getting old. Old bad. I am not old.
Anyways, onto the all too exciting life of the ZEN!!! Master. Laundry was done. Now I have a relative large supply of clean drawls. I was riding low on the gauge before yesterday. The tank is pretty much full now. I was trying to re-arrange my clothes into these two dressers that I have. I bought one from a strange Japanese girl a while back with The Violent One and my brother left a set of drawers for me as well. Both sets of drawers are kind of ghetto. The larger set, the one that my brother left, is super ghetto. The drawers don't stay on the track and they almost fall out of the frame when you open them. It's just a big pain in the ass. It's nice to have storage and all, but getting the stuff out is a pain.
This morning in the shower, I started peeling. I know this is a gross and disgusting topic, but I feel the need to speak about it. See, I fried my face on Satuday as I was checking out girls and training people for the dragon boat races. It could have started peeling yesterday or tomorrow, but it picked today. I have a dinner party to go to tonite and my face is peeling worse than a banana. Why couldn't it have picked a better night? Blah. Actually it doesn't look all that bad, but it just don't feel all that good. I'll try to scrub some more skin off when I get home. =P
Anyways, tonite, I'm going to dinner at The East Coast Grill over in Inman Square. There's gonna be a host of people there. It should be yummy as hell. I'm looking forward to it.
In other news, Fester, OC Girl and I are thinking about having a wine tasting party on the thirteenth. I figure, everyone brings a bottle of wine, a block of cheese and a type of cracker or other salty snack item. We'll have tons of alcohol, tons of food and tons of friends. Ya think life could get any better? Well, it could, but I don't think I'd be getting any of that at this party. You never know though. I can only imagine the selections of wine and cheese at this party. I think it would be totally rockstar awesome. I'd probably bring two bottles of wine, because I have a nice bottle of wine in the fridge and I wuold want to pick up my favorite wine from Best Cellars as well. I would probably bring a pepper jack cheese and maybe some portuguese sweet bread. The variety of tastes would be fantastic.
Anyways, it's about time to bounce. Yummy food on the way. Woo woo.
It's A Dirty Job But Someone Has To Do It. Listening: I wanna make love every day in a special way.
I'm bushed. No, I haven't been hit by a small shrubbery. No, I haven't been eatin' the mound. I'm just tired. I don't know what my deal is. Ever since last Thursday when I went running with Fester, Protege, Clueless, et al, I have been tired. I think the average time that I have been going to sleep is right around a quarter past eleven. Do you know how early that is for me? It's real frikkin early. Last night, I guess I made up for it by staying up until one to finish watching The True Hollywood Story: The Real World.
The Real World is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. I totally dig watching it. I think the only one that I watched less than five episodes of was the Chicago cast. They were just dumb as hell. Granted most of the cast members in most of the season were dumb as hell, Chicago really upped that bar. There are some characters that I genuinely find interesting like Julie the Mormon from New Orleans or Mike, Lori and Coral from the second New York cast, or even Judd, Pam and Pedro from San Francisco. I don't know why I like it so much. Maybe it's because it makes me feel like I exercise more common sense than the run of the mill idiot on reality TV. I just dig it, I guess.
So, this weekend was pretty odd. Friday, for practice, we got to the docks and it started storming. When I say storming, I don't mean the usual, "Wah! There's a little bit of water falling from the sky!" This was more like, "Holy shit! Did you see the purple-white bolt of electricity fly across the sky hitting a building that was less than a mile from us? Mutha fucka!" Yeah... Got caught in the rain. It was unfortunate. What made it fortunate was that I always bring a change of clothes to practice and luckily, they stayed dry. I love steppin' out of sogginess into a pair of crisp, clean, dry boxers. Mmmm... Feels nice on the boys. The boys... They're not all that fond of sogginess.
After practice got rained out, I ate dinner with Hulk and a couple of other dragon boaters and went home. Stringbean was supposed to call me to go out clubbing that night, but after I showered, I was tired as hell. When she did call, she could hear the tiredness in my voice. So, I decided to stay home. Stringbean called me at ten or so and I was in bed by eleven. It was sick!
It was all for the best, staying in. I had to be up by half past six in order to be ready to go down to Pawtucket. I was in Pawtucket all day on Saturday training local teams on the finer points of dragon boating. It was amusing. We had a host of different flavored teams. We had the team from Brown University, half of whom had only been in the country for two weeks and were already on a team. Another amusing team was the Hash House Harriers' team. They were like a rawkus bunch of kids. They were like claustrophobic kittens in a canvas bag. They were all over the place. I was glad that I didn't have to take that crew out. They would have gotten on my last nerve. They were nice enough people but I don't think that I could have taken them for very long. Hulk took them out. The team I took out were the team from the Pawtucket Times. They were all pretty non-athletic. Yeah. I think I might be giving them a little too much credit when I say they were pretty non-athletic. There were maybe one or two people on the team who were in decent physical condition. Anyways, I had a good time teaching them, because they seemed to be genuinely interested in what I had to say. It was nice for a a change.
Some other interesting points of that day had to do with women. The girl who is organizing the Pawtucket Dragon Boat Festival was hot. Prior to picking Hardcore up and driving down to Pawtucket, Hulk told me to take a look at this girl and tell him if she has a nice rack. When I got to the site, she was wearing a baggy t-shirt, so I couldn't really tell. But, later on in the day, when the sun got hot, the shirt came off and she was wearing one of those camisoles. Damn I love those shirts. Ninety percent of girls look beter in camisoles. They're cute. It's even better if you can see belly button. In this case, I could tell that this girl had hers pierced. Mmmmm...
Another interesting thing that happened in Pawtucket was that the team that Hardcore was coaching had too many people to fit on the boat. This was the Brown University team. So, three people sat out during each of the two times they went out. Apparently, two of the girls on the boat made a b-line for me when they had their turn out. I didn't see it, but apparently, they headed straight for me after they got off the boat. Hulk saw it and said that he was chuckling. Anyways, they just came up to me and started talking to me. Granted, their English wasn't very good, so I had to repeat and rephrase myself a number of times. One of them was pretty cute, but they're all at Brown University and I'm in Boston, and I don't like having to repeat myself to someone I'm dating unless they genuinely didn't hear me. Understanding is a key thing in a relationship. Okay, I think I dug a little too deep for that one... But trust me... I want to date someone with a firm grasp on the English language. Any other language is gravy.
On the way back to Boston from Pawtucket, Hulk's catalytic converter dropped. Actually, it happened on Memorial Drive just as we went on the rotary to get to the BU Bridge. It was crazy. We were on our way to grub and there it went, scraping against the asphalt, making a ruckas. We pulled into a Mobil which ended up being closed, got dinner and then went back to the car. Amazingly enough, we jerry-rigged something with some bungee cords and a wire hangerso that the catalytic converter was at least riding an inch or two over the street. A tow truck would have taken two hours, so we really didn't have much of an option. It didn't stay up though. By the time we had gotten from BU to Central, it was dragging again. That sucked.
Also that night, I was supposed to see John Digweed spin at Avalon with some people, but one by one, they all bailed. After an hour or so, I decided that I should just save my money. So, I stayed home and ended up crashing out at eleven. It was sick.
Sunday, I ran a really tough practice. It started with a fifteen minute warm-up paddle, then we had a five hundred meter practice race, a one minute (simulating a two hundred and fifty meter race) race piece, a modified 4-5-6 pyramid (with only two minute light paddle pieces between the power pieces), a ratings pyramid and then finished off with another five hundred meter practice race. It was a good practice and I felt that everyone gave it their all. Quality, man, quality....
Following the advanced practice, I sat in on the intermediate practice in order to critique Protege's coaching and drumming. I took a lot of notes on the practice and on her. At times it was painful. At times it was frustrating. But, I just sat in the back of the boat and tried my best to keep my mouth shut until the end. There were clearly people on the boat that didn't belong at the intermediate practice. There were clear novices. There were also people who said they wanted harder workouts with longer pieces. The thing was that they couldn't handle what Protege was giving them. The power dropped off after a minute of "on-time." They are not ready to take my practices. They could get through the practices, but they wouldn't be powering when they should be powering and their timing would most definitely fall apart. Shit, I'll take them in my practices, but I really don't think they're going to do what I ask of them.
After the practices, I went and got lunch with Ye-ah at Mien Tei over near Newbury Street. We chatted, had ramen and then got bubble tea over at Cassava. It was pretty chilled out. But, by that point in the day, I was tapped out. It was five o'clock and I went home to shower and catch a nap before dinner an hour later.
The rest of the evening was pretty lazy, between watching Alien Resurrection and The Crow, I managed to waste most of my night. I got my grandparents some rice from Star Market. That was pretty productive. And, I talked to OC Girl on the phone for a chunk of time as well. I always like talking to her. I always like hanging out with her.... We'll be going to the East Coast Grill tomorrow with Glare, Totoro, Ye-ah, Emerill and a number of other people. It should be lots of fun.
Well, I have to go. I have laundry to do tonite. I really need to do laundry tonite. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Well, that someone is me. Until I am rich enough to have a maid, I'll be doing it myself. And, furthermore, I like doing laundry. I would rather no one touch my skivvies but me. I think others would want it that way too.
Lunch, Take Two! Listening: Hey-am-am-am-am-ma-dootin'-da-dee-ah-da. Hey-am-am-am-ma-hey-ah...
I went running for the first time in a long time last night. The drummer that I am training decided that she wanted to do soem dry land training, so I thought it would be good if I showed up and did the hour of dry land training that I said that I would for my Hartford boat. It was myself, Protege, Palms, Fester, Clueless, Limey and another guy. We ran from the Hatch Shell to the exercise ground that is a little past the Mass. Ave. Bridge. Clueless and Protege think that it was over a mile each way. I'm thinking that it was a mile tops. Regardless, I hadn't run in a long long time. I was hurting by the end. I really don't like running, but I feel the need to show the people on the team that I'm willing to do just as much as anyone else in order to make myself more ready for competition. I think that this need to do as well as say makes me a good leader. I think it is also a really big weakness, especially when I'm the only one doing it.
After the running, I went home, showered, ate dinner and watched a little TV. For some reason, which was probably running, I was extremely tired. So when I almost passed out on the couch, I decided it was time to go to sleep. So I was in bed by eleven thirty. Strange, huh? I slept really well too.
Today, I was working for most of the morning on these simple little problems, that were just more problematic than they should be. Piece of shit, I tell you. It almost made me miss lunch until I said, "screw it," and just left.
For lunch, I met Sassy and Hardcore at Maison Robert for a little bit of Restaraunt Week action. I know I went yesterday, but I kind of wanted other people in on it. It seems so much more enjoyable when you have people to share food with. Anyway here's the rundown of what I ordered. I started out with a vichyssoise, which is a cold potato and leek soup. It was very tasty, very creamy. I liked it a lot. It was just enough to wet my appetite. For my main course, I had a cold poached salmon with capers, mixed greens and some sort of tomato based cold stew. It was like if gazpatcho had bigger chunks. It was plated, so it definitely wasn't a soup... But it was good. There was some herb mayo which I tried and passed on when push came to shove and I also passed on the hard boiled eggs that were on my plate as well. Finally, for dessert, I had a Chibouste, which is peaches and blueberries in a lemon almond tart with a meringue top. It was nice and light and fruity. Hardcore and Sassy both got the chocolate dessert. I took one look at mine and one look at theirs and decided that I had won. It was fantastic.
The lunch meeting didn't start out as a business lunch, but ended up as one. We talked all about dragon boat and politics. I put more of my coup in motion, not that I really care about what I'm fighting for. In the end, all I want to do is be a part of a winning team.
Anyways, it's four o'clock and I have practice at six. It's really time for me to go. I might actually have a good turnout today. There are a lot of people who usually go to intermediate practice who are coming to the advanced practice. It whould be rather interesting. Heh heh heh. I hope they all drank a lot of water today. I hope they all bring a lot of water today as well. 'Cause today, they'er gonna pay the piper.
More Than Meets The Eye Listening: If I want it I can take you from your man, even with my eyes closed.
So, last night practice was amusing. There were only five paddlers, there was Harley at the front of the boat and I was steering. Umm... Yes, I was steering. It was ridiculous. We were traveling in "S" curves. I could barely pay attention to the practice, because I was too busy trynig not to fall off of the boat. Yeah, it was amusing.
After practice, I had dinner with Hulk and Harley. I don't know what my deal is lately, but my goof-o-meter has been off the scale lately. Between the party/barbecue that was last Sunday, yesterday and some other times where I have just thrown out one liner after one liner, it has just been on the entire time. There was one point last night that I thought Harley was going to spit mojito at the people at the table next to us. I don't know. My gut-busting nature has really taken over this past week.
Today for lunch, I was convinced by Glare to go take advantage of Restaurant Week in Boston. So I went (by myself, mind you) to Mantra for lunch. It was pretty good. I started with a grilled watermelon and goat cheese salad with candied walnuts, curly endives, and an artisanal honey vinaigrette. I don't think that the grilling did much for the watermelon, but it was all really good. I started with the goat cheese and made sure I had some of the watermelon at the end to cleanse. For an entree, I had the grilled sirloin and braised escarole with baby potatoes in a Pinot Noir sauce. This is probably one of the best steaks that I have had in a long, long time. No joke. The escarole was a little bitter for my liking though. Maybe if it had more of a collard or mustard greens taste to it I would have liked it better. Finally, for dessert, I had the fig and chocolate tart served with Fenugreek ice cream. To be honest, it tasted a lot like a brownie with a hint of fig flavor. I was hoping that the fig flavor would be a little more bold. It was there, but it just wasn't ascertive enough for me. The chocolate overpowered it. I'm sure other people would have been happier with it. I thought it was fine though. So that was my lunch.
Anyways, time to bounce. I need to get out of this damn office.
Where's The Love? Listening: Black is black is black is black.
Last night was pretty low key. After I met with my friend who was moving to DC (and got back the pair of tevas, t-shirt and sweatshirt that she had of mine), I went home and ended up meeting up with Hulk for dinner. We talked a lot of politics and a lot of current events. It was overall pretty humdrum until I answered the phone for him and told Harley that the prostitute that she was looking for was otherwise occupied, but we had a host of other tubby jewish ones that looked like they were Asian. I had a ball with that one.
Right now I'm postitioning myself for the head coach position when elections come up in the club. I'm not sure that I want it thought. It would mean that I would have to abide by their whole political correctness and stuff. I hate that shit. I'm considering it though.
Anyways, I have to go. I have practice today. There aren't a lot of people signed up, but I figure we'll give it a shot. I hope we have enough people to do something real.
Perverted Little Children, We Are... Listening: Angel, baby, heaven. When I want a sure love, give some of that action reaction.
So, last night was fun and interesting and boring all in the same shot. Right after I got home, I ate dinner, and went to Pearl Art Supplies in Central Square to pick up some stuff. See, after that, Carpenter came to pick me up and we along with his roomie, went to Cassava. It was there that we met The Violent One and Booch and we started making Carpenter some raver kandi bracelets to trade when he goes to Burning Man in a couple of weeks. There's no money movement there. It's all bartering. So we're making him bracelets to barter with. We made funny ones that said things such as "Big Dick," "Big Tits," "Fuck Me Hard," "Do Me," and so on and so forth. It was pretty funny. We had a lot of fun with it. Some of the customers looked at us pretty funny. I mean, really. Can you imagine three guys, the youngest of which is twenty five, the oldest of which is thirty five, and two twenty three year old girls playing with little plastic pony beads? It was quite a humorous site.
We left there at nine. Carpenter and his roomie went swing dancing and The Violent One took me home and stuff. I spent the rest of the night watching TV. There was a movie my grandmother was watching on Lifetime. It was pretty amusing in a very melodramatic soap opera-y way. I was amused.
So, I was sitting there and I decided to have a beer. I popped one open and I proceeded to get shit from my grandmother. She was like, "You're drinking a beer? The whole thing?" I was like, "Yeah. It's a beer." After a few minutes she turned to me again and said, "That's beer? It smells strong. THAT'S WHISKEY!" I just turned to her and said, "No... It's beer." It was amusing and annoying all in the same shot... So I wonder if I'll get that apartment....
Today, after work, I'll be going to see one of my dragon boat friends before she goes to grad school in DC. I'm proud of her. I'll miss having her on my team. Anyways, I have to go.
Ego Boost.... ROCKETS AWAY! Listening: I don't like sleeping or painting to town, so come on home.
I just had a really great weekend. It started well and ended well. After work, I rushed home to change for practice. I thought to myself, I'll have a few minutes to nap before going to practice, but while at the Charles MGH T-stop, I noticed that I forgot my scooter at work. Unfortunate. So I rushed to change and then I took the T back into town to get my scooter from work and I rode it to practice. It was a nice day to be on a scooter though. I got to practice right on time and Palms was the only one who was there. I knew that there was going to be a small turn out, but I didn't think that people would flake on me or anything like that. Turns out that some people did flake and we only had five paddlers and a steerer. I guess the turn out was a bit disappointing, but I had fun with practice. I really got a chance to nit-pick each and every one of the paddlers. I like to call it individual attention. Anyways, I heard that the paddlers thought it was tough. I thought it was minimally tough and that I really got a chance to focus on each paddler. That's one of my goals for the rest of dragon boat season. I want to give more individual attention.
After practice, I rushed home, showered, changed and went to meet some people. It was the group of people who were getting together for that hot girl's birthday. I don't see her very often at all, since I don't dance much and she tends to be really busy as well. It was good to see her though. I knew two other people from the dance scene there. At first, I was supposed to call them when I got to Landsdowne Street, but I ended up seeing the four of them in the Park Street T-stop while I was switching trains. So, we walked to Landsdowne together.
The first stop was the Tiki Room Bar & Restaurant. It was extremely kitschy, but it had a really fun vibe. The food wasn't so bad and the drinks were pretty tasty. The thing that I really liked was the fact that women out numbered the men by at least two to one. There was much candy for the eye. Since I hadn't really eaten since lunch and it was about ten o'clock by then, I was famished. I ate my burger in about a half a second. I can't even remember if I chewed. Just chucked it down the hatch.
At around eleven o'clock, we left the Tiki Room and headed over to Embassy to get in on the guest list. Hehehe. I love my connections. I thought it was going to cost us fifteen dollars to see Felix Da Housecat, but the reduced charge was only ten dollars. when we got into Embassy, the doors to Avalon were already open, so we went right in. There was no one in there. There was maybe a handful of people in each of the clubs, The Modern, Embassy, Avalon, Axis and ID. It was pretty piss poor. So, we started drinking. By the time we had walked through all of the clubs and finished our first drink, things were picking up in Axis. So the group of six of us started dancing there. They were playing some kickin' old school hip hop grooves which included Zhane's Hey, Mr. DJ and Groove Theory's Tell Me. It was fantastic.
After about an hour, we went to see Felix spin in Avalon. He was playing a lot of funky techy house. It was like funk electronica. It had a nice feel to it. He was totally playing the crowd all night long. He had fun little cuts and stuff. It really kept things interesting. But somewhere in the middle of his set, he moved from electro funk to new wave and started playing remixes of new wave tracks like New Order's Blue Monday and Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls. There were the White Stripes and Duran Duran mixed in there as well. It was so awesome. I was the youngest guy there, but I still knew all of the tracks.
Anyways, it was in Avalon that I got some of my biggest ego-boosts of the weekend. First, when my group of friends went out on the floor at Avalon at the beginning of Felix Da Housecat's set, there was a small contingency of ravers at the front of the room. They were all doing the hop step trying to out-do each other. Since they were bumping my friend who was turing thirty, I decided to get into the mix. Right when I decided to get into the mix, I had about two measures before the beat cut out and a wash started. So, I skipped the hopstep and just started snaking, having my body follow my hands around. I bobbed and weaved my hands in, out and around. The guys watching were like, "Awww, shit!" I was a bit taken off guard by that. But the great thing was that after I decided to get out of the little showcase, a girl came down from the little raised area near the bar and said to me, "Hey, I've been watching you. You're fuckin' amazing. You're the best dancer that I've seen out here tonite!" Of course, I thanked her and threw in a little self-deprecating comment about how I'm really not all that good. Then she told me that she helped to run an after hours club and she wanted me to go. She said to ask for her at the door and she would let me in. Unfortunately this club was up in Saugus and I don't have a club or I don't know anyone who would want to go with me, so I couldn't go. I just got a rush from the girl telling me that she thought I was an awesome dancer. Yay!
The second bit of ego-boosting that happened at Avalon wasn't really anything that I experienced first hand or heard first hand, but I got a ego-boost nonetheless. According to one of the people with my group, who doesn't dance, there was this one girl totally scoping me out. He overheard her talking to her friend about me, saying, I guess, that she wanted to get with me or whatever. She was looking at me quite a bit, but she wasn't really my type. Between the Armani Exchange tanktop and the skanky skirt, she really took herself out of consideration. My friend who turned thirty thought I should totally go over there and starting macking on her. But, honestly, I'd rather chill out with my friends than chase a skank. Maybe if she looked a bit more classy, and less skank chic. I know that's a little harsh, but hey. First impressions.
Saturday was a very go-go-go kind of day. I woke up, went to brunch with OMG's parents and some of the Colby Gang. Pookz was in town for the weekend, so we chilled a bit. After dim sum, Pookz, Stringbean and I went to Cassava for bubbletea and then went to see The Violent One's play. It was really entertaining. There was this one bit about an adopted white guy in an asian american family who claimed he was an "Asian-American Albino." It was funny as hell.
After that I ran home, had dinner, took a brief nap and then went to OC Girl's orchestra concert where I met her boy and I met Shutterbug's girl. It was cool. None of whom were exactly as I pictured them. I imagined Shutterbug's girl as being a little more petite, and I imagined OC Girl's boy as being a little less petite. OC Girl's boy wasn't at all what I expected. She described him and all, but it still didn't prepare me for what was there. He seemed very plain. I guess I expected OC Girl to be dating a guy who was a little more... Surfer? He didn't seem very California at all. He actually seemed a bit like rich east coasty, but not the preppy types, the less fratty types. I dunno. It was interesting though.
At the concert, since I hadn't been to an orchestra concert in such a long time, I noticed a lot more than I did the last time I went. I paid attention to a lot of the faces that the musicians were making and so on and so forth. I looked at like six in particular. One of which was this totally hot Asian chick who was tiny, was in this full length black/silvery shiny dress that almost looked Matrix-y who played the double bass. It was hot as hell. G'damn. But anyways, the music was good and I had a great time.
Sunday, I had practice, I had lunch with Paddleback, I went home to shower, took a nap and went to a birthday barbecue. It was the party for the girl that I went out clubbing with on Friday. I don't know why, but my crass-o-meter was off the scale for the night. I was making crass jokes all night long. It must have been annoying, but it must have been funny too, because there were a lot of people laughing. I was there from like five thirty to about ten thirty or eleven o'clock. I met a lot of cool people, and a couple of hot chicks. One of which was this photographer who just moved to NYC. She had the whole Lisa-Loeb-Glasses-Hot-Librarian thing going on. She was cute as hell.
Anyways, I gotta bust outta here. I'm gonna help Carpenter make some raver kandi to bring with him to Burning Man. He's gonna trade it and stuff. Maybe he'll bring me back something cool. So, as Paige Davis would say, "time's up!"
Mutiny... But This Time I'm The Captain. Listening:I Won't worry my life away. Hey, ho...
So, today was kind of interesting. There was a lot of resisitance at work. Like someone would do something wrong and I would ask them to fix it or do it over again, and I would pretty much get a flat out, "No" as an answer. Since I have no real power or leverage, all I could say was, "Aiight." I refused to do the work myself, so I passed it on to SCUBA. SCUBA asked the guy to do it. And they ended up having a meeting. Later on, I was talking to SCUBA and we were talking about the group and so on and so forth. He thinks there is a mutiny coming and he's not the one that it's against. That would leave me. It makes sense though. I am the guy that the orders come down from, but I have no actual power. It sucks. I'm just trying to make sure everything is neat and clean. I don't bother people about things unless it is going to seriously affect my work. Otherwaise, I just let them do whatever. If they think I'm overbearing, I'd hate to know what they thought of Mumbles.
In other news, essentially, practice for the last week has been cancelled. We didn't have enough people RSVP for last Friday, only a couple of people showed up for Sunday's practice, and Wednesday only had a couple of RSVPs. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit frustrated. Today, against my better judgement, we're going out. We only had two or three rows of paddlers RSVP. I'm hoping more people show up. That sucks. I wonder if OC Girl will bring her boy. Curious....
Today, I had lunch with Harley. It was nice. It was gorgeous outside and I had falafel two days in a row. I think I've had my recommended weekly allowance of chick peas. I think any more and I would start to O.D. on them. But that tahini sauce... Yummmm... Anyways, we chatted like buddies, etc. She's had a lot of drama going on with the whole bizzare love triangle that happened. Feelings were hurt, etc. Ha. and I had nothing to do with this bizzare love triangle. I got over that shit a long ass time ago.
Tonite, I'm going to see Felix Da Housecat at Avalon with a girl from the swing scene. It's her thirtieth birthday this weekend. We're getting a big group of people to go. Man, this girl doesn't even look close to thirty. She is sooooooo fucking hot it's unbearable. Yah. Of all of the people I know, I definitely think that she takes the taco when it comes to he heat factor. She's got a girl-next-door face and a rock hard body. Yeah, she has the nicest abs of any chick that I know. And man does that girl know how to body roll... Can you tell that I'm drooling? I don't have a Chinaman's chance in hell of getting with her. I don't think that I'd try either. We're very different people in very different stages of life. I still think she's hot though. I mean g'-mu-fuckin'-damn.
Anyways, it's time for me to go. I have to get home and change before dragon boat practice. I'm looking forward to seeing who shows up. Laterz.
Lazy, Motivated, Mind-Numb. Listening: Mama, if that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.
Last night was really low key. Really low key. Since practice was cancelled and my mind was numb, I decided not to go out and to instead sit and watch the lack of what was on TV. I caught a bit of Smallville, but it was a re-run. I figured out where The Food Netword, The SciFi Channel, Comedy Central and The Cartoon Network got moved to. Actually, I was getting a bit distraught. I was so used to coming home at midnight after a long night of hanging out to see whatever was playing on the Food Network. I was without for just about a week.
Yeah, so I didn't even go out. I was entertaining it for a while, because the weather was so nice, but I ended up not. I didn't want to call anyone and I didn't want to spend money. I'm trying my best to save money. I've discovered the world of Affordable Housing. I actually qualify, not only for rentals, but for sales as well. In Boston, there are a bunch of lofts up for sale, and I make the cut. There's one in Chinatown and one near the New England Medical Center that's a new development. So, I want to clear my debt and then I want to buy a loft. Geez, I hope it all works out.
Today, work has dragged a bit. No e-mails, nothing exciting, nothing. I've sent out some e-mails. I've worked on some Dragon Boat stuff. I'm trying to get people committed to the team. It makes no sense to me to get on a boat that you don't want to work for. It's like why even bother? I hope this stirs the pot a bit.
I'm tired and I'm gonna get out of here on time today. That means that I leave in a half hour/forty minutes. I can't wait.
TOO MUCH TO DO, DAMMIT! Listening: Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets.
So, I've still been busy. I feel like a track runner about three seconds after the gun has gone off. I have gotten a few things done though. First of all, I have finished putting my five color rolls from Amsterdam up on the web. You can see it all here. I have some really nice pictures and some rather mediocre ones. The pictures that were really too dark, I didn't even bother uploading. It would have just been a waste of time. I think I may be able to photoshop them though. I'll figure that out when I have photoshop at my disposal.
Right now I'm working hard as hell at work, but my brain is totally still on vacation. I'm working on getting my Amsterdam stuff up online. I'm trying to put together a team for the Hartford Race. There's just so much I'm doing.
Last night, I helped Booch out with her med school essay. We basically decided to trash it. I know that kind of sucked for her, but I don't think that it was putting her best foot forward. Ha ha and it also got me out of being frustrated with her writing style. Well, it really isn't all that bad. I've seen worse. It's not like she's pulling a Faulkner or anything like that, but it was a bit long-winded for my Hemingway-loving eyes. Heh.
So, practice got cancelled again today. I'm starting to get a bit discouraged and I'm wondering what'll happen when I send out my manifesto to the rest of the team. I wonder if I really will have to race with only five paddlers. *shrug*
You know what I could use on a day like this? A date. I would like a date. I'm not talking about a rawkus roll in the sheets or anything intense. I'm talking about a nice relaxing dinner, good conversation and a stroll around the city holding hands. Maybe a little bit of ice cream or sorbet. Maybe a cocktail and some jazz. Maybe a hug. I think the intertwined fingers of hand holding would be really satisfying right now. Oh well. I'll prolly just end up sitting at home tonite watching TV. Maybe someday.
I am pretty exhausted. I could use some rest. It's hard to rest at home. It's hard to rest when I'm out. I think this is why I'm really hoping to get this apartment. I need a place to relax, where no one will nag me or where I don't have to keep up appearances or anything. I can wear a tux or I can wear holey boxers. I can wisk something up while watching TV. Yah. It's time for me to get a place of my own.
Anyways, I have to go. I have a few things to do before I leave. Laterz.
My Head Is Spinning Listening: Sanctuary - Anthem 2003
Sorry I have to be so short. I got back from Amsterdam on Wednesday afternoon and went straight to Dragon Boat practice. Yesterday, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get in an application for an apartment. Today is my first day back at work and both SCUBA and FOP are out of the office. I am so confused with some of the stuff going on here at work. It's hurting my brain. Thank goodness it's Friday!
I've started coding the html for my first impressions of Amsterdam, but it's not done yet. I'll put up the link when I'm finished with each part. For now you'll just have to wait patiently.
Practice was cancelled today. I'm supposed to have dinner with OC Girl and Shutterbug. Should be fun. I'm going to try to develop my pics today or tomorrow, so that I can show Rebound Girl when she is in town this weekend. So much to do, so little time. Bah! Gotta fly.
