A couple of weekends ago, we went and saw Augustana at the House of Blues for Dani's birthday. It was great evening that started with sushi at Ra and then ended with a killer show. I wish I remembered the name of the opening band, but Augustana was great.
I love finding bands by accident. So after the show I went and bought the CD but I hadn't been listening to it because I've been working too hard on Dandelife. On Friday AM I drove up to LA to have a couple of meetings in the area and see my old friends at Userplane - Mike Jones, Nate Thelen and Javier Hall. Rush hour traffic between San Diego and LA promised to be terrible, so I intended on listening to Augustana constantly for the drive up to get the most out of the CD. The drive only took two-and-a-half-hours through so I got through two rotations and then moved on to NPR. When I listentend to the CD back at home with Steph on Sunday night, I realized that that CD will probably always remind me of this weekend as well as that show for Dani's birthday.
What else did I do? I arrived early and got a ride up to the 7th floor where nobody from Userplane was around to greet me that I knew. I did get introduced to the elevator operator who'd been working in that specific elevator for 30 years. I told him what an amazing feat that was and how he must get to meet all types of people. We both agreed that it takes all types to make a world, and that's not necessarily a bad things. I love idle banter with strangers.
I had my meetings in LA. I wasn't able to hook up with Eric since he was working and my schedule had me across town from him. I did get to see Mike and Nate, but Javier was on vacation. Mike has been very helpful in advising me on Dandelife and we made the afternoon a working meeting. Needless to say, I was extremely bouyant upon driving back south that night. Mike's my biggest fan and a huge cheerleader for the work I'm doing here.
After LA, Steph and I were to meet in Long Beach and stay with Summer. Steph's got the weekend with no homework since her Autumn schedule starts up on Monday. So we took the weekend up at Summer's new place in Long Beach. She's doing great for herself. She has a new beau, David, who's quiet and treats her really nicely. Smart guy, too. We liked him. Nick, Summer's brother was there too. Really funny guy. He's between places now, mostly crashing at Summer's and some friend's places. But he hung out with us on Saturday pretty much all day. We went wine tasting at a wine cellar with an excellent imported selection. The flights we sampled were all Spanish and Portugeuse whites. I had to drop out for a few minutes to catch up with Shakhruz. But when I got back the crew was good and happy. Later we ended up at David's UCLA Long Beach alumni meeting where we left David alone and went to an Irish bar for chips and curry and Guiness. After that, we went to a Lebanese place and discovered Mitch Hedberg on CD. Damn funny comedian who died somewhat suddenly a year or two ago. Legend has it that he died from an overdose.
I forgot to mention that Friday night we ate a late dinner at this place called Cha Cha's walking distance from Summer's. Great service. Great food. It was, I don't know, Cuban fusion something or other. We had three carafes of Sangria when the bartender came over to perform some magic tricks. I forget his name, but he was dressed like a pirate, and his tricks all seemed to involve self-mutilation. He stapled a dollar bill to his arm. Stuck a nail up his nose. And then we told him to stop. I asked him what his signature drink would be, thinking it too would be a huge gross-out and he said, "Aborted Alien Fetus." We were done with our meal so he took us back to the bar and proceeded to pour apple pucker, then baily gently on top, then grenadine down the side of a shot glass. The effect looked like an aborted alient fetus. Summer slammed it. I gagged sympathetically on her behalf.
Let's see. Sunday was much more mellow. We got up late. I worked a bit while Steph got ready. Then we all had breakfast and shot the shit over at The Omlette Inn. After that, we high-tailed it to San Diego for a little rest before the week began.
Damn we ate a lot on this trip.
Comments:
akoni (October 25, 2006. 06:26am)
we need to go for several pints next time you are in Long Beach, my sister works at Yard House in fact over off of Shoreline