Monday June 28, 2010

I slept in til 11:30 am trying to get rid of my hangover. I had a couple hours to kill before I had to catch my train back to Connecticut so I set out on foot to find some lunch. I stumbled upon Carnegie Deli and got in line to be seated. Since it was so crowded they sat me at a table with another guy. I have to be honest, it was a little strange, but I guess during lunch hour that’s what happens. Being that I had no fucking personality (due to my hangover that was getting worse by the minute) I really did not even speak to him. He was not bad looking…seemed nice enough and he was taking photos of his food! We both got a bowl of pickles…the yummy bright green kind that you can only get in a Jewish deli and ordered our food. He was smart and ordered the corned beef sandwich which was stacked up to the ceiling and looked amazing. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat 21 dollars worth of a sandwich so I opted for the strawberry blintzes. Bad choice. Everyone knows that when you are hungover you gotta get salty meat. What the fuck was I thinking? I had 2 pickles, iced tea and a V-8 juice and was only able to choke down 2 bites of the blintze before paying the bill and making my speedy exit. My “date” was just as confused as was the waiter.

 I wandered over to Central Park so I could just sit down on a park bench and hopefully just sit still enough that the nausea would go away. After a bit I went over to a grassy knoll and tried just laying down on my back. Finally I had to get my act together and grab my bags and head to Penn Station. The cab ride was hellishly hot and by the time I got to the train station I had mustered a slight appetite and got a ginger ale and 2 tacos from Taco Bell. People…this is NOT THE WAY TO LIVE. I was feeling better on the train ride home finally arriving in Hartford at around 6:30 pm. My nephew Pat picked me up and we went back to my sisters where I had to sit and update this stupid fucking blog for 2 hours. We went for Mexican food later (still not going down very smooth) and I was in bed still hating life at 11pm. Lesson learned: If I am going to drink in the heat make sure I have plenty of water and stay hydrated.

Sunday June 27, 2010

I marched in the NYC Pride parade today with Steven’s law school float. (Steven is good friends with Liz from years ago) Two floats behind us were the Randy Blue models! (a very successful gay porn site) HOTTTTT. Their bitchy manager lady was like “Umm they are all exclusives.” Yes lady, I know that. I am not trying to poach your models. Well, not for any on camera experiences anyways. lol I honestly don’t know any of their names because they were unavailable for me to shoot… but I will be doing some very important research later this evening. Don’t I look like I died and went to fag hag heaven?

This years theme is “Liberty and Justice for All”

Liz looking stunning as usual.

She recently had foot surgery so the princess was getting a foot rub.

Steven and Jason…who was rocking the White Trash Gay look…

…complete with chewing tobacco.

OMG tell me that their friend Jamie Lynn does not look like Britney Spears!?

Love it!

I learned a valuable lesson in being prepared today. When I approach an animal for the fish eye shots I absolutely must be ready to shoot the second I get down to their level. If the animal is even slightly spooked by the lens and my proximity and I don’t get it on the first try, then it’s over. I was having focusing issues while trying to shoot this French Bulldog and then she was just over me.

Umm gross.

Christina Aguilera masks for everyone! They also had Cher masks. They were being used as fans all day mostly since it was 382 degrees out.

I could barely control myself being around them all day.

A gay storm trooper? Awesome !

It started to get even crazier as we went south into the Village.

People partying on the fire escape watching the parade…

Ridiculously hot.

The level of enthusiasm and the noise increased dramatically when the Randy Blue boys walked by…not so much for our law school float. lol

 

Everyone was getting into the music!

After the parade we just wanted to duck into some air conditioned bar for a cold drink…

And when we ordered lemon drop shots we got a shot glass, a half packet of sugar, lemon slice and vodka. It was so nasty. That guy was like “Oh you are gonna order a foo-foo shot on the busiest day of the year? No. Fuck you.”

Someone was selling this on the street. What the hell is it? A meth lab starter kit? Wtf

We finally left the Village and went up to the Hell’s Kitchen area in hopes of finding a less crowded bar. Vlada’s was perfect because the bar itself is actually frosted! I was taking the icy frost and putting it down my own shirt.

The monkey was hot too and it was the perfect spot for a Facedown.

I haven’t been drinking that much so I was pretty tanked. We went to another bar called Therapy, but honestly I don’t know how long I stayed. I do remember a hot tall guy that Liz introduced me to that I was intruiged by until I found out he was married. Lame. I woke up at 2am safely in my hotel room, but not 100% sure how I got there or how long ago.

Saturday June 26, 2010

Betsy, Bob and I had a light breakfast before they dropped me off at the train station in Hudson. I was lucky to get on the 10:25 train due to a last minute cancellation… I had no idea that that particular train/time would sell out! I made it into the city around 12:45 and checked into my time share/hotel. I bought a time share through Hilton Grand Vacation Clubs several years ago and finally paid it off this summer. I get 5000 points per year which usually gets me a 2 bedroom condo for a week. Some cities are more popular than others so when I decide to do nights instead of the whole week I use more points. If that makes sense… like one night in Manhattan is 1000 points. Anyways…I have just under 20,000 points that I can use right now so this isn’t costing me anything except the $49 booking fee. The best part of the time share being paid off is that now for the rest of my life I get 5000 points a year which can also be transferred to any Hilton hotel worldwide or to another company called RCI which has hundreds of resorts around the world. When I die, I can will the time share to someone! The price was $25,000 and if you think about the fact that this is forever, it makes sense. I am just happy that I finally have the time to actually use the points! It is a brand new location and is right in midtown so I checked in and headed over to the closest Bikram studio. The practice of yoga is the same wherever you are, but each studio is a little bit different. There was a woman just yapping away at her friend before class started and it was getting under my skin so bad that I almost said something to her. I was trying to just lay there in the heat (same temp as outside I might add) and relax and prepare for class and she wouldn’t shut the fuck up about her wedding dress. No one does that shit at the studio I go to in San Diego. When you walk in the door, you are quiet. Period.

After class and a cold shower I went to the Lower East Side for wine and pizza with 2 guys that I went to college with for my one year at UConn. (Thank you Facebook for reconnecting us.) Dave is married with a lovely wife and a 2 year old and another one on the way. 631 is still single and still hot and we picked up where we left off in 1991. I went to visit him at his beachhouse last May and each of the 4 times that I came to the city in 2009 we were able to meet up. It was a little awkward after not seeing each other for such a long time, but the awkwardness dissipated pretty quickly and now it’s like eating at  McDonald’s: you know exactly what you are going to get when you go there. It’s funny, on paper we are a perfect match but there is still some sort of disconnect that I can’t put my finger on. We are both “foodies” (and both hate using that word), never been married, love to travel, etc… but I think even if we did live in the same city we would not be together. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. lol! He’s smart, funny, successful, fun to be around and we have great chemistry, but it is what it is.

As promised, the fun videos from Animalkind in Hudson NY. I forget that I can shoot videos with the fish eye lens, too! At about 27 seconds in on the first video there is a little Cat Smackdown … Dusty feel free to use that on the site

Friday June 25, 2010

Some of my West Coast friends keep forgetting that I am on EST time and like to text me at 1:00 am. I haven’t been sleeping very well due to insomnia (aka sobriety) and I went to yoga this morning at 6am on 4 hours of sleep. There were only 5 people in the class and the instructor was a bit of a toolbag. He wasn’t mean, he was just a little bit tool-y. And his voice was bugging me. Maybe I was just grumpy. Anways, I came home and packed my stuff up for a little road trip…

My friend Betsy and her boyfriend Bob (names have been changed to protect the innocent and because someone might lose their job simply by knowing me) are avid antique collectors and they invited me to go to Hudson, NY with them. Hudson is a quaint little town about 2 hours north of Manhattan and is known for attracting hippies, artists, gay men and antique dealers/shoppers. The main street is lined with restaurants, bars and antique shops so we started with bellinis and champagne at Le Gamin. I ordered the escargot and it was probably the best escargot I have had in the whopping 12 times that I have tried it. Betsy had never had it and is now a fan! I love introducing people to new food and having them love it. Of course it was served super hot and it burned the roof of my mouth because I cannot control myself. NOT the way to live, folks.

Chicken ratatouille crepe (poulet aux legumes)

 We went from antique shop to antique shop so that Betsy and Bob could shop for giant pieces of furniture that they have no room for in their house. They have a huge place chock full of amazing Victorian sofas, chandeliers, hutches, tables, etc… and are continually shopping for more. It’s kind of ridiculous, but fun to watch them get so excited over a shelf from the 1700’s. I personally would love love love to have one of these gaudy gold fish eye mirrors in my house. I remember that my parents had one and I honestly don’t know what happened to it. I will have to ask my siblings if they know. Trying to take a fish eye photo of a fish eye mirror doesn’t quite work the same.

These columns would look pretty sweet in my loft with 50 foot ceilings.

After hearing the story about the kitten at my sisters house they insisted that I come see what this place was all about. Animalkind is a cat shelter that sells kittens and does adult adoptions. (cue Sarah Mclachlan music) They have a strict screening process and they actually check references when you are adopting a cat from them.

Upstairs is where all of the adult cats live…somehow, magically…harmoniously together in one space. I think that they somehow have a new appreciation for life and are simply so happy to be fed and have a warm place to sleep that they just get along. Or they are drugged.

I mean, I am not even a cat person and I am in awe of this place.

 This is by far one of the best fish eye shots I have ever taken.

They even have an outdoor patio area for them to lay in the sun.

This guy invited me to take a dip in his pool. I declined despite the heat and humidity. And the other diseases lurking in there.

He bought this house in the mid 90s for just $73,000 and is in foreclosure now I guess. I am not really sure what the situation is but he hangs out on the weekends outside telling his story and trying to get rid of some of his stuff.

Betsy tells me that there is a local artist whose “art” (loose interpretation of the word) is featured in many of the antique shops around town. Fascinating. I had no idea Obama was a merman.

I am sorry, but it’s a little bit hideous. This “artwork”.

I bought this bear head for $175! I am so excited to hang it in my loft next to the other animal head that I cannot identify. I think this was probably a female bear (maybe even on her period judging by the mean look on her face) and I need a good name. So far the only one on Twitter that I liked was Sylvia. Thoughts on naming my bear head? Someone on Twitter also suggested that I take that as my carry-on home back to San Diego next month! Bwhahahahah what a fucking brilliant idea!!!!

One of Betsy’s things is picture frames and mirrors so we had to go check out this place.

Find the Pink Monkey! (another edition of my version of Where’s Waldo)

We stayed at a small inn owned by the owners of a restaurant called Ca Mea. We had a 2 bedroom suite in a large house. The coolest thing was the adjustable bed…. it had a remote controlled dial that allowed you to change the hardness and softness of the bed. A level 5 was like a waterbed. A level 100 was stiff. I slept at a 65 perfectly.

For dinner we ate at Ca Mea. I ordered a dish called “Bresaola della valtellina …Mountain cured beef with arugula and lemon vinaigrette” … an appetizer which was pretty much beef carpaccio, but made with a better, leaner cut of beef. So delicious. I could have eaten a few pounds of it. (We weren’t really hungry and didn’t want to be in food comas for our show. Bad idea since this town doesn’t have any late night dining.)

Now onto the portion of the evening that words cannot describe: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus.

I was asked to put my camera away so I only snapped a few photos of the emcee…

…and Musty Chiffon singing a few songs.

The Bindlestiff Cirkus is the weirdest, most eclectically amateur group of circus performers I have ever had the privilege of seeing. Imagine one of your friends calling you up and saying “Hey…do you have any skills that you can perform on a stage this Saturday night?” because they were putting together a show and were desperate for acts. Strangely, all of it was entertaining and perfectly acceptable as-is. The other acts included Coney Island Chris (a cute and funny guy in his mid 20’s who pretended to do acts of self mutilation with nails, mousetraps and bear traps but who only actually did one at the very end), a sad clown who blew up balloons shaped like penises, a juggler, a contortionist (the closest semblance to a real circus act), unicylists and a musical duo named “Deer Head Church” which consisted of two women facing the back of the stage with giant deer heads on their backs facing the audience while playing wabby sounding instruments while a black man walked through the audience and onto the stage wearing a hooded cloak carrying a cross made out of sticks. The venue, Helsinki, has not received their liquor license yet so at intermission we made an executive decision to head outta there. Deer Head Church (not even showing up on google as of now…) was by far the highlight for me, although I would marry Coney Island Chris in a heartbeat.

Close to a full moon tonight…

Here is an interesting play on light. When I set the camera to “think” based on my choosing the f-stop  (Aperture priority for those of you who give a shit) it chooses this setting. Making the church look yellow. This is hand held at 1/2 second. The fact that I can hold the camera that steady is remarkable in itself, but I want you to know this is not at all what the church actually looked like.

I set the camera on a manual, underexposed setting, which was more like what it actually looked like, but far less interesting.

A new bar in town… very “chainy” and very needed according to locals. “It serves a purpose” meaning that it is a magnet for the douche bags and clears the cool places for the actual cool people.

After the show we headed over to this place owned by a fellow hag… the Red Dot.

…where Musty had clearly ditched her circus pals to come drink. Just like us. I absolutely love her purse. A functioning telephone.

 I have really two awesome cat videos which are taking forever to load so I will post them seperately.

Thursday June 24, 2010

For lunch my brother-in-law and my nephew and I trekked over to Meridan to Ted’s Steamed Cheeseburgers (totally defeating the purpose of yoga this morning but whatever.) I saw a special on tv about this place last year so I was excited that I had finally had the time to check it out. They’ve been around since 1959 and have been named best burger by a dozen or more food programs/blogs….including the Food Network and Travel Channel. It is a tiny little shack with a small menu but the burgers are pretty amazing.

The little metal cabinet is where all the magic happens.

The ground beef is placed in trays and steamed to sear the flavors and juices inside. They are healthy burgers!

Once the steaming is finished (only a matter of a minute or two) the burgers come out and the icky bad stuff is drained off and voila! Even though it looks like dog food, it is juicy and flavorful and doesn’t taste greasy at all.

The cheese is a secret blend of cheddars and the owner will not disclose anymore than that….They also go through the steaming process.

I chose to not order the bacon cheeseburger despite having worn my “If God didn’t want us to eat pigs … He wouldn’t have made them out of BACON” t-shirt today.

I dont even really like potatoes but the home fries were out of this world … they were sprinkled with paprika and a tub of oily buttery goodness.

…you can order them with or without cheese.

Louis was chillin’ outside the restaurant but was not very camera friendly.

For dinner we met up with my sister-in-law Ann Marie (from the AU/NZ trip) and my nephew Danny (Vegas)

We went to a place called Sofia’s in East Windsor… unbeknownst to us it was All-You-Can-Eat pasta night and it smelled like a fucking nursing home in there. My ex Tony always used to call places like this “God’s Waiting Room” lol

Despite the geriatic crowd who probably don’t know the difference between good food and hospital fare… the pizza was awesome! Classic East Coast pizza with the perfect crust…not too thin and not too thick… we ordered sausage, hamburger and bacon (yeah I cheated a little today)

Danny and I also shared a hot ham grinder: the name for a submarine sandwich in New England. Now… this took me some getting used to when I moved west. Before Quizno’s started serving hot subs people would look at me like I had three heads if I ordered a sub sandwich and asked for it to be heated up. It was like they thought I would die if I had wilted lettuce or warm mayonaise. I wasn’t asking for the thing to be baked for 20 minutes, just slightly toasty. I haven’t traveled around the midwest much at all so I can’t say for sure that they are unique to New England,  but I can tell you that they do have some of the best hot subs I have ever had. Not to be missed…something I crave and must eat when I come here.

When we got back to the house my nephew and I decided to attempt to catch and photograph fireflies. You can see where this got me.

You can see a few here in this clip. Riveting, yes, I know. We were getting eaten alive by mosquitos so it didn’t last very long.

And then I heard a scuffle in the bushes and nearly shit myself when this stray cat ran over to me and rubbed himself all over my ankles.

He followed me back to the house and I set up the kitty-cam to see what I could catch him doing.

Anyone in the central Connecticut area want a cute grey kitten?

My brother-in-law FED THE DAMN THING! I thought my sister was going to freak out when she got home, but surprisingly she was like “Whatever, what’s another animal in the house?” So I am curious to see if he returns tomorrow. An hour after this incident I could still hear him meowing outside my window. Good Lord I am glad this is not at my house because I would have a cat in my bed right now. I am such a sucker.

I have a very exciting day tomorrow so I must get some rest!

Wednesday June 23, 2010

My nephew and I went to my sister’s school to check out the baby ducks that the janitor had to relocate yesterday. (I’m sorry…I mean the Director of Custodial Affairs) Apparently he had to stop the traffic of students and guide the mother duck and her ducklings from one area of the school grounds to a safer area with a pond and places to take cover from the hawks that lurk above. The day before yesterday there were 10 ducklings, but today there are only 9. I could have sat here for hours watching the mama lead the babies around from the pond to the grass and back and forth. They really are so cute.

I mean seriously… they are so adorable. And one day they will be big and delicious.

It’s almost like a water park for these little fellas!

And the mother duck waits around for the last straggler each time. He’s a little nervous but finally gets the courage to join them.

 Then we hit Friendly’s for lunch. Look…I know, it’s not much better than Denny’s but I, too, have guilty pleasures that I  indulge on occasion. I ordered the lobster roll because I thought they couldn’t really fuck up boiled lobster, but I was wrong. I mean I ate it, but it was not the best lobster I have had.

The highlight of my afternoon including listening to the neighbor’s kids (boy and a girl) play in the inflatable pool (it was 90 degrees with what seemed to be 99.9% humidity) When the mom made them strip down out of their bathing suits after a few hours (no idea why) the little boy just started screaming “VAGINA” at the top of his lungs. I died.

 I dragged my ass to Bikram yoga down the street at 4:30 pm (because I got lost this morning and missed the 9:30 class) and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are NOT MEAN there! In fact, during one of the postures the instructor actually went over to the door and opened and closed it several times to let cool air in the studio! WHAAAAAT? I was sweating my balls off in this class almost instantly simply because it was so humid outside already. Plus it was late afternoon. I paid $30 for 30 days so you bet I am going to get my money’s worth while I am in CT.

Another highlight of my day was sniffing the can of wet dog food and my nephew trying to be funny while shoving my face in it. Little does he know that I actually love the smell of canned cat and dog food and was elated when I had the aroma on my upper lip for the rest of the night.

After dinner we met a nice Irish/Welsh Terrier named Yogi.

I watched Tosh.O tonight and was so excited to be able to live tweet him during the episode on EST. He of course ignored all of my tweets, but I will keep trying for the next several Wednesdays. He has no idea that he will be falling madly in love with me in the very near future. **sigh** He’s so dreamy.

Tuesday June 22, 2010

The services for my friend’s Dad were this morning at the funeral parlor. They didn’t have a big long ceremony at a church, but 2 of the 3 children stood up and spoke. My friend is an amazing writer and I expected nothing less than the eloquent speech she gave about her father. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place and you will understand why when she sends me the transcript. Her message was loud and clear….Tell your loved ones that you love them while they can still hear you. Through her tears she moved the entire place with what a Dad meant to her. She was strong and stoic and spoke so bravely in front of the crowd. With her sense of humor, fantastic analogies and heartfelt requests to be better people, she begged us all to forgive and love…and remember that nothing lasts forever.

After the funeral parlor we went to the cemetery (same one as my parents) and then off to their family’s house for food and drinks and whatnot. On the way over there I stopped off at my old high school and snuck in to take some photos of the place and ya know after 20 years, it’s much smaller than I remembered! It still smelled the same though. The lockers were painted the same colors and I presume the jocks were still in orange hall, the rats (burnout kids) were still in the blue hall and the seniors still dominated the red hall. Every other color was just a free-for-all.

It was a ghost town since today was the last day of finals, but I was hoping to catch my old photography teacher to say hi. There were not very many teachers left when I arrived so I was very pleasantly surprised to see him turning off the light and locking the door. He had no idea who I was until I spoke and told him my name and then he gave me a big hug! I came to find him and thank him personally for his encouragement and guidance and inspiration over the years and to tell him that I had in fact stuck with it. I was honest about what I have been doing for the last 10 years knowing that he wouldn’t judge me for it. I think he might have been a little taken aback so I quickly volunteered how I had gotten back into shooting weddings and had visited all 7 continents to distract him. He passionately teaches photography as an art form: film, developing, darkroom, printing, etc… His true love is photography as I had learned it from him. We both agreed that digital was like cheating and that is not the way to learn anything.  After a bit we said our goodbyes and I told him I would come check on him in another 20 years. He has no intention of retiring anytime soon because he is having way too much fun.

The revolving door to the darkroom.

We went to my nephew’s baseball game in the rain and then went to a place called Tapas for Greek food. Their gyros were listed as being “chicken” or “beef” and when I asked if I could possibly get the lamb from the kebab platter in a gyro she told me that their “beef” was actually a mixture of beef and lamb. Umm, wouldn’t you just tell the truth on the menu in the first place? That whole interaction rubbed me the wrong way. I got the gyro (”beef”  because I know what the beef and lamb mixture is and I knew exactly what I was getting. Besides the fact that I eat anything so it really didn’t matter if it was also mixed with cat) but was highly irritated that they do not disclose all the ingredients in the dish on the menu. That’s like serving a chicken ceasar salad with a meat that you call “chicken” but that really has duck in it as well. Not cool. Just be honest folks. A person ordering a gyro would rather read that they are getting “gyro meat” than “beef.” Ya know what I am saying? Very misleading.

The ending of my night was with red velvet cake (homemade by sis) and creme brulee ice cream. The rain wouldn’t stop and I drifted off to sleep after making sweet sweet love to my cake with the sexy sounds of thunder and lightning as our background music.

I will continue preaching to you about being nice to your parents. Call them and tell them you love them. Do it right now.

Monday June 21, 2020

At 4am I got up to pack for my journey back east. I was hungover, confused, mentally slow and totally exhausted from tossing and turning for the last 2 hours. I’m sure I forgot some stuff, namely my passport which is going to suck if I decide to go to Montreal with Pearla. I left SD an hour late, got stuck at Midway because of Air Force 2 fucking things up and didn’t land in Connecticut until close to 6pm. Exbf (scroll down to the end on that link) picked me up at the airport and we hauled ass to the wake and made it just before it ended. phew.

Funerals are never fun (until you get to the after party) but this one was especially difficult for me because the funeral parlor was the same place that both of my parents had theirs. The traditional east coast thing to do (not necessarily just the Catholic thing to do) is to have a wake (an open casket viewing of the body) the evening before the actual funeral. If you haven’t been to one, it’s a bizarre experience. I had forgotten how difficult they really were. My mother died in 1979 (I was 8) from lung cancer and I don’t really remember too much of it other than my French Canadian Grandmother cracking jokes in the corner and there being tons of relatives everywhere and a massive amount of food at the house afterwards. My father died of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1993 (I was 22) and I obviously had a harder time with that one. I really had forgotten how freaky it is to be sitting just chilling out in a room with a dead body 5 feet away. My friend was so appreciative of me being there for her father’s funeral, coming all the way from CA, but of course I would not have missed it since I have the means and the time to do this. After we chatted a bit with some of our friends from high school and the family Exbf drove me over to the cemetery that my parents are buried in. 

With the evening sun shining on my face I stood in front of the place that they are buried, side by side,  reflecting on how much I miss them and how their deaths have affected my life. A lot of times people feel vicitimized from the tragic events of their life. Sometimes they can’t heal. Sometimes they don’t want to heal. I believe that the death of my parents has shaped me into the independent woman that I am today. I believe that my life would be completely different  if Mom and Dad were around. I think I would be married, own a house in the suburbs of Connecticut, have a few kids and I might have a  job in an office.

I could dwell on the fact that I am an orphan and that my father will never be able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and that I  missed out on all of those mother/daughter moments that shape your teen years. I feel sadness but I always say that everything happens for a reason. I believe that every single event in my life, every single decision I have made has been the right one. A shitty decision I made at some moment was probably meant to teach me a valuable lesson in the future. Most things don’t make any fucking sense at all when you are going through them…dealing with hurt and pain is not fun, but necessary to grow and learn.

I look back at my life and realize that had my disciplinarian mother been around I would probably have made very different choices in life and not seen and done the things I have. I am glad that I can help the people around me when their parents die. (I always laugh when people say “I lost my ____.” No you didn’t lose them, they died. lol) I am happy to be able to recommend self help books that helped me immensely when processing their deaths. I am happy to give hugs at the exact right moment when someone needs it. I have been there and it does in fact get easier as each day passes.

For those of you who don’t have great relationships with your parents I can only hope that you do your part in mending things before it’s too late. No one is perfect. Everyone handles life and it’s curve balls differently. Maybe your Dad sucks at communicating. Maybe your Mom is a controlling bitch. One day they won’t be around and it will be too late to tell them you love them.

Sunday June 20, 2010

I had plans to meet a bunch of my friends at South Beach in Ocean Beach for some day drinking/pub crawling for my birthday (actual bday is Tues 6/22) and also it was Becky’s birthday on the 19th. I showed up on time. (well, at 12:20 which was on time for noon for me) and everyone else showed up whenever they damn well pleased. I sat there for well over an hour alone pretending to be on my phone to look cool. I caught up on Twitter until I finally started eating and drinking without them. The lobster tacos at South Beach are out of this world. Finally people started showing up…I made Jeff, Dusty and Michelle each try a mberry tablet and they were fully weirded out like I was. In addition to the things I tried yesterday we added lemons to the mix (Country Time Lemonade), cheese which tasted like butter with a slight cheese taste at the end, and bitters which Jeff said tasted like a shot of cinnamon. We stayed at South Beach for a while drinking mimosas and eating lobster tacos and thoroughly annoying the waitress with our experiment before heading over to Sunshine Company. In the end our crawl was from one to the other but we had a great time and caught some of the gorgeous sunshine.

I can never get enough of Ryan’s awesome mirrored shades.

Pearla and Daryl

Moe and Kimpossible

My Mos: Rich and Chris

Me, Moe and Eric

Finally after all of these years I have been taking upskirts of girls in bars… I can do one of myself! Reflection style! Come on… you didn’t think I would actually show my underwear did you?

Ryan looking like he needs some sleep lol

Jell-O shots for my 39th birthday!? Of course!

People that don’t suck: Jeff, Ryan, Dusty, Michelle, Pearla, Daryl, Moe, Eric, Kim, Sarah, Marc, Chris, Rich and Jason.

People that suck: Everyone else who didn’t show up that said they would.

And the perfect ending to the day…my maiden voyage at Hodad’s! You can see them featured on that show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. There is one going in downtown and I have heard so much about these burgers. (I have to say… I think I prefer In-in-Out.) The bun was wet and the thing was so damn big. I need to try it again AT Hodad’s in case the wet bun was from the 5 minute transportation time.

I was in bed at 9am knowing that I had to pack at 4am for my month long trip around the east coast. I love going to bed early now…a true sign of aging.