Tonight was a fun ass night!! THIS is how I like spending my New Year's. Amongst my closest friends and in a place I love. There was John, Cami, Masaye, Mollie, Laura, Tasha, Beth, Bonnie and her husban and Rosenne and Bushwood!! Oh yea and there was lots of alcohol! There was pre-game drinking over at John and Cami's...lots of that! Mmmm!! Hell Beth brought over a bottle of champagne she already started drinking - that's the Jersey in her! haha!
We went over to the Creekside to watch John's band, Bushwood play. So I gotta admit, they have skills! John looked like friggin' rock star! haha! Over the course of the night, I got an idea of how my friends like to get blitzed: John = beer, Cami = Chardonnay, Tasha = Amaretto Sour, Beth = Grey Goose Martini dirty with 2 olives, Tony = Cran & Vodka.
There was some interestin characters too that night, including:
Backdoor Guy: this dude had his ass-seeking radar on, the whole freaking night! Any unsuspecting woman who wasn't paying attention on the dance floor would find this middle-aged, poorly coordinated white guy trying to do his best R Kelly impersonation on their backside!
Angry dancer chick: this girl really was leaving it all out on the dance floor! She was rocking Studio 54-esque sun glasses, ultra short mini, and dominatrix looking knee high platform boots. And she was dancing her ASS off. I mean, I think she checked the structural integrity of every inch of that dance floor! Girl was stomping! haha!
Rude dude: This older WASP looking dude had the nerve to tell me I was taking up too much space on the dance floor. What kinda shit is that?! So Cami in show of support danced around, holding her arms out taking up as much space as possible. haha!
Somehow Mollie and Roseanne made it, which was a cool ass surprise. HOW they got in - well apperantly Bushwood is like a musical mafia and they have pull like that...haha! Mollie got her first experiences with me drunk...haha!
I love food. My 1-pack is evidence of this no doubt...haha! Tonight on the Food Network, one of my favorite channels of all time, Tony Bourdaine dined at The French Laundry in Napa Valley California. What is The French Laundry? Consider it the quintissential culinary experience. If you order your steak extra well done or pour ketchup all over everything, yea this might NOT be the place for you. Or if you would balk at paying $210 per person for dinner, well yea, this isn't the place for you either. haha! One of these days I will have to dine there. The French Laundry is the kind of place that humbles gourmet 4 star restaurant chefs.
So that got me thinking about some of my best meals. The simple ones, complex ones, ones that remind me of home, et al. In no particular order here are some of them:
1. Y2K New Year's Eve at Chad's in Santa Barbara. 7 course meal, with a matched wine with each course.
2. My 30th Birthday at N9ne in Las Vegas. 3 course meal, with their signature S'mores for dessert. The lobster risotto was incredible!
3. Summer 2005 dinner at Chad's with Tasha. 3 courses, watermelon martinis, and coffee at the end. The whole meals lasted 3.5 hours out on the veranda. Their blackened tuna and Jack Daniels Chocolate souflee are off da chain!
4. Thy & Alessandro's - New Year's and another seperate dinner dinner. He did this incredible asaparagus dish once. And another time fresh homemade lobster ravioli.
5. Jay & Allison's New Year's dinner comprised of prime rib, sauteed mushrooms and the best damned chocolate mousse I've ever had.
6. My grandmother's ducana and saltfish; a treat if ever there was one! Ducana is a starchy dish made from combining sweet potato, coconut, white potato, raisons and seasons. So, so damned good.
7. My grandmother's fried fish and johnny cake. Not the southern johnny cake, this one is a bit different.
8. Cuba Libre in Philly Winter 2005 with Suz. Some of the best damned cuban food I have EVER had. Their mojitos are simply amazing in part due to the use of pure sugar cane juice.
9. Nils' Heinekin grilled chicken. The only way I like chicken thighs now!!
...but not really late at all. For my X-mas present my father arranged for some maintenance to be done on my car. The rear brakes got swapped out and the oil changed. It was none too soon either. The brakes were squealing something fierce. And I hadn't had a chance to do an oil change in quite sometime. It's a reminder that I'm going to have to start thinking about a new car in a year or two. Sigh. I've gone a long time without a car note, and I'm not looking forward to another. Still the prospect of a new car is appealing. However, I'm running my friends ragged because I can't make up my mind. Coupe. Sedan. SUV. This why knowing about cars does NOT help!
Whatever I get, I'm gonna have hopefully for a long time to come. It may be the car I'm rolling when I get married and/or make a real estate purchase. The next vehicle will need to have leather, sunroof, at least a V6, and a sporty nature. Track Day was fun, but I don't foresee myself getting hot and heavy into that. On my short list are: Mercedes-Benz E500 or E55, MB CLK500, Nissan Pathfinder, and GMC Denali. Sigh. I want something I can haul some friends around in comfort and power.
The holiday spirit and I are not one this year. I'll be quite happy when this round of holiday season is over. I haven't written much because well there isn't much to write about. In the last week I've made several trips to San Diego for business and pleasure. Hopefully one of the business things will work out, so I can move forward through this transition phase.
Tonight X-Mas came a few hours early when Kim came by for an unexpected visit. That girl is crazy. haha! We were in church today and I swore I saw someone that looked like her. So who calls after church? Kim. Where was Ms. Kim? In the same damned church! We hang out and watched Elf, which I have to admit was pretty damned funny. Can Will Ferrell do any wrong? haha! Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise and welcome respit from the holida humdrum.
Today I took MJ to the park. And I use the word "park" loosely. These parks are pitiful! Weak!!
We didn't have any of that cushy shit on the ground. There was sand, if we were LUCKY! Fuck that. Soft playgrounds are making soft kids. What happened to sliding down the slide and your ass catching that hot, rough spot, taking off some skin? None of this easy-peasy plastic shit! Bring the metal! Metal got hot! Scorched skin!! Built up callouses, made young people strong! Like Tasha said, swings that had 12 foot chains, get some serious airtime. She knows what I'm saying, you jump off at the apex and you're ass has like 5 secs of weightlessness and THEN you fall, and hopefully not into a face plant! See-saws that if you fucked around, you got to experience some medieval style hurling of a mass! Next time i go back home I'm heading to the old park where i grew up. Those park designers were some sadistic mofos. It's like they took a skate park, castle's moat, and some nefarious looking *toys* and made some wicked shit Skin was torn, limbs were sprained and broken, wounds were inflicted, psyches fucked for life...and we kept coming back year after year! Those were the good old days.
Oh-my-ever-loving-God. Summer 2006 will be a GREAT summer for action movies!! I need a job in the entertainment industry. One of those high paying, amorphous, loosely defined "development" roles. haha! X3 is going to be off DA CHAIN! Jean Grey. Magneto's Acolytes. Sentinels. Freaking Sentinels!!
If I could ever play an X-Man, I would be Bishop. Yea, I'm about to reveal more of my geekiness. Bishop is/was an X-men from the future, who was brought into the X-men's present because of some strange rift in time. Naw, I don't remember all the details, ok!!! haha! Anyway, he has the coolest fucking power: energy redirector. The only sorts of attacks that worked against him were bullets or projectiles. If you threw energy at him, he's absorb and throw it right back at you. He also packed a huge ass shot gun!! haha. Sadly, I stopped reading comics shortly thereafter, and have no idea what they did with him. I hope he makes it into the movie franchise! And they had better not pick some lame ass actor to play him either!
Excerpts from one of my favorite movies, Office Space, care of IMDB.com:
Drew: I'm thinking about taking that new chick from Logistics. If things go right I might be showing her my O-face. You know: Oh. Oh.
It's official, I am a MySpace Whore! Chelsea recommended I sign up with MySpace in hopes I could develop a new network in San Diego. So far it's been interesting experience. Some of the folks thus far are proving very helpful. I can totally see people slapping on 'friends' simply to appear popular. High school popularity contests all over again, but on a global scale. The idea ostensibly is to connect with people in your area or with similar interests. Can easily see how the concept can swing in other random directions: random booty calls, promoting amatuer porn