ANOTHER LONG WEEKEND RECAP
FRIDAY
I left work early to go to the doctor after hurriedly moving all my shit from the front counter into my new office. Yes, that’s right folks. After having had my “promotion” for 6 months, I finally get the second half of it. I don’t have to answer the stupid phones anymore and I get a door and window! Glorious!
Anyway, since I was leaving early to go to the doctor (after having spent two evenings working unpaid overtime to make up for the pending time missed), everyone else decided to leave to. So, I basically worked that overtime for no reason other than Boss Man was having one of his fun little power trips. Oh well.
I had my annual appointment and then returned home to wait for people to call me. I had tried really hard to get people together for happy hour, I couldn’t get anyone to commit to a location. Around 5:00, B. called me and said he and Galloo were at the Mirabeau room, but by now I was already on the Hill and didn’t want to try and get a bus to Queen Anne during rush hour. Instead, Meep and I decided to go have dinner at the Elysian. I had never been there for food and Meep said they had an amazing veggie sloppy joe. I called Sherwood too, and, after a few bus mishaps, he joined us. I didn’t end up getting the sloppy joe, but I DID get a fantasmic Field Roast Cheese Steak. Meep indulged in the veggie curry. Next time, I may get their vegetarian country dinner. I am really happy that Meep told me about their food, because now I have an interesting veggie-friendly place to take Mark next time he comes up!
We were also waited on by two smokin’ hot waitresses. One had a muscular (like Angela Basset in Strange Days) body and cute nerdy glasses. The other looked like she just stepped off the runway to bring us our dinner. Sherwood was in love. We definitely need to go back there.
B. called from Linda’s. He was with Galloo and a dude from their office. We tried to convince them to meet us at the Elysian, but they weren’t having it. Likewise, we weren’t having Linda’s (you can only enjoy yourself with Hipster Bingo so many times before it wears on your nerves). So we told them that after dinner, we were heading up to Big Time to meet Gene and torture Borg, and they were welcome to join us later.
We rolled up to Big Time in time to see Borg outside having a smoke. BenDur, his sister, her friend from school and BenDur’s g/f were to meet us so we needed to create a large seating area for ourselves. We made an awkward attempt at moving tables together and, I think, annoyed the crap out of Borg, but eventually we settled in. A few minutes later, Galloo, B. and their work friend showed up so it turned out we needed even MORE chairs.
Even though we were probably embarrassing Borg, he was kind enough to fix us some complimentary nachos (which I’ve been told BY Borg, you shouldn’t eat from Big Time).
Borg got off work not too long after everyone arrived. Lea and her friend (who reminded me a LOT of the slutty ex-girlfriend in the Wedding Singer), decided they needed hard alcohol so they went to Flowers to do shots. The rest of us wanted to go to the College Inn, a few of us went to tell the girls where we were going to be. (Why we had to do everything in groups, at this point, I have no idea).
Anywho, we stayed at the College Inn for a long while. I like the College Inn, even though it makes me feel somewhat lecherous at times for ogling the college co-eds.
When I got home, I was pleased with my self-control. I was drunk but not TOO drunk, so I was confident that I would still be able to function for New Years. I have a bad habit of getting too hammered the night BEFORE New Years and then not being able to enjoy myself at the party.
I love it when a lack-of-plan comes together.
SATURDAY
DZ needed pants. So in the afternoon, Meep, Borg, DZ and I strolled downtown on a pants-quest. I am happy to say it was fruitful. We stopped in at Macy’s too and I took profuse advantage of their crazy year-end sale. We later supped at Johnny Rockets in Pacific Place and realized that we have spent far too much time in that yuppie mall in recent weeks than any self-respecting group of liberals should.
Then we parted ways to rest and get ready for the big New Years party at the House of Fun in Wallingford. I put on my new brown velvety dress ($25!) and curled my hair. About 5 minutes later, my hair was flat again. No matter. I was ready to party. Sherwood came over and we hopped in the car to pick up Borg and Meep. I was a little stressed about parking, it being New Years Eve, but everyone assured me that it would be fine. And of course, they were right. Before we have New Years at the Bunswick’s condo near the Space Needle. It stands to reason that there isn’t any parking over there. But there was plenty of parking in Wallingford at 10pm. And all my stress was washed away with my first giant glass of champagne.
While Meep and I drank our Baxter-sized keg cups of champagne, we played with the New Years party favors on the coffee table (including mini tambourines!). It was then that one of the masters of the house informed us that DDR was set up in the basement. I couldn’t get down there fast enough!
Naturally, DDR caught the attention of the other party-goers, so after a while the queue to play got pretty long. But Meep and I managed to get a good, solid hour or so of competition-free game time in. We went back upstairs close to midnight and were ready for the countdown. We started taking pictures. Everyone was in a REALLY good mood. It was fantastic! A lot of hugs and “I’m so glad we’re friends” went around.
A few different people were DJ-ing upstairs so we got quite a bit of dancing in. One of the DJs was Gene and he was playing a lot of good stuff. I didn’t recognize much of it, but it was very danceable. Of course, I probably could have danced to anything at that point.
DZ spent some time talking to a girl who had been ditched by the friend she came with. Her friend had not only left without her, but also took her coat! She said it was ok though, because some guy had offered her a ride home. As DZ was talking to the stranded girl, B. walked by. DZ asked B. if he’d driven his ‘stang to the party that night to which B. replied. “No, I walked”. The girl’s mouth dropped open and she informed DZ that THAT was the guy who’d offered her a ride home. DZ was, or course, chivalrous enough to offer to take her home.
The House of Fun is like an alternate dimension. Time moves much faster there than it does in the real world. We didn’t get home till after 4. Once again, DZ was kind enough to deal with, what I’m sure was a car full of very annoying drunk people. I love my guy.
Hope you all had just as great a New Years Eve! Pictures forthcoming.
SUNDAY
At the party, I’d told that no matter what, he needed to force me to drink 3 glasses of water when I got home. And force me he did. As a result: 3 bottles of champagne split between me and Meep and NO HANGOVER! Brilliant!
The rest of my cohorts were not so lucky. Good thing the only event we had on the docket for the day was to finally see King Kongat 4. Meep, unfortunately, couldn’t make it out of the house. But Gene, Sherwood, DZ and I ventured out.
King Kong is pretty good. It’s true that it runs a bit long. I do wish that even though Peter Jackson is the new Hollywood Epic Golden Boy, that somebody could have said “You KNOW we love you, Petey baby. But maybe the remake of a one hour and 40 minute film doesn’t need to be stretched out over 3 hours and 7 minutes. I’m just sayin.” The first hour contains some slightly melodramatic dialog, particularly to set up the relationship twixt Adrian Brody and Naomi Watts. But I like both of them, so I could overlook it. I did stifle a giggle, though, when Brody kissed Watts, and his enormous (yet inexplicably sexy) nose bent back against her cheek.
Once they got to the island, things picked up. I could have done with maybe ONE less attack. Maybe we don’t have to have killer insects, two different kinds of killer dinosaurs, AND killer natives. Of course the CG was really convincing and Kong himself was, well, adorable. Normal sized apes are cute. How can a giant ape NOT be hugely adorable?
I agree with Elyse that Jack Black was maybe the wrong choice for the role of the stop-at-nothing fame-hungry filmmaker. He wasn’t unbearable, but Elyse suggested Ricky Geravais, and now I wish I could have seen that.
Even though there are some problems with the film, and even though an irritating woman sat behind us who had apparently never seen CG before (she gasped at EVERY SINGLE SPECIAL EFFECT. I swear I'm not exaggerating), I enjoyed the film immensely. It was very Peter Jackson. Very faithful to the source material, very entertaining, and the ending is incredibly moving.
At the end of the movie, the Aghast CG Lady commented that the film was “a combination of the original King Kong and Jurassic Park”. Or maybe it was JUST a remake of the original King Kong? I don’t know.
Early in the day, I developed an insatiable hankering for sushi. I got everyone on board with this, only to find that every sushi restaurant on the Hill was closed. DZ and I settled for dry QFC sushi and spring rolls and Gene and Sherwood got pizza. We returned to the Zookster Pad to watch some Rockford Files and relax.
I had never watched the Rockford Files as a kid. I only knew James Garner from Maverick and had NO idea he was such a pimp! Thanks, Gene! I look forward to more evenings like that.
MONDAY
All that fun and I STILL got another day off! I decided to try and work off all my debauchery by going to yoga. Of course, every New Years Resolutionary in the city was there too so the room was packed. This limited mobility and also made the already 105 degree room feel about 10 degrees hotter. I had convinced Kayobi to finally join me so I felt bad that her first time in there was a lot more miserable than refreshing. She did really well, though.
After yoga, we showered and headed to the I.D. for food at what Kayobi said was the best Chinese restaurant in the city. For some reason, be it heat stroke, extreme hunger, or something else, I was extremely nauseous. And by the time we got to the restaurant, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I threw up mostly water. I immediately felt much better and was even hungrier than before, so I ordered what seemed to be the only dish on the menu without a picture of a hot pepper next to it. See, in my old age, my stomach has decided to no longer accept spicy food without causing me extreme pain for a few hours post meal. Imagine my dismay when my broccoli dish arrived well adorned with red peppers. I was so hungry (and really, out of vegetarian options), that I struggled through half of it anyway. I even took the leftovers home (even though the pushy waitress actually TOOK the plate away from me when she saw me removing peppers for the leftovers).
Kayobi and Matt were then kind enough to drive me down to DZ’s office to drop something off for him. By then, I had developed a headache and my stomach was beginning to enact revenge for the broccoli. I had grand designs for apartment cleaning that night, but those all went out the window, as all I could think about was getting home and crawling into bed. As I walked to my door, I tossed my leftovers in the dumpster.
A few hours later, I awoke feeling pretty much all better. I was glad I could sleep through my stomach’s revenge. I was still pretty tired though. I made an organic pop tart and watched a little TV. I was in bed by 9:30. Thank Christ for a recovery day. I wish every weekend had one.
January 4, 2006
Categories: Dear Diary . Tags: weekend recap . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment
Effed by the Wind 
