it’s no mystery that i tend to keep very busy weekends. i often stretch myself way too thin just trying to keep up with all the birthdays and dinners and everything that’s already on top of work and practice.
things have come to a head recently because i had to travel to LA for a dragonboat race with the team, and i decided to shoehorn in a kind of mini-vacation while i was at it. but i think it went well enough.
shall we?
without any preparation, recovering from running the marathon wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, but i managed. the very next day i hobbled over to Fishbowl to get a firsthand look at Scott’s new homegrown trivia night and partake in some delicious bar food with jim and joe. later in the week i took my old prom date to a restaurant in the mission, after our attempts to get into ‘mission street food’ failed miserably.
my foot was in generally okay shape by then, so i had no qualms as i stepped onto the plane for LA.
i flew into LAX on the last day in july, a late flight. they probably though it would be funny to stick me in the back of a plane, next to the bathroom and seated near a man loudly humming indian chants for the duration of the flight. but i made it.
they must have also thought it would be funny to fuck with me even more by giving me a PT cruiser as a rental, whose floor, i would later discover, was infested with ants. but i’ll get to that in a minute. in any case, i could have made a sturdier car out of legos.
i got to the hotel in long beach and festivities began. as soon as i became acclimated to the weather, the races went well, the food was great, the company even better. a churascarria and navy hooker dive bar in sunset beach followed day one, a drunken beach party and a luxury boat-jacking on the long beach lagoon [with Dragon Warriors] followed day two.
the team won four medals, we ruled the awards ceremony, and i got to catch up with those guys in blue [our sister team Space Dragons] who i met at treasure island last year. it was… pleasant. while i had no intention of participating in the dunkings and eye-hickeys, they were pretty fun to watch.
i spent the remainder of my stay in LA having some korean food not too far from orangethorpe, followed by picking up francois in the inland empire and going to a dodgers game. is it just me or does the entire facility seem like a really clean park/rec bathroom? and the dodgers lost, too, which made it even better.
also, if you have fastrak, bring it, it’s pretty damn useful on the 91. toll might be $4-5, but it’s worth it when you can yell “aaaaaaahahahaha, bitches!!!” at everyone else in bumper-to-bumper traffic while you’re going 70.
unfortunately i wasn’t able to spend as much time in san diego as i would’ve liked- by the time i got there i only had about 6 hours before my flight, and even less considering all the driving that needed to be done. but i saw my cousins, had some pretty good fish tacos, and enjoyed the world famous chula vista and la jolla.
i got out of there and took a very interesting virgin america flight back. i do have to say that $8 in-flight wi-fi was actually worth the novelty.
the week wore on and just when i thought i could be athletic again, i couldn’t. i ran the lake and the foot hurt like hell again [though slightly less], and practice was canceled due to a volunteer day at the sf food bank.
the preceding dimsum was actually pretty good, and at the food bank this year there weren’t any greasy chicken pieces to pack, just cans to clean and bag and box. it felt, though, like all we were doing was spreading our germs unnecessarily, but it counts.
later that night i went to palo alto to celebrate emily’s belated-ass birthday at the capoeira house and catch up with some people. though there was a lot of good to be found there, let’s just say that i’m not very compatible with some silicon valley engineers. at times it felt like an episode of the big bang theory, but instead of laughing i wanted to crush his windpipe with a thrust of my forefingers.
afterward i came back up to the city to celebrate angelo’s birthday at Encore karaoke, but our stay was short. there ended up being another party, thown by someone none of us knew [big surprise, huh?], just down the street. it worked, i guess. we ended up having a great discussion at vcaf afterward, but the damage had been done.
to my surprise, an elementary school reunion barbecue for the next day was turned into a “let’s meet at BJ’s brewery at tanforan and watch a movie after” event. thing is, we regularly hung out in the area back in elementary school, doing the exact same thing, so it felt like being 11 again. even after 13 years, though, the epiphany school class of 1996 hasn’t changed a damn bit.
afterward i stopped by the dragonboat booth at the nihonmachi street fair and passed by pistahan, but was overwhelmed by the filipino-ness of it all and had to get the fuck out. great day, but, jesus christ, it felt like daly city extended itself into yerba buena gardens, horrible accents and fashion sense and all.
my efforts to concentrate since then had been shot, so here i am. it just might be another long week.
