weekend up [north]

I guess it's only fitting that my first post since the big move [which went quite well a couple weeks ago for those wondering] is a weekend recap from me heading out of town and away from SF. Ironic in a way, but fitting too. I headed back to Meeeeeechigan for a close friend's wedding this past weekend...which involved 4 flights in 6 days, as well as a road trip to Glend Arbor from the A2. On with the highlights..

• an ironic return to LA
• McDonald's at the airport
• a very brief nap
• forgetting 2 cameras
• stealing cheese bread
• the road trip north
• "I've got a question..."
• Pasties
• friends noticing that i wasn't as lame after the change in circumstances
  
• "Control yourself, take only what you need from it"
• "It was all a dream, I used to read word up magazine!"
• getting us everywhere we were going
• the bomb ass cabin
• the mugs
• so many of the homies all together again
• Roth getting busted sans ID
• the server
  
• stupid wrestling
• beer down Deefs' pants
  
• late nite pizza
• Al's uncharacteristic jokes
• roaming Glen Arbor for a bit
• cherry wine tasting
• the hot tub...in the rain
• suiting up
• the wedding itself
• the sweet live band
  
• Crown & Coke and the cool bartender
• crappy pizza
• the after party
• someone coming thru with the clutch auxiliary cable
  
• the MJ glove
• tearing a hole in my pants
• boom-dizzle's adorable kids
• stumbling around in the morning
• brunch
• laughs with good friends
• doing a little driving on the way home
  
• so many random, funny comments and remarks that i didn't memorize but know were said
• getting to spend some time with my parents
• bday dinners
  
• jalapeno chicken and green beans with pork
• bday brunch
• a nite in LA with Ted Maroon
• going overboard at the Habit
• something like 4 burgers in 6 days
• the movie hook up on the plane
• the awesome weather in SF
  
• the crazy old ladies who lost a cellphone
• getting back to the pad

It was a big weekend that was epic and much needed. It was great to spend time with family and old friends [but who are still some of my closest friends]. A funny little escape from what really is an escape already. More words need to be written here...hopefully I'll make that happen.

weekending

Over the past 2+ years, I traveled to San Francisco for the weekend on many, many occasions. At some point, I began to document these travels as they were a great escape from the daily grind and also true highlights for me. Many of my closest friends live in SF and it's a City I love as much as any other in the world that I've had the opportunity to experience. During the many weekends up there I made a lot or great memories and have also made some new friends to add to the amazing collection of established friends I already had up there. I was often asked, "when are you going to move to SF?" To which I responded: as soon as I get a job.

A couple months back I was talking with a good friend about the whole moving deal. We were discussing a joking desire of mine to get laid off, as then with the allotted amounts of unemployment checks I'd happily move to SF. He pointed out that there's a point where that $475 a week or so doesn't matter and it's just time to move.

Well...that time has come. This past week I informed my office that I was going to be leaving the firm and Thursday ended up being my last day. So...I'm moving on up to the City where I belong.

And now I can explain the delay in posting the list of highlights from my most recent trip to SF. It was the end of an era as we celebrated my good friend Peter moving out of San Francisco (for the second time) to New York for grad school. But, knowing what I did at the time, this last weekend trip was also the end of the era of me traveling to SF for simply a weekend jaunt. The next time I'm there, it will be on the permanent...and I can't wait.

With all that in mind...let's do this one more time:

• yet another delay...but not as long of a delay as the earlier flight i tried to get on
• good talk with the oldest of friends
• playlisting up
• buying a buckeye a beer
• good company on the plane
• a ride from the airport
• rice and chinese sausage - the meal of the weekend
• drinks, good conversation, and old friends
• LBP
• glimpses of the future
• jowling
• Farmer Brown's brunch and bottomless mimosas
• getting hooked up
• Peter in love
• buying some beer for the partay
• a brief chill out session
• beer pong & regaining my form
• 2 bounce shots
• hearing from Los
  
• the greatest pong shot ever
• metro burger and tots
• the house party
• Sam and friends coming out!
• a capella
• the soul pole
• dancing the nite away...and the legs hurting the next day
  
• rick rolling the party [again]
• all the greenhills kids
• entouraging up
• Ed's porridge-like late nite rice [don't trying making rice in a rice cooker whilst drunk]
• the day of 3 drunks
• watching some awful soccer
• napping up
• chasing down muni buses
• hanging out watching movies
• a ride to the airport
  
• a fitting end to an era

I can't put into words how much the weekends away have meant to me over the past couple of years. They were necessary and help me keep my sanity. I can't wait to get up to the Bay and actually be around those I am close to and in the place where I feel I belong. I also can't believe it's happening. All I know is that I'm thankful for all the good times and good friends. I'm also thankful for the warm reception the news of my LA departure has gotten and the welcoming feeling I'm getting from those up in the City. See u soon, SFC.

weekend not updated

last weekend's update will be coming somewhat soon...probably during next weekend sometime. apologies for the delay and brief hiatus. it was a bit weekend, end of an era in some ways. more to come...

25 [reworked] things

There are innumerable stupid things that I believe or believe in, probably for no good reason. Often I find I have no explanation for these beliefs or that any explanation I may offer sounds ridiculous, nonsensical, or lacks any persuasiveness. Yet these "beliefs" [or simply statements] kinda define who I am as a person. Below is a list of 25 of these beliefs and statements, as well as just some random facts about me.*

1. If a girl can't dance, it's a deal breaker.
2. Prince vs. Michael Jackson - if you say Prince, I will forever hold it against you.
3. I take personal offense to a guy cutting his hamburger in half.
   
4. Altho I love dancing [which most ppl already know], I would rather DJ on most occasions.
5. I strongly and diametrically oppose a college football playoff.
6. I collect artwork from my friends [if u're an artist of any sort, please hook me up].
7. My shopping addictions: shoes and watches.
8. I'm ambidextrous.
   
9. I get really into Christmas.
   
10. As a child I refused to eat fruits and vegetables. While I do eat some now, I wish I really liked them.
11. This clip brings endless joy to my life.
    
12. I own a collection of awesomely bad dance movies.
    
13. I thoroughly enjoy intentionally misspelling things; there are good reasons to not do things as some might say they should be done.
    
14. fotography is my first passion, over music and dancing.
    
15. One year, when I was a kid, I got hit by a moped in Greece. It made my arm hurt.
16. Its' the people in life [esp. family and close friends] that make it what it is and that's why they're so important.
    
17. I find nothing wrong with eating McDonald's.
18. I've been known as "the Bootleg Queen."
19. I tend to dance on BART platforms.
20. I think I watch TV and movies to simply escape from my own thoughts and just be.
    
21. I really enjoy going to grocery stores late at nite.
22. I often have private dance parties in my apartment.
23. I love driving and will happily be the guy to drive my friends around when we all go out.
24. Bacon is the greatest food ever.
25. There's no such thing as too far, at least not with the right people. And those are my favorite people.
    

* I can't lie, this list was originally inspired by that rampant "25 Things" note that spread like wildfire around the facebook.

Friends

Many of my closest friends are those I made in high school. I was fortunate enough to meet a great group of individuals during those formative years and I believe our shared experience played an important role in forging a lifelong bond among us. In many ways you can see similarities between all of us...yet at the same time we are all our own individuals, unique in our own ways and with varied and different tastes [altho we also share much in common]. As a group it's sometimes hard to see the variations, at least as well all spend time together...be it drinking, dancing, pontificating about random things in life, or in whatever activity we choose to engage in.

Yet I think our differences become apparent as you see the groups of individuals we've grown close to and call friends outside of our close knit high school group. As I perused Facebook a while back I came across some pictures of one of my friends spending time with old college friends. It made me think for a moment about the friends of my close friends that I have met and interacted with over the years.

What makes each of us individuals, unique and all our own among this close group, is expressed [I think] in those individuals who are our other friends. Not to say we don't express ourselves even when we all hang out...but I think you can see the individual in all of us and how different we all are by those we associate with outside of one another [I don't mean to make our group of friends sound elitist or anything along those lines].

I guess the reason this is of any interest to me is that I strongly believe that, in many ways, you are who you associate with in life. [I'm sure I've expressed this sentiment before in this space.] And so it's funny to think about my friends and the different groups of friends they each have...and then to think about all of us being as close as we are.

a weekend later

whoooooops...so this one managed to slip by until it was, well, the next weekend. a good long holiday weekend up in the Bay, altho i missed out on meatfest '09 due to yet another southwest airlines delayed flight...ughhh. aside from that, it was an overall good time with some especially good, meaningful, and important conversations had over the days. on to the highlights...

• avoiding the major delay, sorta
• Oakland
• eye contact
• dancing on BART platforms for the first time in a long time
  
• BART weirdness
• muni'ing all around town
  
• Nick letting me in
  
• more King of Thai
• being the mysterious guy drinking at the bar by himself
• the dj dropping "I Want You Back" & "Axel F"
  
• old cubans
  
• one of the homies rolling out
• the "I don't have time to make your drink" bartender
• law school homies
• sudoku while sitting in the bus stop at like 2:30 am
• Ed's early arrival
• friday feeling like sunday
  
• the Pork Store Cafe and sitting with strangers
• the stranger's French Toast
  
• all the old school sweet rides
• the idea of rolling in an 80s Ferrari Testarossa while listening to 80s music and dressed in 80s clothes
• parking next to a Nissan GTR
• getting some keys [hopefully symbolic]
  
• a stupid amount of sushi
• Ed rolling out b4 heading to Mexico
• the Marina, Circa, soup
• the dj at Circa
  
• getting bought a round of shots by a girl
  
• of course heading to Gravity
  
• free round of beers since the guy [temporarily] lost Deefs' card
  
• owning the stage at Gravity...simply because no one else was
  
• a last round at not Gravity and another free shot
  
• chocolate-glazed donuts & getting used for donut holes
• leftover sushi
• BART'ing out to Richmond
• meeting some new ppl
• the great food at Al & Hank's
• a great talk with Hank
  
• winning my only game of beer pong/beirut
• getting in some dancing
• the crazy lady who stopped us from getting to the roof
• grabbing dim sum to go solo-style
• nap time
• Popeye's & the pigeon
• another good talk
  
• being the option that doesn't suck
• the extra day
  
• the support for what some may think is a stupid idea

a longer lists of highlights than i was anticipating, a sign of a good weekend. as with every other weekend up in the Bay, i'm sure there are things that have been omitted...impossible to remember it all i guess. the weekend provided some topics i'd like to explore but i'm a bit too lazy right now. and i'm craving dessert in some form [like those chocolate-glazed donuts].

but, i leave you all with this:

why don't girls approach guys more often?

Michael Jackson

Many words have already been written since the world found out about the tragic passing of Michael Jackson. Yesterday was simply one of the saddest days in music. Learning that Michael Jackson had suffered a cardiac arrest and was being hospitalized brought my day to a pause, followed by frantic checking of various news outlets for more information. The news of his death was at first met with disbelief and followed by a sense of shock. In some ways it is yet to sink in.

In talking with close friends about his passing, I find the only way to take comfort in anything is by appreciating the gifts of his music and dance moves. For many, it is or was his music that made him so special. This holds true for me as well, but his amazing dance moves were equally important. Seeing his dance moves growing up in the 80s, I couldn't help but want to dance. Although never coming close to emulating his talents, his dance moves and the rhythmic beats of his amazing music simply inspired movement in me.

It was clear from an early age that Michael Jackson was a special and talented individual. With time he grew to become the King of Pop; a star like never before. With his music, dance moves, and music videos he shaped a generation. His musical impact was felt in all parts of society and across generations; his music opened doors for many others to follow. He managed to bridge gaps between cultures and in so doing he brought many people together. Simply put, he broke down barriers. And beyond the impact his music had, he strove to make the world a better place.

It's nice to see how much love this world has for Michael Jackson, especially after all of the ridicule he received in recent years for his eccentric behavior. It is undeniable that his career and life took an unfortunate turn, yet it is equally undeniable that few, if any, have ever faced the pressures he did. Growing up a childhood star as he did, in many ways he was never given the opportunity to really be a child, a kid. From a very early age he was a star and in the limelight; he was the star in a groups of stars. Undoubtedly, these early experiences (or maybe more so the lack of some of the normal childhood experiences) shaped him in ways difficult to understand or explain. Without any semblance of a true childhood, Michael Jackson "grew up" and managed to become the biggest pop star that ever lived (further removing any slim chance of normalcy in his life). But in time, his star would fall almost as far as it had risen. Faced with accusations and rumors of all sorts, Michael Jackson eventually withdrew from public view...and the times he did resurface he was often met with a less than friendly response. In recent memory, his amazing contribution to the entertainment world (and really the world more generally) had been overshadowed by the controversies he became embroiled in.

I wholeheartedly believe that some of his eccentricities were simply a necessary part of him being the amazing, talented musician, entertainer, and performer that he was. Some of course were side effects of his less than normal upbringing. And yes, there were things that simply didn't make sense or felt wrong. At the end of it all, Michael Jackson was an amazing individual who will forever be remembered for the music he left us. It's a gift many of us will continue to cherish.

Thank you, Michael Jackson, for all you gave us. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fans. My hope and belief is that Michael is now in a place where he is free of the many burdens that followed him in recent years.