I sometimes wonder what the best solution is to my journaling dilemma of trying to catch you all up on my adventures in Barcelona and having life.. you know.. keep going amid Birthday Month and all that comes with that. I mean since Halloween, it's been pretty exciting around here. There are lots of dating stories, girl drama - come and gone, thank GOD, dinners with many friends involving lots of catching up, SeaCompression - the giant Burning Man after party, a They Might Be Giants concert complete with sock puppets AND, as if that wasn't enough, because you know, it isn't.. my birthday party ended the week!
Phew! You'd think I'd be exhausted.. and ok.. I am a little, but it's been one of the best months since spring that I can remember. November is often like that because it's not my favorite time of year, but it is my favorite month with my favorite holiday - my birthday. Attention-whore at heart who's learned to downsize the attention-getting a little, I still love having an official day that's kind of all mine. Since it fell on a Monday this year, the festivities couldn't really be fully celebrated on the day because Mondays never feel right. I did end up with a small group of friends watching the highly anticipated Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog - and I say 'highly anticipated' because I didn't know about this Joss Wheden incredibleness before and I'm late to find out everything, but OH. MY. GOD.. Funniest thing EVER! Apparently there are enough extras by the cast that it could make a whole funny musical DVD on its own! But you can't really go wrong with Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion.. No. No you can not.
Next there was the Burning Man after-party, Seacompression. Basically all the Seattle burners and their ilk gather together in a giant hangar and have a Burning-Man-like burn just without the playa. Any excuse to dress up, dance, and be merry but it's a little different without dust and without 100-degree heat. We shook some booty as a booty is wont to do when wearing booty-shakin' attire and we met friends in the men's bathroom since the line was much shorter and stayed up til the wee hours groovin' and basically gettin' down with our bad selves.
Gabi gets down..
Brit Paul groovin to the music in a coat he fashioned himself!
Weird restroom pics with Cayenne, Mez and a little Miss D.
It pretty much took all day Sunday to recover from the debauchery of the night before.. but it was sooo worth it. Since I couldn't afford to do both Burning Man and Barcelona, I figured this was my one night to pretend I was on the playa this year and it didn't suck.
And the party didn't stop there. Tuesday we succumbed to the steady downpour outside in order to see They Might Be Giants play the Flood album live. Appropriate title considering the weather.. We knew it was going to be a good show, even not knowing what to expect, but we didn't think they were going to blow the roof off the place, which they did.
The opening act's name defies memory, but they were Irish and adorable, beginning and ending their set with songs accompanied by ukulele, which I recommend to every band to do. There's something incredibly charming about that instrument and it automatically puts you in the Bands That Don't Suck category.
But of course the true joy came when TMBG walked on stage and proceeded to overwhelm us with their quirkiness and the songs off Flood. I was in college when that came out and clearly not the hardest core fan among the sold-out crowd. But they played my favorites, Birdhouse In Your Soul and Istanbul (Is Not Constantinople), which friggin rocked. But then - in the middle of everything? SOCK PUPPETS. I kid you not! I do not kid.
We watched a screen come down and we noticed we were being filmed so we raised our hands in collective crowd stupidity like all audiences do when told we're being filmed to the sock puppets' delight. They introduced themselves as The Avatars Of They and then rocked our collective socks off from that point on. Seriously, they should have their own show. Not for kids, of course.. but they reminded me of a similarly quirky group, Barenaked Ladies, and their on-stage antics.
Two and half hours later, thoroughly concert-ed out but happy, there's still a birthday party to look forward to at the end of the week.
It seems a bit anti-climactic now because it was just whomever of my friends could make it to my new favorite neighborhood bar, The Bottleneck Lounge - a favorite because of it's cool bartenders, cool owner, and two-block proximity from my house. I could literally stumble home if necessary.
There were good friends, stellar drinks, a fucking off-the-hook homemade cake by Shine and a lot of silly pictures.
Cayenne and Amsterdam (complete with unborn little one) present the cake made by unseen Shine.. mm!
Me - just a complete dork..
I'm reminded that there's a lot of life around me, a lot of positives, and really, really good people to remind me of that stuff when I forget. It's been such an emotional year. I guess if you didn't have the downs you'd never recognize the ups, but there are a lot more smiles when it's Up Time and it feels long overdue. So as winter gets on and the end of 2009 gets closer, I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing, which is moving forward. Bring on the next year of challenges. I think I'm ready.
2 comments:
I would say so! You're more than ready, my dear!
Loving the hat, babe. You look very cute :)
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