i keep a diary

December, 2004

The December Roundup Part One: Leaving San Francisco

I ended up being away from San Francisco for almost the entire 2nd half of November (first for a business trip to Vegas with Philip, then to NYC for some meetings, Bev's Wedding and Thanksgiving with the Fam). On my first day back at work with Philip, he sat me down and broke the news that (much to my relief) he didn't think the job that I'd moved out to SF to take was going to work out. I'd only been out in San Francisco a little over three months, and despite meeting a few great people (Mike and Mike and Mary!) I never really seemed to be able to make the adjustment to West Coast living. So on December 1st, I started making plans to MOVE THE FUCK BACK TO NEW YORK CITY! Wooooo! The second thing I did was...

...head to Lake Tahoe with a big group of Alysha's friends to snowboard and celebrate baby girl's thirtieth birthday! (Full entry here: Alysha's 30th Birthday in Tahoe).

Tuesday, December 7th

Got back into town on Tuesday and started planning to pack up my room. After I'd made moving arrangements, I decided to...
...walk downtown to check out the SF MOMA.
Where I walked around and took pictures of the pictures I liked. (I'm so Po-Mo, yo!)
I was most taken by the photos depicting the scary-ass white trash south. Amazing.
Ya sure gotta purdy mouth, boy.
After I was done looking at all the art, I decided to walk around and just take some pics of the museum.
And my feet.
And then I took secret spy pictures of people down below through the grate.
Oooooh! Artsy!
Then at night I went with Mike and Mike and played video games and got drunk. (Let's hear it for not having to work in the morning!)

Thursday, December 2nd

On Wednesday morning I got up and drove down to Mountain View to get my eyes examined. I'd been getting headaches and having trouble seeing while driving at night and figured I needed a new prescription.
Turns out I was getting headaches and blurry vision because my prescription needed to be lessened! Apparently, sometimes your vision can get better! Who knew? Anyway, check out this awesome photo of my wonky David Bowie pupils that I took right after my eye doctor put those drops in that make your pupils dialate. After the eye doctors, I spent the rest of my day playing Xbox and then at night I met up with Mike and Mike and Mary to...
...play more video games...
...and get drunk! (Are you starting to see a "I don't have to work tomorrow" pattern of awesomeness here?
Photo of Michael as Evil Sith lord.
After hoisting a few at Arrow Bar, we met up with Hot Teen Lindsay and headed to some other place that was supposed to have some fun weekday danceparty thing going on. The dancefloor ended up being pretty quiet except for...
...THIS GUY! He was amazing. He was this super Goth kid with under-shaved curly hair that was all long in the front and came down over only one half of his face. He kept his eyes closed while doing all sorts of super-emo "I'm in expressive pain" gestures.
Oh, and did I forget to mention he looked like a super-gay version of Fatty? Hahahahahahahah.
Check out tha moves!
Teen Lindsay moved in to try to imitate.
But she lacked the grace and poise to really pull it off.
"When you push the arm out, you gotta push it out fierce! Fierce like 'POW!' See?"
Mary and Mike getting their goth on.
The best part was his dance finale where he mimed spreading pages of tear-streaked poetry across his velvet-covered writing table.
That shit even made Mike Doyle cry.
Leela.
Me and Mary and Mary's sweet, sweet mams.
"Speak louder please. I'm too goth to hear what you're saying."

Tuesday, December 14th

Fast forward almost a week later (a week in which Adam B. came and visited and me and the Mikes took a road trip down to LA - both which have their very own entries coming soon) and it's my last night in San Francisco before moving back to NYC in the morning! Wooooo! Alysha and the Mikes took me out for a farewell night on the town.
We ended up at some bar next to that famous bookstore where all the Beat era writers used to hang out and watched them film some movie in an alley.
Kick his ass, Seabass!
After a few drinks, Alysha took us over to a peepshow theatre called the Lusty Lady. This is the place where Madonna filmed that famous "Open Your Heart to Me" video. It really had those little booths with windows where you put a quarter in and the metal gate slides up so you can see into the little dance room. It was pretty great. Oh, and get this - In typical progressive San Francisco fashion, all of the girls that strip here are unionized and have health care and shit!
Then we got slices. And, uh, then I think we called it a night.
We ended up back at Mike D's house where we watched South Park re-runs and I ceremoniously handed over...
...my lavender BC Rich Warlock (which was the first electric guitar I ever owned!) The movers had come earlier in the week and I'd forgotten to give this to them). Rather than lug it back to NYC as a carry-on item, I decided it was time for me and Lulu Mae to part. *sniffle* No one will ever play Crazy Train on you like I did. I'll miss you my love.

Tuesday, December 7th

On my last morning living in San Francisco, I took this picture while walking down the street in my hood to get a cup of coffee. I call it "Dear San Francisco, This is why I will not miss you much. Love, Brian."
Then I hopped in my rental car (for the last time!) and drove to the airport where I promptly caught a plane the fuck out of Dodge.
Back in NYC later that night, I headed straight for Meredith's apartment (with no job and no NYC apartment, I decided to spent the next few months traveling on and off and Meredith graciously offered to put me up at her place whenever I was in town) and found myself smack in the middle of a "Girlie Night" party at her apartment.
Part of which included Meredith trying on someone else's sexy lingerie over her clothes.
I hadn't even been living there for 15 minutes and it was clear that she was already shaping up to be THE BEST ROOMMATE I'VE EVER HAD.
I took this pic of the girls as they headed out to continue their girlie night of girlie stuff out on the town, unpacked my bags and then...
...headed over to C-Tav to meet up with Tha Grizza! (Who's a happy boy?)
We flirted with the bartender (who's managed to be cute despite her crazy-phony party tits and her pink doo-rag)...
...and took sneaky snarky pictures of people drunk on tequilla making out.
amy k, ben cho
Late night we met up with Amy K and Ben Cho at Max Fish. So happy to be home! Wooooo!
max fish ˆ amy k ˆ ben cho

Thursday, December 16th

david k, miye
Thursday evening I stopped over on Mott Street to check in with my favorite married couple, David and Miye.
david k ˆ miye
And we all shared a giant chocolate covered caramel apple.
Later that night I hung out with Fatty and Amy...
...ran into Marjorie and Ellen.
...and watched a girl beat the the FUCK out of some dude outside of Max Fish at like 4am (check her out holding his face in place with the fish-hook to the eye as she prepares to punch him in the face! Holy Shit!)

Friday, December 17th

Here's Amanda, Fatty and Grant outside of Fatty's apartment right before I helped them schlepp their shit over to The Delancey for Fiasco's very first gig!
There's a whole entry coming about the Fiasco show, but for now here's a funny picture of Amy, Amanda and Sascha after the show. After a few drinks with the band, I headed back to Meredith's place (home!) to find...
...the woman of the house checking her email in her undies! (Just in case you didn't believe me before when I dropped that whole "best roommate ever" thingy.)

Saturday, December 18th

Need more proof? Well, besides lounging around the apartment and checking her email in her paaaaanties, did I also mention that Meredith cooks?
Me = Luckiest. Boy. Ever.
Saturday night I met with with my friend Frank'sWife (who other people occasionially call Liz) and she hooked me up with an extra ticket to see...
...THE PIXIES!
The shit was bananas! I've been a huge Pixies fan forever so it was amazing to finally get to see them play. Thanks, Liz!
After the show I met up with Amy and her friend...
...and Meredith...
...and we got our schweaty dance-on down in the basement at Lit.
Feels good to be home, baby. Feels good to be home.