this holiday has sound effects, yo... *bluuurp*
d and i drive up to burlingame to meet his friend bird. get there about nine and have a bite to eat at his house (and a couple drinks, boys: something fruity, me: pilsner), watch the ball drop in times square. we run for the 10.03 caltrain (me in stilettos and then barefoot) which as it turns out is now the 10.13 caltrain. (yo, we didn't need to run after all.) we arrive in the the city around 11 and take a $25 cab ride (four blocks? forty? and the cabby shouts that other drivers are 'fucking monkeys' the whole screeching way) to the campton place hotel and meet up with them terribles (d is good friends with their manager) who are about to play a show at vessel, across the alley and in the basement. the boys and the band beer up; i enjoy people watching from a 16th floor room that probably has the same nightly rate as my house for the whole month.
band manager's girlfriend takes us (down, across, down) to the club to get us in. bouncer makes us stand in the corner while they decide what we should have to pay ($50, which is half off). i come to. where the hell am i? i bet i'm the only one here with milk in my breasts... this is my first time in a club (yeah) and my first impression is that it is very loud and very crowded and very hot and that i'm seriously overdressed. and by that i mean not nearly enough of my pasty white flesh is showing. thank god i'm wearing skin tight jeans and stilettos. maybe some of these cool folks will think i'm bucking the system, not just out of the loop. d opens a tab and i think we are all champagne-faced in a matter of minutes. oh yeah and it's new year's eve and the countdown happens almost mid-song but they stop and *poof* it's 2008 and i'm kissing d and there's bird kissing some guy's girlfriend but no one seems to notice or particularly care. we're so smooshed together anyhow that it may have been a fricking accident for all anyone knows but i'm the only one considering it. d and i are dancing and then he's gone for 10 minutes (they've lost his credit card and id) and i'm dancing with bird and for a few minutes no one at all.
d comes back, just like he was never gone. i have to pee. the bathrooms in vessel are co-ed and there's a door monitor who shuttles one (and only one- no sex in these urinals folks, you can do that on the dance floor!) patron in at a time. she apparently doesn't care if you bring your champagne in there and inadvertently break a glass or two though. there's a tray by the sink with altoids and capri cigarettes and d grabs one and sticks it behind his ear to get his $50 worth (drinks aren't included in the cover, ha!). sometime near 12.45 we go outside: me because i'm hot and if i take off my last shirt i'll be arrested (or not), him because he's decided to be a woman smoker for the night...? when he spits on the street the bouncer says he can't go back in but yo, i'm cool which means that it's up to me to navigate back down and find bird so we can scram. why is every man in here wearing black!? and why do they all have the same ridiculous fuzzy seeming haircut?! i don't find bird but i find d's friend, the band manager. i scream at him and he gestures towards the bathroom. "MAYBE HE'S PEEEEEINGGG!" everyone looks pretty much the same and he isn't PEEEEEINGGG. but he is SMACK in front of me when i come back out of the bathroom. i grab him by the hand, he chugs his drink, and we head back upstairs to find d on the street corner.
we all have to PEEEEEE so we head up to the hotel, 'cause there is something special about peeing on the 16th floor. as it turns out there IS something special about the complimentary soap and shampoos and body washes (molton brown smells lovely and looks great in my half painted bathroom). we catch a cab ($7.50 this time) to the train station, run again, find two seats on the top, d says he can't sit anyway. after about 15 minutes on the (not going anywhere) train (it's 1.30) i shout across the other side to a vaguely non-drunk guy: i thought this was the 1.30 train!? "yeah! they're waiting for it to fill up. it'll leave at 2." oy. d is asleep standing up. bird is trying to get me to take off my "it sucks to be me pin" but i love it and it isn't going anywhere. bird is trying to get me to give him my "honest opinion, do i need a new haircut?" honestly bird, darling, your hair is fine. d is still asleep standing up. bird is mumbling about the hotties at the club and trying to convince me we should crash at his place for a couple of hours. dude, my KIDS are waiting. a couple of hours is a long time. i'm taking this train all the way home, if it ever freaking leaves the station.
2.05, the train leaves. i've made friends with relatively sober najim. his friend is passed out and apparently so are mine. i tuck my purse under bird's armpit, tell him to guard it with your life and ask najim to show me where the bathroom is. he pushes through the crowd for me and waits until i'm done so we can find my seat again and no one harasses me. d is still asleep standing up. bird has my purse but is asleep too. the train takes twice as long as it typically does. najim keeps me company and i text with mike who is in vegas. we stop in burlingame, bird comes to and manages to stumble off. a couple stops later najim and his buddy justin are gone too. mike instructs me on how to catch a cab in san jose at 3.45 on new year's and says something about boobies and an old lady and losing a bit of money. i say something about barf all over the train bathroom and "heeeey baby" and sex in the train.
4am the train gets to san jose, i stand up, turn around just in time to see d lose his lunch (i'm thankfully not in the splash zone). this is a first. all of it! there is one cab and four hundred drunk people (i'm stone sober by now). i stick my head in the cabby's window, he's waiting for a specific person but calls someone for me. the guy makes d sit in the front (he has that look of about-to-puke about him) and i sit in the back with a 30" tv that he accepted as payment from the last fare. he's given up meat and alcohol and cigarettes for the new year. good luck with that dude, i hope it sticks! and voila, we're home. i shove d in the door, give him a bucket and go relieve my mom of baby duty (thanks ma!).
no hangover (for me) yesterday and the new year is looking bright. here's to shifting balances of power, nationally and in my personal life.
d and i drive up to burlingame to meet his friend bird. get there about nine and have a bite to eat at his house (and a couple drinks, boys: something fruity, me: pilsner), watch the ball drop in times square. we run for the 10.03 caltrain (me in stilettos and then barefoot) which as it turns out is now the 10.13 caltrain. (yo, we didn't need to run after all.) we arrive in the the city around 11 and take a $25 cab ride (four blocks? forty? and the cabby shouts that other drivers are 'fucking monkeys' the whole screeching way) to the campton place hotel and meet up with them terribles (d is good friends with their manager) who are about to play a show at vessel, across the alley and in the basement. the boys and the band beer up; i enjoy people watching from a 16th floor room that probably has the same nightly rate as my house for the whole month.
band manager's girlfriend takes us (down, across, down) to the club to get us in. bouncer makes us stand in the corner while they decide what we should have to pay ($50, which is half off). i come to. where the hell am i? i bet i'm the only one here with milk in my breasts... this is my first time in a club (yeah) and my first impression is that it is very loud and very crowded and very hot and that i'm seriously overdressed. and by that i mean not nearly enough of my pasty white flesh is showing. thank god i'm wearing skin tight jeans and stilettos. maybe some of these cool folks will think i'm bucking the system, not just out of the loop. d opens a tab and i think we are all champagne-faced in a matter of minutes. oh yeah and it's new year's eve and the countdown happens almost mid-song but they stop and *poof* it's 2008 and i'm kissing d and there's bird kissing some guy's girlfriend but no one seems to notice or particularly care. we're so smooshed together anyhow that it may have been a fricking accident for all anyone knows but i'm the only one considering it. d and i are dancing and then he's gone for 10 minutes (they've lost his credit card and id) and i'm dancing with bird and for a few minutes no one at all.
d comes back, just like he was never gone. i have to pee. the bathrooms in vessel are co-ed and there's a door monitor who shuttles one (and only one- no sex in these urinals folks, you can do that on the dance floor!) patron in at a time. she apparently doesn't care if you bring your champagne in there and inadvertently break a glass or two though. there's a tray by the sink with altoids and capri cigarettes and d grabs one and sticks it behind his ear to get his $50 worth (drinks aren't included in the cover, ha!). sometime near 12.45 we go outside: me because i'm hot and if i take off my last shirt i'll be arrested (or not), him because he's decided to be a woman smoker for the night...? when he spits on the street the bouncer says he can't go back in but yo, i'm cool which means that it's up to me to navigate back down and find bird so we can scram. why is every man in here wearing black!? and why do they all have the same ridiculous fuzzy seeming haircut?! i don't find bird but i find d's friend, the band manager. i scream at him and he gestures towards the bathroom. "MAYBE HE'S PEEEEEINGGG!" everyone looks pretty much the same and he isn't PEEEEEINGGG. but he is SMACK in front of me when i come back out of the bathroom. i grab him by the hand, he chugs his drink, and we head back upstairs to find d on the street corner.we all have to PEEEEEE so we head up to the hotel, 'cause there is something special about peeing on the 16th floor. as it turns out there IS something special about the complimentary soap and shampoos and body washes (molton brown smells lovely and looks great in my half painted bathroom). we catch a cab ($7.50 this time) to the train station, run again, find two seats on the top, d says he can't sit anyway. after about 15 minutes on the (not going anywhere) train (it's 1.30) i shout across the other side to a vaguely non-drunk guy: i thought this was the 1.30 train!? "yeah! they're waiting for it to fill up. it'll leave at 2." oy. d is asleep standing up. bird is trying to get me to take off my "it sucks to be me pin" but i love it and it isn't going anywhere. bird is trying to get me to give him my "honest opinion, do i need a new haircut?" honestly bird, darling, your hair is fine. d is still asleep standing up. bird is mumbling about the hotties at the club and trying to convince me we should crash at his place for a couple of hours. dude, my KIDS are waiting. a couple of hours is a long time. i'm taking this train all the way home, if it ever freaking leaves the station.
2.05, the train leaves. i've made friends with relatively sober najim. his friend is passed out and apparently so are mine. i tuck my purse under bird's armpit, tell him to guard it with your life and ask najim to show me where the bathroom is. he pushes through the crowd for me and waits until i'm done so we can find my seat again and no one harasses me. d is still asleep standing up. bird has my purse but is asleep too. the train takes twice as long as it typically does. najim keeps me company and i text with mike who is in vegas. we stop in burlingame, bird comes to and manages to stumble off. a couple stops later najim and his buddy justin are gone too. mike instructs me on how to catch a cab in san jose at 3.45 on new year's and says something about boobies and an old lady and losing a bit of money. i say something about barf all over the train bathroom and "heeeey baby" and sex in the train.4am the train gets to san jose, i stand up, turn around just in time to see d lose his lunch (i'm thankfully not in the splash zone). this is a first. all of it! there is one cab and four hundred drunk people (i'm stone sober by now). i stick my head in the cabby's window, he's waiting for a specific person but calls someone for me. the guy makes d sit in the front (he has that look of about-to-puke about him) and i sit in the back with a 30" tv that he accepted as payment from the last fare. he's given up meat and alcohol and cigarettes for the new year. good luck with that dude, i hope it sticks! and voila, we're home. i shove d in the door, give him a bucket and go relieve my mom of baby duty (thanks ma!).
no hangover (for me) yesterday and the new year is looking bright. here's to shifting balances of power, nationally and in my personal life.