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bessie_smithOkay, so I did take a nice, long (for me) vacation last week. It started last Friday, 8/19, when I flew up to the Bay Area for the San Francisco Lindy exchange. It's sad to say, but I'm doing less and less dancing near home, and more and more dancing out of town, simply because my knees hurt so often at home, especially after a long day where I've ridden the bike my dozen or so daily miles, and I've worked all day, and etc. When I go out of town, the knees don't get near the abuse they get at home, it's just easier.
Anyway, I flew into San Jose and was met at the airport by Larry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lrc, we went and had some surprisingly good pizza at a Chicago-style joint, we stopped at some friends of his to give them invites to his big annual party (which I didn't attend, I left for home the day before the party), then we headed out to The City for the first dance at the Russian Center, which we arrived at early and ended up volunteering to help put together the little exchange guides with info on the events and recommendations for places to eat. So, folks finally start trickling in and things get going. It was a pretty nice dance. The late night was at the Metronome Ballroom, where I spotted the orange-haired freak that turned out to be Titus, fresh from his stint in Iraq and enjoying his return to civilian life maybe a bit too much. And I though I made a radical change to my hair. It's cool though, it suits him and I'm glad to see him alive. Even though (he claimed) where he was deployed in Iraq was a "safe" area, he was still at risk and I was so glad to see him alive in all his orangeness. After the dance, we drove to Daly City, where we stayed with the_ogre and 7patches, who are utterly nice people who have generously let me and Larry stay with them for the last 2 exchanges. I did bring presents for everyone. A late birthday gift for the Ogre, an early birthday gift for Larry, and a gift just because for Patrice, though I'm not to sure if she really liked it. It was a scarf I found at an Indian shop.
Saturday afternoon there weren't any official exchange events to go to, so we chilled in Daly City, I won't say much about what we did, just that with all the physical activity cooked up by Larry and Aaron, I was really fucking tired for most of the evening. We get to Sweets in Oakland for the dance and I'm really out of it. I danced some, but ended up going upstairs, laying down on one of the benches and taking what was a much needed nap. Then they set up snacks in the upstairs and dancers pretty much descended on that like a plague of locust, which woke me up. I ate some (And kudos to whoever decided to set up fresh fruit. Thank you, thank you!!) danced a little more and we ended up leaving sometime after 3 a.m.
We get back to Daly City near 4 a.m. Larry, nutbar that he is, then got up early to go to Lindy in the Park on Sunday. As much as I like Lindy in the Park, I liked my comfy bed even more, so I stayed in it. I hung with Aaron, and had a very nice time. On the way back from lunch/dinner (lunner?) he pointed out what had to be one of the ugliest housing developments I've seen in ages on one of the hillsides. While I understand the practical necessity of building rowhouses in the city, why the hell did whoever dreamed up this development decide to put rowhouses on a hillside? And then, to add insult to injury, they also put up a big, ugly apartment building that was a prime example of everything that was wrong with 1960s architecture. Dear gods, it was hideous. I wish I had taken a picture to show just how hideous it was.
The Sunday evening dance was at a gallery called Cell Space. It was a really nice space, too. A movie screen was set up. When we got there, they were playing "Enter the Dragon" (sans audio), which proved to be a bit of a distraction. The one scene where Bruce Lee is fighting the big Grizzly Adams-type guy, and nails him in the nads elicited a loud chorus of "Oo-ooooh" from almost everyone in the room, whether they were dancing or not. I spent as much time watching the movie as I did dancing. Then, they popped in "Moulin Rouge", which I found to be a much less annoying movie with the sound turned off. One way or another, Baz Luhrmann movies annoy me, even the ones I like.
Overall, of the official exchange events, I enjoyed the dance at Cell Space the most. I liked the whole artist loft thing, the pictures in the front of the gallery, that someone decided to show "Enter the Dragon," which is a kickass movie even without the sound, that the DJ played a Björk song, and just the general overall vibe of the place was very, very cool, and I hope for the next exchange, they have another dance there.
Late night Sunday was at Serra Bowl, a fucking bowling alley. I don't do bowling for goodness sake, so, needless to say, I did not enjoy that choice at all. Larry did some bowling, and we ended up staying there til around 3 a.m., then driving all the way back to his house in Felton, near Santa Cruz. I don't remember what time we got in, just that it was late. We slept late. I then reacquainted myself with Larry's somewhat isolated lifestyle up there in the redwoods. There's no TV in his cave, so I missed a weeks worth of baseball, though, judging by the current AL West standings, maybe that was a good thing. He doesn't have the paper delivered, so there's no news unless you go out and get a paper or go online. That night (Monday) we went out for a Blues dance lesson, which I barely made it through because my left knee started to act up, but it was a pretty good class. We then went over to Swing Central in Redwood City, which was a really nice dance, not real crowded, and very enjoyable.
Much of my week in the redwoods was spent doing as close to absolutely nothing as possible. I was on vacation, after all. Pretty much just hung with Larry at his place with no TV down by the San Lorenzo River. I did make a half-assed effort to help him clean up for his party that Saturday. Actually, it was less than half-assed, half-assed would have required an effort I was quite unwilling to put forth. Overall, I think I was quite the pain in Larry's ass. He did do me a solid, though, by taking all the photos of me with my new hairdo. Thanks, dear.
What stands out from the stay in Felton was going to Ciao Bella for dinner, and visiting Felton's famous covered bridge. Next time I go up there, and if Larry has the time, I really should do the whole tourist thing. Check things out around Santa Cruz, talk Larry into another motorcycle ride along the scenic roads, some hiking, tour a local winery, that kinda thing.
I had offered to make jambalaya for Larry's party, and even went so far as to write out an approximate list of ingredients, but we never did get to the store to buy them, so I ended up not making any. Of course, If I had just reminded Larry about it, it would have gotten done, but I was having too much fun being lazy.
I left on Friday (an afternoon flight, further proof of my laziness) and came home to a heat wave. There was about a 20° difference in temperature between Felton and the San Fernando Valley. The change was an unpleasant one, to say the least, and I pretty much wish I was still up north, at least until September when it starts to cool off significantly down here.
-------------------
The thing about going to exchanges, then holing up in Felton is that it's easy to be out of touch with some of the news. Here are a few of the things that happened while I was out:
• Suge Knight got himself shot.
• Pat Robertson suggested the U.S. assassinate the president of Venezuela, then waffled about what he said, then finally apologized for advocating state sanctioned murder. How very Christian of him.
• The Angels almost gave away the lead in the AL West. They waited until I got home to finally finish the job.
• Randy Moss admits to something everyone already bloody knew.
• Phil Jackson, uhm, I mean the Lakers (hehe), signed a new point guard.
• A Nation of Islam minister accuses the LAPD of brutality, but, in what is a change from the usual kneejerk reaction, not a lot of people out here believe him.
• A California courts affirms gay couples parental status.
• Iraq finds out deadlines don't help when you're trying to write a constitution. (duh!)
• Gas prices went from crazy to insane. (well, no real surprise there)
• The French keep on trying to smear Lance Armstrong. (well, no real surprise there)
• Actor Brock Peters, probably best known for playing the wrongly accused Black defendant in "To Kill A Mockingbird" died. :(
• The mother of the boy who accused Michael Jackson of molesting him was charged with welfare fraud.
• PETA compared the horrors of slavery, lynching, child labor, and the terror campaign against Blacks during the civil rights movement to animal abuse - link - for a lousy online ad.
-------------------
Once I got home, I did laundry on Friday, and was able to catch last weeks episode of "Footballers' Wives" on BBC America (yay!). On Saturday, I finally went to the store and bought more memory for my laptop so I could install Adobe CS2 on it. I've done a little playing around with the new, improved, PhotoShop and all I can say about it is I likes it. :D
The hard drive I ordered showed up while I was gone, so I can finally get around to backing up the data on both my computers.
Anyway, I flew into San Jose and was met at the airport by Larry,
lrc, we went and had some surprisingly good pizza at a Chicago-style joint, we stopped at some friends of his to give them invites to his big annual party (which I didn't attend, I left for home the day before the party), then we headed out to The City for the first dance at the Russian Center, which we arrived at early and ended up volunteering to help put together the little exchange guides with info on the events and recommendations for places to eat. So, folks finally start trickling in and things get going. It was a pretty nice dance. The late night was at the Metronome Ballroom, where I spotted the orange-haired freak that turned out to be Titus, fresh from his stint in Iraq and enjoying his return to civilian life maybe a bit too much. And I though I made a radical change to my hair. It's cool though, it suits him and I'm glad to see him alive. Even though (he claimed) where he was deployed in Iraq was a "safe" area, he was still at risk and I was so glad to see him alive in all his orangeness. After the dance, we drove to Daly City, where we stayed with the_ogre and 7patches, who are utterly nice people who have generously let me and Larry stay with them for the last 2 exchanges. I did bring presents for everyone. A late birthday gift for the Ogre, an early birthday gift for Larry, and a gift just because for Patrice, though I'm not to sure if she really liked it. It was a scarf I found at an Indian shop.Saturday afternoon there weren't any official exchange events to go to, so we chilled in Daly City, I won't say much about what we did, just that with all the physical activity cooked up by Larry and Aaron, I was really fucking tired for most of the evening. We get to Sweets in Oakland for the dance and I'm really out of it. I danced some, but ended up going upstairs, laying down on one of the benches and taking what was a much needed nap. Then they set up snacks in the upstairs and dancers pretty much descended on that like a plague of locust, which woke me up. I ate some (And kudos to whoever decided to set up fresh fruit. Thank you, thank you!!) danced a little more and we ended up leaving sometime after 3 a.m.
We get back to Daly City near 4 a.m. Larry, nutbar that he is, then got up early to go to Lindy in the Park on Sunday. As much as I like Lindy in the Park, I liked my comfy bed even more, so I stayed in it. I hung with Aaron, and had a very nice time. On the way back from lunch/dinner (lunner?) he pointed out what had to be one of the ugliest housing developments I've seen in ages on one of the hillsides. While I understand the practical necessity of building rowhouses in the city, why the hell did whoever dreamed up this development decide to put rowhouses on a hillside? And then, to add insult to injury, they also put up a big, ugly apartment building that was a prime example of everything that was wrong with 1960s architecture. Dear gods, it was hideous. I wish I had taken a picture to show just how hideous it was.
The Sunday evening dance was at a gallery called Cell Space. It was a really nice space, too. A movie screen was set up. When we got there, they were playing "Enter the Dragon" (sans audio), which proved to be a bit of a distraction. The one scene where Bruce Lee is fighting the big Grizzly Adams-type guy, and nails him in the nads elicited a loud chorus of "Oo-ooooh" from almost everyone in the room, whether they were dancing or not. I spent as much time watching the movie as I did dancing. Then, they popped in "Moulin Rouge", which I found to be a much less annoying movie with the sound turned off. One way or another, Baz Luhrmann movies annoy me, even the ones I like.
Overall, of the official exchange events, I enjoyed the dance at Cell Space the most. I liked the whole artist loft thing, the pictures in the front of the gallery, that someone decided to show "Enter the Dragon," which is a kickass movie even without the sound, that the DJ played a Björk song, and just the general overall vibe of the place was very, very cool, and I hope for the next exchange, they have another dance there.
Late night Sunday was at Serra Bowl, a fucking bowling alley. I don't do bowling for goodness sake, so, needless to say, I did not enjoy that choice at all. Larry did some bowling, and we ended up staying there til around 3 a.m., then driving all the way back to his house in Felton, near Santa Cruz. I don't remember what time we got in, just that it was late. We slept late. I then reacquainted myself with Larry's somewhat isolated lifestyle up there in the redwoods. There's no TV in his cave, so I missed a weeks worth of baseball, though, judging by the current AL West standings, maybe that was a good thing. He doesn't have the paper delivered, so there's no news unless you go out and get a paper or go online. That night (Monday) we went out for a Blues dance lesson, which I barely made it through because my left knee started to act up, but it was a pretty good class. We then went over to Swing Central in Redwood City, which was a really nice dance, not real crowded, and very enjoyable.
Much of my week in the redwoods was spent doing as close to absolutely nothing as possible. I was on vacation, after all. Pretty much just hung with Larry at his place with no TV down by the San Lorenzo River. I did make a half-assed effort to help him clean up for his party that Saturday. Actually, it was less than half-assed, half-assed would have required an effort I was quite unwilling to put forth. Overall, I think I was quite the pain in Larry's ass. He did do me a solid, though, by taking all the photos of me with my new hairdo. Thanks, dear.
What stands out from the stay in Felton was going to Ciao Bella for dinner, and visiting Felton's famous covered bridge. Next time I go up there, and if Larry has the time, I really should do the whole tourist thing. Check things out around Santa Cruz, talk Larry into another motorcycle ride along the scenic roads, some hiking, tour a local winery, that kinda thing.
I had offered to make jambalaya for Larry's party, and even went so far as to write out an approximate list of ingredients, but we never did get to the store to buy them, so I ended up not making any. Of course, If I had just reminded Larry about it, it would have gotten done, but I was having too much fun being lazy.
I left on Friday (an afternoon flight, further proof of my laziness) and came home to a heat wave. There was about a 20° difference in temperature between Felton and the San Fernando Valley. The change was an unpleasant one, to say the least, and I pretty much wish I was still up north, at least until September when it starts to cool off significantly down here.
-------------------
The thing about going to exchanges, then holing up in Felton is that it's easy to be out of touch with some of the news. Here are a few of the things that happened while I was out:
• Suge Knight got himself shot.
• Pat Robertson suggested the U.S. assassinate the president of Venezuela, then waffled about what he said, then finally apologized for advocating state sanctioned murder. How very Christian of him.
• The Angels almost gave away the lead in the AL West. They waited until I got home to finally finish the job.
• Randy Moss admits to something everyone already bloody knew.
• Phil Jackson, uhm, I mean the Lakers (hehe), signed a new point guard.
• A Nation of Islam minister accuses the LAPD of brutality, but, in what is a change from the usual kneejerk reaction, not a lot of people out here believe him.
• A California courts affirms gay couples parental status.
• Iraq finds out deadlines don't help when you're trying to write a constitution. (duh!)
• Gas prices went from crazy to insane. (well, no real surprise there)
• The French keep on trying to smear Lance Armstrong. (well, no real surprise there)
• Actor Brock Peters, probably best known for playing the wrongly accused Black defendant in "To Kill A Mockingbird" died. :(
• The mother of the boy who accused Michael Jackson of molesting him was charged with welfare fraud.
• PETA compared the horrors of slavery, lynching, child labor, and the terror campaign against Blacks during the civil rights movement to animal abuse - link - for a lousy online ad.
-------------------
Once I got home, I did laundry on Friday, and was able to catch last weeks episode of "Footballers' Wives" on BBC America (yay!). On Saturday, I finally went to the store and bought more memory for my laptop so I could install Adobe CS2 on it. I've done a little playing around with the new, improved, PhotoShop and all I can say about it is I likes it. :D
The hard drive I ordered showed up while I was gone, so I can finally get around to backing up the data on both my computers.
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Date: 2005-08-30 06:39 am (UTC)And just because I'm that sort of a pedant, Ciao Bella was on Monday, Blues and Swing Central were on Tuesday.
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Date: 2005-08-30 07:50 am (UTC)