Wow. So yours truly has been absent for a hot minute. Not for any other reason than a mixture of writer's block, lack of time, and plain old laziness. I've also abstained from blogging due to the fact that I haven't uploaded any more pictures from "back in the day" and I feel a lot of that is necessary to continue on this little blog, tracking down all the crevices and nooks I sometimes forget about in my life that are of great relevance and importance to both who I am today and the main objective of this blog. I will sort through some more photos probably not this week, as I am preparing to fly on an airplane and land in the sunny side of California to visit some friends and meet some family, but I will elaborate more on that a little later into this entry (or next), but next.
There's so much to blog about, I'm even unsure where to begin. I guess there's always the beginning, so I will brief upon my weekend and then later on write up some more entries on random stuff I want to post. Also note the layout of the blog has been changed because the last template kinda sucked and was highly aesthetically unpleasing. To me anyhow, and in the grand scheme of things, it is only I that really matters.
I will begin with Friday, where all fun usually originates. It all started with my amazingly delicious breakfast of Cream of Wheat which due my extreme gracefulness, ended up on my crotch, making it nearly impossible to circulate the work place without getting laughed at or having to wear my coat to cover it up.
[My life is over]
My day continued on smoothly after that little bump with an action-packed lunch hour full of Indian food at Naan & Beyond and Frogs! at the National Geographic Explorer Museum Had a most delicious Tandoori Chicken Tikka and about 3 lbs. of Veggie Samosas (yum!) - almost tempted to go back today for more.
[more pictures here]
Thanks to an awesome friend, I was able to score a ticket at the very, very, very last minute to the BJ Novak show at GW's Lisner auditorium. Which in my opinion was fantastic, despite the fact of a few jokes with no punchline by BJ (ie. shy puppet), over all the set was short but sweet and incredibly hilarious and ingeniously elaborate as this:
His opening act, Dan Mintz, was also pretty ridiculous and although offensively funny at times, his whole routine can best be depicted in these following 4 minutes of video. "Are you going to rape me?" rofl.
Shortly thereafter, drinks ensued at the Black Cat preceded by drinks at some swanky joint about 3 doors down where I felt severely under-dressed in my gym gear. Drinks went down smoothly. So smooth, in fact, that we ended up at the Red Derby (not before stopping for some slices at the pizza [1] joint next to the Cat, where apparently speaking Spanish to Spanish speakers is looked down upon by certain people) for some more $2 beers and an iPod battle which I won, despite the fact that the drunk bartender (not Patrick, GUE <3's Patrick) insisted on playing some chick's emo ass, depressing shit in hopes of, well in hopes of whatever. Time to go home.
Wait! But we're hungry!! Jumbo Slice time! [2]
Eventually I made my way home to catch some Z's in hopes that I would wake up in time to make my 9am art class. Not only did I show up, but I was the star of the class with a sweet portrait I did of Beethoven. (The following was taken with my phone, but I will try and get a better shot of it on here tonight).
[Charcoal on Watercolor with Eraser]
I had to head home to bathe out of the caked on charcoal and grab my photo taking equipment for a fun-filled afternoon at the Kennedy Center for the Japan! Culture + Hyperculture event. Which was an interactive display of Japan's most exciting and attention grabbing (at least if you have the attention span of a flea like myself) technologies and culture phenomenons, such as manga and gundam model toy collections.
[More pictures here]
To be seen and played with were also really sick art installations and live robots, including Honda's ASIMO, which is apparently the most advanced humanoid robot to date. Although ASIMO's functions are pretty basic, and his highlights were things such as kicking a soccer ball and climbing some stairs, it is incredibly exciting to think that at some point in the near future, maybe even in my lifetime, people will own robots like they own dogs and cats. The fact that the Ghost in this Shell sounded like Akira's voice made me want to kidnap him and take him home with me.
After discovering what the future looks like, we headed for some grub to Axis Bar & Grill on the U street corridor. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the food and the place. The locale was very nice, it reminded me of an old house, with a second floor, and hollow wood steps leading to the loft-like upstairs section. It had a mod bar with a lot of steel cable railings and exposed brick.
The place had a cozy feeling. It would have probably also had a great atmosphere had it not been for the diva queen of a waiter we had, who seemed displeased at our presence. Not to mention he had no idea what went on in our table, he seriously stopped by to ask how are drinks were, a second after they had been dropped off. Who asks that? "Um, hi. How are your drinks?" Whatever.
Then the food comes out. Our motley choices due to the nature of the menu arrived. Veggie Kabob. Beef Kabob. Chicken and Penne Pasta. One second after the food is placed on our table by someone else, who I am told was the owner, he jumps back at us, "How's everything?" dude. Seriously. Go away. Let us try everything, THEN come back and ask. Somewhat reasonably priced. Taste: Mediocre at best. Nothing out of the ordinary. I mean with the the server's attitude you would have sworn we were eating at a fancy schmansy restaurant. which was clearly not the case. If anything gave that away was the way he would fly up and down the stairs like a little kid racing down for presents on Christmas morning. Needless to say I was displeased and will probably not be going back.
Moving on. After this we regrouped for a quick killing of a six pack in
Wait, but we're hungry. Jumbo Slice disco time! [3]
Sunday was spent picking up the scattered pieces of my brain and piecing together what little I remembered from what appeared to be a fun night on 14th Street. In a rage of starvation, and with every ounce of my strength trying to avoid eating left over Jumbo Slice pizza from the night before, I raided the bare desert of a pantry and cooked up some pseudo-Mexican fare reminiscent of the the younger years, I sometimes refer to as "the faded years". First, as an appetizer, Flour Quesadillas with Spinach and Turkey. Followed by a delicious entree dish of Chilaquiles composed of left over, old tortilla chips, a can of tomato sauce, dehydrated onion flakes, a pound of shredded cheese, and a few dollips of questionable sour cream to hide any flavors which we may not take a liking to. Surprisingly, I've had worst food at sit down restaurants and it was a hit.
Through all this I'm still a Virginia cut-out temporarily transplanted in DC. The winds outside and the nook I've molded into the couch severely deter me from any type of sudden movement. How to avoid life for just another hour or ten.
Step 1: Die Hard 2 - fuck yes. Riding snowmobiles through Dulles, Virginia, because it just snows THAT much here, and avoiding solving a very easily fixed security threat by NOT going to the Wal-Mart that is ten minutes away from the airport to purchase some lanterns to light the runways and prevent a million deaths. So good.
Step 2: Firefly - As much as possible. I'd heard SO much of this series, yet didn't pay much attention to it for whatever reason. Now I'm addicted. It's like watching a live action Cowboy Bebop.
With Heroes being off the air (for now at least), I have nothing to fill my little brain with the impossible. Can't wait to complete this series, short-lived as it may have been, and hoping to follow suit with the feature film, Serenity.
Eventually, I made my trek home where I was greeted with pizza [4] for dinner and a warm bed to forget all my troubles away in, but not before packing all the left over pizza [5] to take to work with me for lunch on Monday.
That's a hell of a lot of pizza.
