Detailed account of my gay ol time in aspen soon to come.
Okay, I'm lazy, and have been far too busy hanging with visiting guests, therefore you will have to enjoy Christopher's lovely and detailed account of our trip in Aspen.
Click here.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
january|2008
Now that I have recapped last year, my goal for this year is to stay more proactive about writing/blogging. I realized I'm more prone to write something everyday or every other day by using a computer, sadly, than writing in a journal. It's just faster.
Okay, so here I go again.
The new year started out in austin, tx for me. To be specific, I woke up at 8am at buck's house, still in my outfit from the night before. I woke up to my alarm, got up and walked into the kitchen, cracked open a can of pop and proceeded to chug it. I crushed the icy-cold generic cola and boy did it hit the spot. From there I took my lenses out, brushed my teeth and went back to sleep for an hour more or so. The remainder of the day was spent cold chilling. We watched movies, ate pizza, played games, drank mimosas, and left to do some thrift-store shopping. We got fried chicken and some more booze and came back for another mini new years celebration.
Buck continued to pump out innovative pizzas while more peeps came over and we all gathered around and watched alvin and the chipmunks, belive it or not. I think it started out as a joke but quickly turned into something everyone sorta wanted to watch merely because it was so ridiculous. Or whatever!
The next morning, bright and early, I was on a plane back to LA and back to work, rockstar style. Straight from the airport and back to work. Sort of depressing but whatever! The highlight of the flight back was that sandra bullock and her husband jesse james were on my flight. Oh boy! One of my few celebrity sightings and what a treat. Or whatever!
So I was back in LA, it was 2008, and the party was still not over. The next day (1/3) shelley briggs was coming into town, followed by buck and tamra (as they were driving from austin the day i left), and tammy kim! Whew! Shelley flew into long beach on thursday night. Stella and I decided to head down and surprise her while starr and sam went to pick her up. So stella picks me up from my house, coffees in hand, and we head down to the lbc. So we're both so stoked and so amped and jacked from the coffees that we ended up taking a roundabout way down there. Arriving at starr and sam's house with ample time before the rest of the gang does, we decide we should really surprise them by hiding. So there we are, hiding behind and beneath their porch, twitching from excessive amounts of espresso, thinking every little rustle and voice is them. We were even planning our surprise tactic. 1, 2, 3, SURPRISE....."on three, or after three?" "After three....1....2....3...then SURPRISE!" So redonkulous, but so much fun! We were even thrown off and startled by a neighbor's cat and a possum. I tried my very best to shoo away the possum with my shrieking alienesque sound, but to no avail.
Finally, when they arrived we went to get tacos, burritos and beer and then headed back for some porch chilling. We tested out Sam's new porch bottle opener and kicked it. Erin Foley came over and joined the party which consisted of conversations about high school music.
The next day after work was simply amazing. Instead of going into full detail, because you really had to be there, I will give a brief summation. Stella, starr, sam, stevie, shelley and myself went to charlie o's bar in downtown la for the showing of Point Break Live. Yep, that's right! For any point break fans, I seriously suggest you go to this, if you haven't done so already. It's totally hilarious, high-energy, and very interactive. It's basically a bunch of theater kids reenacting the entire movie....with their own goofy embellisments. It's a riot! The best part of the entire evening is that with each performance, they audition members of the audience to play the role of kean reeve's character, jonny utah! I was propelled up there by my group and I made it to the final round, but alas, did not make the final cut. I'm glad too! I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. So, with that said, go see it if it's playing in a city near you. It's $20 but definitely worth every penny.
After point break live, we went to the warehouse space for a bit. I passed out, some dude wanted to take a picture of me passed out, shelley stepped in. From there we went back to stevie's crib and then over to his brother mike and his wife nikki's house. She was such a gracious host and stuffed our bellies with tons of yummy treats...which were much needed.
The next morning stella had to work so we grabbed breakfast at cafe tropical in silverlake. Great breakfast spot...cheap...good...fast..and they've got crack-coffee. Stella let shelley and i borrow the car while she was at work, thankfully! Shelley and i spent the day running around, went to the thrift store, got more coffee at groundworks, my new favorite coffee spot, and listend to a lot of ELO.
Erin foley, buck, tamra and bird were on there respective ways up as well. Once they arrived we all sorta just chilled and caught up. Buck and tamra went to hang w/tam's father and erin, shelley, bird and i went for a walk at elysian park in echo park. It's very close to downtown and is quite a superb little hike. It's very easy and it has some affording views of downtown la and south pasadena. It's also green and refreshing. Particularly on this day because we had had a lot of rain and because of this it had washed away all the smog and filth in the air.
Later that night I had planned a very large dinner at casa bianca in eagle rock. The party was huge: buck, tamra, shelley, stella, starr, liza, erin, joel, lindsay, and tammy kim. We gorged ourselves with pizza, salad and very cheap but delicious wine. I highly suggest hitting up this spot in ever in la, it's a must. It's cheap, delicious and a very popular spot. After dinner, we ventured out in the continually hideous wet weather to the scene, a bar that stevie was dj-ing at. We busted some moves for a bit and buck's cousin jackson offered some very nerdy and whimsical "white boy" steps.
Buck, tamra and i returned to the adelphia to find byrd had chewed on one of my shoes and peed on the floor in my bathroom. I couldn't be bad! If you've ever met byrd, you'd understand. We topped of the night by watching clue and passing out. The next morning we headed to home for brunch, a personal fav thanks to caroline payne....holla! Next we headed to little tokyo and the MOCA to view the murakami exhibit. I had been interested in seeing this for some time. I really didn't know anything about the artist, but after viewing the show I think I felt like I was on drugs. A really exciting and interesting trip of some sorts. I felt like I was in super mario brothers. The vibrant and rich colors, the sculptures of mushrooms and crazy beings of all sorts. I'm not a very clairvoyant or articulate individual but I think I was mostly impressed with his larger paintings in which he painted a face of a creature, sanded it down, repainted it, and then sanded it again and again. I loved the texture it created, as opposed to many of his other works that were so very perfect in execution and with nothing "off" so to speak. I also loved the wallpapers he created. A very effective technique to induce euphoria or insanity. My favorite piece was his sculpture/transformer at the very end, or beginning, of the exhibit. It was a woman in mid-air, and in three morphs, transforms into a jet...with all her body parts utilized as some facet of the machine.
Following the exhibit we got some sake and heade back to my apartment to warm up. Soon after, buck and tamra headed out. Erin and I continued watching clue and then headed to house of babes for sunday potluck, which happened to be pizza that night! I couldn't escape the italian pie! The lesbos and erin watched the L-Word while christopher and I played scrabble, and talked about how fun our upcoming ski trip to aspen was going to be.
Monday after work I decided to head back down to long beach to hang with shelley one more night before she headed back to rva. I spent the night hangin' with the gals and we ended up watching splash and falling asleep. The next morning stella and i bid farewell to shelley and starr, got coffee from portfolios, and headed back to la. Portfolios is a tight coffee shop. I spent a good deal of time there looking for work when I was in long beach. It's also on a street that has a string of vintage shops and an independent theater.
The remainder of the week I spent preparing for my trip to new york and aspen. I was headed to new york for three days to attend sarah and chopper's wedding and from there to aspen for gay ski week with patrick and christopher. On that wednesday, a photographer friend of a friend, gordon stettinius, was in town and we decided to meet up and go bowling at shatto 39 lanes in koreatown. This is the only bowling alley in la that i've actually bowled at. It's cheap, the booze is cheap, and it's hardly ever crowded. Definitely the jam! Plus, it was good to see gordon and hang with cmo and his friend shane.
I left friday night on the redeye flight after eating dinner with deb, koren, cmo, and liza in venice. Thanfully, cmo payed for my dinner so liza and i could get going. I was fortunate enough to actually sleep on the flight over. Usually I'm never so lucky. I think the two glasses of wine at dinner definitely helped.
I landed in brooklyn around 8am and after riding the airport shuttle in the wrong direction, followed by taking the wrong subway, I finally arrived at angela's apartment in willamsburg around 10:30. We had some jasmine tea and then headed out for some brunch at a tea station close by. From there we headed to soho for chinese massages and a bit of shopping. I then broke away from angela and ventured around for a bit and popped into the h&m. Surely enough, who do i see, one of this season's former contestants from project runway, jack.
My next step was to rendevous with an old high school friend, tricia harbin. I met up with tricia and her mother at the bar of the marriott hotel for a drink. Afterwards, the two of us took a very brisk walk along the promenade that offered stunning nightime views of manhattan as well as the statue of liberty. It really was quite a sight. As we meandered along the promenade, we were dumped out at the foot of the brooklyn bridge. Before we decided to walk on the bridge we popped into grimaldi's pizza for a steaming hot pie. Sarah was right to suggest this spot, hands down some of the greatest 'za around. Nothing like more than just a slice to satisfy our ny pizza yearning.
So after scarfing down our pizza we started the walk on the bridge. I've never had the opportunity to do this walk and I so thrilled I did on this trip. The night was definitely very cold, esp. for this la boy now, but not as cold as it could have been....thank goodness! While walking on the bridge i quickly discovered that i got vertigo while peering through the cracks of wood on the bridge. I tried my best to see how long i could look down but it would only last for about 7 seconds. It was exillerating and frightening all at once.
Later in the evening we went to meet up with sarah and chopper at a bar very close to the brooklyn bridge, in dumbo. After getting nice and loose, tricia and i headed to chelsea to see if we could go dancing. I think we tried to get into this one gay bar called splash...or splish.....anyway, it was totally lame. It would have costed us each $25 bucks for the cover. Definitley not my style. Instead, we popped over to this lounge and continued our evening, which included some drunk fool trying to shove his tongue down my throat simply because I complimented him on his shirt. A shirt that had the virginia insignia from uva on it. Naturally being from va I ask where he's from, to which he retorts with his tongue on my face, trying to find my throat. Bummer for me!
Anyway, next thing we know it's 4am and we're eating more pizza and then taking a car back to our respective resting spots. I get in at 5 and thankfully angela was such a good sport about letting me in. Whew! I drunkenly sleep till noon, call raimy and make plans to meet up with her and her family before the wedding to do brunch. I sort through my clothes and outfit for the wedding to only find that my forgetful, dumb-ass left my black slacks for the wedding in my apartment back in la. Yeah, no shit! I panicly call raimy on where i can buy a replacement pair of slacks. Before i know it i'm on the metro and heading back to soho to the club monaco. I buy a $140 pair of slacks, only to be returned the next day ;), and head back into brooklyn......whew...disaster averted.
Arriving at la casa de rosenduft, i was quickly brought food, drink, and multiple adult beverages. It was so very comforting, and raimy was so on point with her adlibs of her family, especially her mother. To the tee! Unbelievable! I couldn't believe it. Her entire family was very warm and I got a great sense of what a loving family she has come from. After eating, there was no time to spare, I had to get ready for the wedding. I scrambled to clean myself up in raimy's brother's room and then bid raimy and all the rosendufts adieu and hopped into a car and headed to the brooklyn navy yard to meet with hatnim lee for the wedding. Hatnim was wearing this very cute, black and white, puffy dress. She looked dazzling, especially with her mustard yellow short peacoat to accent it.
The wedding ceremony was absolutely beautiful. First off, the location was stunning. It was at the brooklyn navy yard at steiner studios, therefore the view was breathtaking. You had the brooklyn and/or manhattan bridges and lower manhattan in sight. As dusk approached on the overcast day, the scene had a dramatic appeal to it. Being that this was my first jewish wedding, I had no idea what to expect. As sarah came down the aisle and took her place under the chupah with chopper, my heart was sinking. It really was such a joy to see. I'm such a sap for romance, cutesy things, and falling in love...blah...blah...blah...all that good stuff.
I think the most powerful moment was when the rabbi expressed sarah and chopper's reason for having their rings passed around the chupah, so that it may be filled with all the love that was there in the room as well as by the love of those that could not be there...chopper's father, sarah's grandfather, and jonny z. My heart nearly collapsed with joy and sadness. It was so very touching and I truly felt jonny was definitely somewhere close.
And then......MUZZLETOFF! The partitions dividing the rest of room were brought down and an ocean of champagne was being passed around. There was an incredible hours de vour spread in the center island and the party had begun! Thinking this was the only food coming our way, I stuffed myself like a girl before puberty. Only to find in no time at all that we were ushered upstairs for our four-course meal, surrounded by the dancefloor and even greater breathtaking views of old new york. The entire setting was perfect. The night was divided with dancing, eating, more dancing, speeches, entertaining the bride and groom, and then more dancing. A truly wonderful evening. The last song played was "Here comes your man" by the Pixies. Absolutely perfect. To top things off, hot chocolate and hostess cupcakes were offered to us as we left. Man, those kids know how to throw a party! Congrats to sarah and chopper again!
That night I stayed over at hatnim's apartment. The next morning i was dropped back off at angela's. I made plans to hang out with raimy during the day, since her flight had been cancelled for fear of snow. I was pleased to have her stay b/c i really didn't have any plans for the day. I headed to the bedford stop to get a ny bagel and coffee. Along the way i bump into alison from florida, whom i was gonna see later that night for her birthday, so i found it to be a very pleasant surprise. I meet up with raimy in soho a bit later in the day and then we just spend the afternoon walking, talking, and drinking. We visited many of her old stomping grounds. We ventured into the oldest bar in new york, mcsorley's, where they only offer light and dark beer....and you get two of them for super cheap.
We ventured further into the east village, slowly getting more and more inebriated. I stopped to get a dog and raimy, as quick witted as she is, recognized where we were at and knew of a secret martini bar that was adjoined to the hot dog shop. She inquired about the bar to the server and she secretly put us hip to the game that it opens at 6pm. After a drink or two in between, we came back this clandestine martini bar. The way it works is you walk into this phone booth, pick up the phone, let it ring, and within a short time a server lets you into the dimly lit, cozy bar. I barely remember what we ordered, but I know raimy had some bacon-infused, smokey martini and i had a sweet and sour drink that had traces of a absolutely scrumptious brandy. Don't ask me, ask the bartenders, they are definitely the masters. They were very helpful in helping us decide what we wanted.
The remainder of the evening was spent with raimy, amy, and their dear friends. Raimy had to depart so amy and i carried on and headed to alison's b-day party. Jeff from florida had just arrived that day and we spent the night dancing and drinking and ushering in alison's birthday at midnight. Before i knew it the time was 2am and amy and i high-tailed it outta there. My flight was at 8am so i had to catch a car by 5:45am. I don't why i decided to even lie down. On top of that I don't know how i managed to get up. Getting to the airport with ample time, I walked around like a zombie and boarded my plane. Next thing i know, i'm in dallas.
Feeling like complete dogshit, i deboard my flight, grab some food in dallas and notice an earlier flight to denver, leaving 2.5 hours before my intended flight. I quickly get permission to hop on this flight and i'm sound asleep and en route to denver. I couldn't belive my luck; i never sleep that much on any of the flights i take.
Now i'm in denver, waiting for christopher to arrive so we can head up (pun intended) to aspen for gay ski week. Once we get the rental car sorted out and our fancy-pants suv with beatrice (our navigational system), we hit route 70 west. The landscape was too crucial. It had been so long since i had seen a wintry setting, oustide of movies and photographs. I've essentially been trapped in a perpetual summer, of sorts, for about a year and a half at this point. As we traversed the windy roads through the mountains, the temperature dropped and the sun was setting. The closer we got to aspen, the colder it got and precipitation began to fall. About 30 miles outside of aspen, the snow was really coming down. Luckily we knew we were near. At one point we had to open up our sunroof to let nature's confetti fall upon us.
Within half an hour or so, cmo and i arrived in aspen.
Okay, so here I go again.
The new year started out in austin, tx for me. To be specific, I woke up at 8am at buck's house, still in my outfit from the night before. I woke up to my alarm, got up and walked into the kitchen, cracked open a can of pop and proceeded to chug it. I crushed the icy-cold generic cola and boy did it hit the spot. From there I took my lenses out, brushed my teeth and went back to sleep for an hour more or so. The remainder of the day was spent cold chilling. We watched movies, ate pizza, played games, drank mimosas, and left to do some thrift-store shopping. We got fried chicken and some more booze and came back for another mini new years celebration.
Buck continued to pump out innovative pizzas while more peeps came over and we all gathered around and watched alvin and the chipmunks, belive it or not. I think it started out as a joke but quickly turned into something everyone sorta wanted to watch merely because it was so ridiculous. Or whatever!
The next morning, bright and early, I was on a plane back to LA and back to work, rockstar style. Straight from the airport and back to work. Sort of depressing but whatever! The highlight of the flight back was that sandra bullock and her husband jesse james were on my flight. Oh boy! One of my few celebrity sightings and what a treat. Or whatever!
So I was back in LA, it was 2008, and the party was still not over. The next day (1/3) shelley briggs was coming into town, followed by buck and tamra (as they were driving from austin the day i left), and tammy kim! Whew! Shelley flew into long beach on thursday night. Stella and I decided to head down and surprise her while starr and sam went to pick her up. So stella picks me up from my house, coffees in hand, and we head down to the lbc. So we're both so stoked and so amped and jacked from the coffees that we ended up taking a roundabout way down there. Arriving at starr and sam's house with ample time before the rest of the gang does, we decide we should really surprise them by hiding. So there we are, hiding behind and beneath their porch, twitching from excessive amounts of espresso, thinking every little rustle and voice is them. We were even planning our surprise tactic. 1, 2, 3, SURPRISE....."on three, or after three?" "After three....1....2....3...then SURPRISE!" So redonkulous, but so much fun! We were even thrown off and startled by a neighbor's cat and a possum. I tried my very best to shoo away the possum with my shrieking alienesque sound, but to no avail.
Finally, when they arrived we went to get tacos, burritos and beer and then headed back for some porch chilling. We tested out Sam's new porch bottle opener and kicked it. Erin Foley came over and joined the party which consisted of conversations about high school music.
The next day after work was simply amazing. Instead of going into full detail, because you really had to be there, I will give a brief summation. Stella, starr, sam, stevie, shelley and myself went to charlie o's bar in downtown la for the showing of Point Break Live. Yep, that's right! For any point break fans, I seriously suggest you go to this, if you haven't done so already. It's totally hilarious, high-energy, and very interactive. It's basically a bunch of theater kids reenacting the entire movie....with their own goofy embellisments. It's a riot! The best part of the entire evening is that with each performance, they audition members of the audience to play the role of kean reeve's character, jonny utah! I was propelled up there by my group and I made it to the final round, but alas, did not make the final cut. I'm glad too! I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. So, with that said, go see it if it's playing in a city near you. It's $20 but definitely worth every penny.
After point break live, we went to the warehouse space for a bit. I passed out, some dude wanted to take a picture of me passed out, shelley stepped in. From there we went back to stevie's crib and then over to his brother mike and his wife nikki's house. She was such a gracious host and stuffed our bellies with tons of yummy treats...which were much needed.
The next morning stella had to work so we grabbed breakfast at cafe tropical in silverlake. Great breakfast spot...cheap...good...fast..and they've got crack-coffee. Stella let shelley and i borrow the car while she was at work, thankfully! Shelley and i spent the day running around, went to the thrift store, got more coffee at groundworks, my new favorite coffee spot, and listend to a lot of ELO.
Erin foley, buck, tamra and bird were on there respective ways up as well. Once they arrived we all sorta just chilled and caught up. Buck and tamra went to hang w/tam's father and erin, shelley, bird and i went for a walk at elysian park in echo park. It's very close to downtown and is quite a superb little hike. It's very easy and it has some affording views of downtown la and south pasadena. It's also green and refreshing. Particularly on this day because we had had a lot of rain and because of this it had washed away all the smog and filth in the air.
Later that night I had planned a very large dinner at casa bianca in eagle rock. The party was huge: buck, tamra, shelley, stella, starr, liza, erin, joel, lindsay, and tammy kim. We gorged ourselves with pizza, salad and very cheap but delicious wine. I highly suggest hitting up this spot in ever in la, it's a must. It's cheap, delicious and a very popular spot. After dinner, we ventured out in the continually hideous wet weather to the scene, a bar that stevie was dj-ing at. We busted some moves for a bit and buck's cousin jackson offered some very nerdy and whimsical "white boy" steps.
Buck, tamra and i returned to the adelphia to find byrd had chewed on one of my shoes and peed on the floor in my bathroom. I couldn't be bad! If you've ever met byrd, you'd understand. We topped of the night by watching clue and passing out. The next morning we headed to home for brunch, a personal fav thanks to caroline payne....holla! Next we headed to little tokyo and the MOCA to view the murakami exhibit. I had been interested in seeing this for some time. I really didn't know anything about the artist, but after viewing the show I think I felt like I was on drugs. A really exciting and interesting trip of some sorts. I felt like I was in super mario brothers. The vibrant and rich colors, the sculptures of mushrooms and crazy beings of all sorts. I'm not a very clairvoyant or articulate individual but I think I was mostly impressed with his larger paintings in which he painted a face of a creature, sanded it down, repainted it, and then sanded it again and again. I loved the texture it created, as opposed to many of his other works that were so very perfect in execution and with nothing "off" so to speak. I also loved the wallpapers he created. A very effective technique to induce euphoria or insanity. My favorite piece was his sculpture/transformer at the very end, or beginning, of the exhibit. It was a woman in mid-air, and in three morphs, transforms into a jet...with all her body parts utilized as some facet of the machine.
Following the exhibit we got some sake and heade back to my apartment to warm up. Soon after, buck and tamra headed out. Erin and I continued watching clue and then headed to house of babes for sunday potluck, which happened to be pizza that night! I couldn't escape the italian pie! The lesbos and erin watched the L-Word while christopher and I played scrabble, and talked about how fun our upcoming ski trip to aspen was going to be.
Monday after work I decided to head back down to long beach to hang with shelley one more night before she headed back to rva. I spent the night hangin' with the gals and we ended up watching splash and falling asleep. The next morning stella and i bid farewell to shelley and starr, got coffee from portfolios, and headed back to la. Portfolios is a tight coffee shop. I spent a good deal of time there looking for work when I was in long beach. It's also on a street that has a string of vintage shops and an independent theater.
The remainder of the week I spent preparing for my trip to new york and aspen. I was headed to new york for three days to attend sarah and chopper's wedding and from there to aspen for gay ski week with patrick and christopher. On that wednesday, a photographer friend of a friend, gordon stettinius, was in town and we decided to meet up and go bowling at shatto 39 lanes in koreatown. This is the only bowling alley in la that i've actually bowled at. It's cheap, the booze is cheap, and it's hardly ever crowded. Definitely the jam! Plus, it was good to see gordon and hang with cmo and his friend shane.
I left friday night on the redeye flight after eating dinner with deb, koren, cmo, and liza in venice. Thanfully, cmo payed for my dinner so liza and i could get going. I was fortunate enough to actually sleep on the flight over. Usually I'm never so lucky. I think the two glasses of wine at dinner definitely helped.
I landed in brooklyn around 8am and after riding the airport shuttle in the wrong direction, followed by taking the wrong subway, I finally arrived at angela's apartment in willamsburg around 10:30. We had some jasmine tea and then headed out for some brunch at a tea station close by. From there we headed to soho for chinese massages and a bit of shopping. I then broke away from angela and ventured around for a bit and popped into the h&m. Surely enough, who do i see, one of this season's former contestants from project runway, jack.
My next step was to rendevous with an old high school friend, tricia harbin. I met up with tricia and her mother at the bar of the marriott hotel for a drink. Afterwards, the two of us took a very brisk walk along the promenade that offered stunning nightime views of manhattan as well as the statue of liberty. It really was quite a sight. As we meandered along the promenade, we were dumped out at the foot of the brooklyn bridge. Before we decided to walk on the bridge we popped into grimaldi's pizza for a steaming hot pie. Sarah was right to suggest this spot, hands down some of the greatest 'za around. Nothing like more than just a slice to satisfy our ny pizza yearning.
So after scarfing down our pizza we started the walk on the bridge. I've never had the opportunity to do this walk and I so thrilled I did on this trip. The night was definitely very cold, esp. for this la boy now, but not as cold as it could have been....thank goodness! While walking on the bridge i quickly discovered that i got vertigo while peering through the cracks of wood on the bridge. I tried my best to see how long i could look down but it would only last for about 7 seconds. It was exillerating and frightening all at once.
Later in the evening we went to meet up with sarah and chopper at a bar very close to the brooklyn bridge, in dumbo. After getting nice and loose, tricia and i headed to chelsea to see if we could go dancing. I think we tried to get into this one gay bar called splash...or splish.....anyway, it was totally lame. It would have costed us each $25 bucks for the cover. Definitley not my style. Instead, we popped over to this lounge and continued our evening, which included some drunk fool trying to shove his tongue down my throat simply because I complimented him on his shirt. A shirt that had the virginia insignia from uva on it. Naturally being from va I ask where he's from, to which he retorts with his tongue on my face, trying to find my throat. Bummer for me!
Anyway, next thing we know it's 4am and we're eating more pizza and then taking a car back to our respective resting spots. I get in at 5 and thankfully angela was such a good sport about letting me in. Whew! I drunkenly sleep till noon, call raimy and make plans to meet up with her and her family before the wedding to do brunch. I sort through my clothes and outfit for the wedding to only find that my forgetful, dumb-ass left my black slacks for the wedding in my apartment back in la. Yeah, no shit! I panicly call raimy on where i can buy a replacement pair of slacks. Before i know it i'm on the metro and heading back to soho to the club monaco. I buy a $140 pair of slacks, only to be returned the next day ;), and head back into brooklyn......whew...disaster averted.
Arriving at la casa de rosenduft, i was quickly brought food, drink, and multiple adult beverages. It was so very comforting, and raimy was so on point with her adlibs of her family, especially her mother. To the tee! Unbelievable! I couldn't believe it. Her entire family was very warm and I got a great sense of what a loving family she has come from. After eating, there was no time to spare, I had to get ready for the wedding. I scrambled to clean myself up in raimy's brother's room and then bid raimy and all the rosendufts adieu and hopped into a car and headed to the brooklyn navy yard to meet with hatnim lee for the wedding. Hatnim was wearing this very cute, black and white, puffy dress. She looked dazzling, especially with her mustard yellow short peacoat to accent it.
The wedding ceremony was absolutely beautiful. First off, the location was stunning. It was at the brooklyn navy yard at steiner studios, therefore the view was breathtaking. You had the brooklyn and/or manhattan bridges and lower manhattan in sight. As dusk approached on the overcast day, the scene had a dramatic appeal to it. Being that this was my first jewish wedding, I had no idea what to expect. As sarah came down the aisle and took her place under the chupah with chopper, my heart was sinking. It really was such a joy to see. I'm such a sap for romance, cutesy things, and falling in love...blah...blah...blah...all that good stuff.
I think the most powerful moment was when the rabbi expressed sarah and chopper's reason for having their rings passed around the chupah, so that it may be filled with all the love that was there in the room as well as by the love of those that could not be there...chopper's father, sarah's grandfather, and jonny z. My heart nearly collapsed with joy and sadness. It was so very touching and I truly felt jonny was definitely somewhere close.
And then......MUZZLETOFF! The partitions dividing the rest of room were brought down and an ocean of champagne was being passed around. There was an incredible hours de vour spread in the center island and the party had begun! Thinking this was the only food coming our way, I stuffed myself like a girl before puberty. Only to find in no time at all that we were ushered upstairs for our four-course meal, surrounded by the dancefloor and even greater breathtaking views of old new york. The entire setting was perfect. The night was divided with dancing, eating, more dancing, speeches, entertaining the bride and groom, and then more dancing. A truly wonderful evening. The last song played was "Here comes your man" by the Pixies. Absolutely perfect. To top things off, hot chocolate and hostess cupcakes were offered to us as we left. Man, those kids know how to throw a party! Congrats to sarah and chopper again!
That night I stayed over at hatnim's apartment. The next morning i was dropped back off at angela's. I made plans to hang out with raimy during the day, since her flight had been cancelled for fear of snow. I was pleased to have her stay b/c i really didn't have any plans for the day. I headed to the bedford stop to get a ny bagel and coffee. Along the way i bump into alison from florida, whom i was gonna see later that night for her birthday, so i found it to be a very pleasant surprise. I meet up with raimy in soho a bit later in the day and then we just spend the afternoon walking, talking, and drinking. We visited many of her old stomping grounds. We ventured into the oldest bar in new york, mcsorley's, where they only offer light and dark beer....and you get two of them for super cheap.
We ventured further into the east village, slowly getting more and more inebriated. I stopped to get a dog and raimy, as quick witted as she is, recognized where we were at and knew of a secret martini bar that was adjoined to the hot dog shop. She inquired about the bar to the server and she secretly put us hip to the game that it opens at 6pm. After a drink or two in between, we came back this clandestine martini bar. The way it works is you walk into this phone booth, pick up the phone, let it ring, and within a short time a server lets you into the dimly lit, cozy bar. I barely remember what we ordered, but I know raimy had some bacon-infused, smokey martini and i had a sweet and sour drink that had traces of a absolutely scrumptious brandy. Don't ask me, ask the bartenders, they are definitely the masters. They were very helpful in helping us decide what we wanted.
The remainder of the evening was spent with raimy, amy, and their dear friends. Raimy had to depart so amy and i carried on and headed to alison's b-day party. Jeff from florida had just arrived that day and we spent the night dancing and drinking and ushering in alison's birthday at midnight. Before i knew it the time was 2am and amy and i high-tailed it outta there. My flight was at 8am so i had to catch a car by 5:45am. I don't why i decided to even lie down. On top of that I don't know how i managed to get up. Getting to the airport with ample time, I walked around like a zombie and boarded my plane. Next thing i know, i'm in dallas.
Feeling like complete dogshit, i deboard my flight, grab some food in dallas and notice an earlier flight to denver, leaving 2.5 hours before my intended flight. I quickly get permission to hop on this flight and i'm sound asleep and en route to denver. I couldn't belive my luck; i never sleep that much on any of the flights i take.
Now i'm in denver, waiting for christopher to arrive so we can head up (pun intended) to aspen for gay ski week. Once we get the rental car sorted out and our fancy-pants suv with beatrice (our navigational system), we hit route 70 west. The landscape was too crucial. It had been so long since i had seen a wintry setting, oustide of movies and photographs. I've essentially been trapped in a perpetual summer, of sorts, for about a year and a half at this point. As we traversed the windy roads through the mountains, the temperature dropped and the sun was setting. The closer we got to aspen, the colder it got and precipitation began to fall. About 30 miles outside of aspen, the snow was really coming down. Luckily we knew we were near. At one point we had to open up our sunroof to let nature's confetti fall upon us.
Within half an hour or so, cmo and i arrived in aspen.
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