Birthday Bash, Gays Galore, and Visiting Vagabonds

Where does the time go!?

Last weekend I celebrated my fantabulous 25th b-day! It was simply amazing, as always. I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends! On Friday, I had a night out at Rendezvous Lounge, and my lovely faves bought me bottle service - SO SWEET! A lot of people showed up, and the guestlist was pretty random so I was especially impressed with those who showed up not knowing anyone else. I turned down shots for most of the night and managed to walk out of there alive. It was really nice to see everyone, and I was genuinely overjoyed. Looking back at the pictures from the night made me smile, that's probably the happiest I've been this year -

On Saturday, I stayed home and slaved away for hours making ceviche. I rested for most of the day because I had just gotten over a cold a few days before. I slept early, and thank goodness I did.

Because we went rafting on Sunday!!! American River Rafting, to be exact. The water was so high that we needed a guide on our raft, but we got a really cool manager who we didn't mind hanging out with at all. On the way to Rancho Cordova, we got sidetracked by Sonics! I was having a really great time, both in the car and eating at Sonics. To be honest I could have cared less about rafting. I <3 -="" :="" a="" activity.="" actually="" alas="" all="" and="" appetite="" area="" at="" away="" back="" bay="" began.="" birthday="" bus="" but="" car-icure="" car="" ceviche="" chad="" city="" class="separator" clean="" company.="" conversation.="" couldn="" day="" delicious="" dinner="" div="" drinking="" drunk="" ducks="" easily.="" enough="" even="" feast="" finish.="" floating="" food="" for="" four="" from="" future.="" gave="" good="" got="" great="" happy="" he="" his="" i="" in="" it="" joynt="" klaus="" like="" made="" me="" monstrous="" more="" moved="" my="" nice="" night="" of="" on="" ordered="" out="" people="" perfect="" perspective="" picked="" rafting="" river-goers="" river="" s="" sang="" snacks="" someone="" sooo="" squeaky="" still="" stronger="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" sunday="" sunshine="" t="" talk="" thank="" the="" though="" three="" to="" tommy="" took="" up="" was="" water="" way="" we="" when="" who="" with="" you="">

On Monday evening after work, I came home to my favorite dim sum for dinner, and later $50 worth of desserts from my brother. Cupcakes, assorted cake slices, tarts, creme brulee - you name it! I'm so spoiled <3 .="" :d="" a="" after="" alex="" and="" andy="" awkward.="" birthday="" bit="" br="" brian="" but="" came="" castro="" celebration="" dancings.="" drinks="" entertained.="" few="" finish.="" first="" for="" from="" gary="" glad="" good="" great="" had="" he="" hh.="" hiep="" i="" in="" it="" later.="" m="" met="" out.="" out="" pigging="" planet="" ridiculously="" s="" showed="" so="" start="" stro="" talk="" the="" then="" they="" this="" time="" tired="" to="" up="" us="" very="" was="" we="" went="" with="" year="">


<3 .="" :d="" a="" after="" alex="" and="" andy="" awkward.="" birthday="" bit="" br="" brian="" but="" came="" castro="" celebration="" dancings.="" drinks="" entertained.="" few="" finish.="" first="" for="" from="" gary="" glad="" good="" great="" had="" he="" hh.="" hiep="" i="" in="" it="" later.="" m="" met="" out.="" out="" pigging="" planet="" ridiculously="" s="" showed="" so="" start="" stro="" talk="" the="" then="" they="" this="" time="" tired="" to="" up="" us="" very="" was="" we="" went="" with="" year="">And then this weekend was PRIDE. Oh, the madness. On Friday, Janet and I went to Dragon with some gay boys and AS ALWAYS it was a blast. Love gay clubs!!! Such positive energy, and the deejays there are the best. On Saturday, I dragged Ryan out to the Pride festival but I didn't know it was at the Civic Center, LOL. We ended up doing brunch at Lime. Bottomless mimos, O M G. Such a bad idea... I ended up at home around 3, pretty wasted. So wasted that I fell asleep.

And Victor showed up for a surprise visit!! He was already in SF when I woke up to his texts, and I scrambled to get ready to go out! We went to dinner with his friend and Planet, and then we went to BOOTIE!! It was Madonna vs. Gaga night, although I don't really remember the music. All I remember was having fun fun fun, and the club being super packed. I danced my ass off - always a good time at Bootie.

On Sunday we went to the Alice Summerthing, except Victor and I went to get lunch after we found a sitting spot. There were too many people everywhere, and I don't really like crowded places anymore. But after we finished our Shanghai Dumpling King (where I got hollered at by My, LOL) we went back just in time to catch One Republic. They sounded so good live! I enjoyed their set, and I guess that was worth walking 10+ blocks. Damn you SF parking! After the concert, we went to Mayes to get Hiep drunk for his birthday. Lots of oysters, more appetizers than we could eat, and drinks all around! Picked up a bunch of food from Lee's after and went back to Planet's to hang out. We ended up calling it a night early, everyone was exhausted.

The past two weekends have been spectacular! Between all of the love from my birthday, and getting to hang out with Charles and Victor this weekend, I've been having a wonderfully chaotic time.

My first stay-cation

This past weekend was a unique vacation for me, in fact it was a stay-cation! I almost forgot that I needed to pack also, and I did so last minute. Of course I forgot a handful of things, but what's new? LOL. I put in my time at work early on Friday at picked Victor up from the airport in the afternoon. We headed back to the city to check in at The Clift and drop off the car. For dinner, we walked to Fish&Farm, where Victor had some San Francisco salmon for the first time -- and approved! It was delicious, and appropriately (as the way a good vacation should start) I'd never eaten there before!

Later at night, we went to RN74 (also had never been there before) in SOMA where we met Victor's friends from Philadelphia. They turned out to be quite the delightful couple! Very lively and interesting, one was an architect and the other a chef! I think that might be the perfect pairing. That part of the night was pretty fancy, with wine and escargot and all of the niceties that are required when getting to know new people.

And then we went to Harry's Bar and the realness came out. Without getting into details, I'll say that we were a lot louder and less polite there. Although, it was in a good way and I really enjoyed their company the entire time! The contrast was comical, though.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed up to Napa for some wine tasting! The destination location turned out to be V. Sattui, the winery I went to a few weeks ago for Cindy's birthday, but Victor's friend's friend invited us into the special people tasting room so the experience was quite different. I found something I like even better than the Fantasia! It's a Moscato and it is DE-LICIOUS. The tasting was very pleasant, although I still like Castello di Amorosa better -- but then nothing beats a castle.

We stopped at Robert Mondavi where I wished it wasn't pouring rain! The rows of vines were still gorgeous in the rain but I'd love to go back and walk through the greenery. We drove through the mountains to Sonoma but didn't make it in time for one more winery stop. For dinner, we came back to the city and went to Ryoko. It was delicious as always! After dinner, we barely had time to rest before going to Sugar Cafe. We stayed there the rest of the night and Alex, Andy, Janet, Kevin, Chad, and Priscilla came out to play! Lots of drinking and even a little bit of dancing. Good times!

On Sunday, we checked out and went to San Mateo to get some Ramen Dojo. The wait was ridiculous and I honestly don't think the Spicy Garlic was worth the hype. Victor enjoyed it though, and that's what matters most -- since people in Seattle don't get quality ramen! I still prefer Himawari or Santa Ramen. We came back to the city and hung out at Japantown with Andy and Janet, where we perused an aquarium and wandered the streets a bit. We ended up at Zeitgeist (never been there either!) where we started drinking in the early afternoon. Brian joined us a bit later and we ended up at his house eating grilled cheese and tomato soup!

Instead of leaving on Sunday night as planned, Victor ended up staying an extra night and flying out on Monday morning! It was a really fun weekend and very worthy of being my first stay-cation. And here I am, molesting a pig at Robert Mondavi.