Manlio Rules

oooook… so, here’s what we did this weekend

Friday i worked from home, which i hope to start doing regularly on fridays, because it’s awesome. Nick, my old friend from Australia was in town that weekend because the band he manages (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) was playing on friday night. So i met him and some of his various friends for dinner, and then went to the show. Nick dissappeared backstage, so i hung out till Micah got there, and we proceeded to get somewhat drunk… and by “somewhat” i mean, we drank for 3 hours straight. Clap Your Hands was very good.

From there, we proceeded to Ali’s Rocktoberfest party. The idea was that we were supposed to dress up like rockstars, but i don’t fit into my goth rock clothes anymore and i didn’t have time during the week to find another outfit. thankfully no one really seemed to care. Ali’s party was of course fun, because Ali’s a rockstar. We left said party slightly less sober than when we arrived. Looong day. btw, best costume has to go to the woman dressed up in a leotard as Karen O, though Hez came in a close second. in fact, let’s call it a tie.

Saturday I awoke, briefly considered calling in sick to guitar lessons (how lame is that?), but decided to carry on. Guitar lessons are going ok, but my teacher tends to just talk at me for 45 minutes about his theories on fretboard geometry and patterns. Granted, he’s got some really cool ideas, but i feel like i never get a chance to play. I suppose in theory that’s what “practicing” is for. hmm…

From there I ran some errands and went over to Jay’s place to check out SF Oktoberfest. Jay is a buddy from college, we lived in NY for 5 years and never once got together except when our mutual friend frank was in town. So it was good to see him, and i’m shocked we managed to cope with actually making plans and hanging out. I figure everything after this is cake.

Oktoberfest in SF, i have one piece of advice for you: “don’t try to create your own economy”. you see, in order to get beer at oktoberfest, you need tokens. so you stand in line for a half hour at one of the 3 token stands in this huge hall, get tokens, get a few beers, run out of tokens, and repeat. at one point i was in line for maybe 40 minutes, and this happens:

token lady: “we’ve run out of tokens. i only have a few left”.
Everyone: “argh!”
token lady (to the customer next to me) :”do you want the last 8 tokens?”
drunken customer: “no! I want 10!”
token lady: “well, i only have 8. do you want them?”
drunken customer: “no, fuck that!”
me: “um… I’ll take them”
token lady: “here you go”

I have no idea what that guy was thinking. he then waited for at least 10 more minutes for tokens while i ran away 8 tokens richer. It was just enough for one more beer and sausages for both of us. sweet.

From there i raced home and showered and changed for my crab dinner with Ron and friends. I’ve eaten a lot of lobster in my day (A LOT), but i’ve never had whole crabs. it’s a little like lobster, except the meat is in smaller places and generally harder to get to. and you have to avoid the crab poo, bone, and other fun stuff. I liked it, working for your food has a certain appeal. but man, now i’m hungry for lobster. i wonder how mom feels about lobster for thanksgiving…

sunday i did very little, just as it should be. whew!