Manlio Rules

Yeah. so i turned 30 last saturday.

But our story actually starts Friday. Friday ManlioRules user and Non-Profit Rockstar Briehan Lynch was in town, finishing her 3 day conference in SF. We met up for dinner and drinks at Pete’s Tavern, which is quickly becoming my most frequented bar. You’ll recognize Pete’s from such drinking events as: “Friday night with Mom (featuring Daisy)”, “Wednesday Night with the Contento/Tanaka’s”, and “Tuesday late night with Trish”. needless to say, all the TV’s and beer make a good bar for me. We had dinner reservations at Jack Falstaff’s for the evening, which i wouldn’t’ have chosen if i knew Briehan was going to buy me dinner for my birthday. i would have chosen Chevy’s, where they make a fabulous mixed grill. In any event, dinner was fantastic, and afterwards we headed over to 21st Amendment and met up with Amy, Trish, and Katie. Trish was being hit on by some dude in a nice shirt, who i immediately shanked with a screwdriver (for talkin to my woman). After 21st closed down, we ended up doing last drinks at some other place. the morale of the story is that Briehan and I like to drink.

Saturday was the actual party. I had originally planned to have the party at Hi Dive, which is near my apt and a nice small dive bar like what that place on 14th and 1st used to be before it became the Crocodile lounge and before all the NYU kids found it. But Hi Dive decided to lose the reservation and then book a 50 person costume party for that night. they offered to split the bar with me, but frankly i found that idea to be annoying, because having to avoid some drunk jerk dressed like “whimsy” isn’t exactly how i wanted to spend my 30th. Even if it meant a greater chance of women dressed up like occupational and sci-fi themed prostitutes.

After panicking early in the week, I found a new venue for the party: Sean’s house. Seen in previous 30th birthday party events such as Aubrey’s, Sean’s house is big and has an outdoor deck which i figured would be good for keeping people from spilling liquor on his couch.

So saturday, after answering all the happy birthday text messages and e-cards, and phone calls and facebook posts, i headed over to sean’s place and we went to costco to buy lots of fun party favors. The girl at the checkout counter asked Sean if he was a model and us if we liked to drink. i wasn’t sure how to answer that considering i was purchasing 3 cases of beer, 2 bottles of vodka, and no food except shrimp cocktail and a large bag of chocolate based candy.

Before the party Aubrey and Daisy came over and we had champagne while watching Boston embarrass (sic) Colorado in game 3 of the World series. all I can say to the Rockies is that maybe they should spread out their NLCS winnings over more games next time because they sure seemed rusty.

Trish then arrived with massive amounts of cupcakes, and within an hour, the party was hopping. We went pretty late, totally forgot about the shrimp cocktail till 2AM when it was busted out and consumed very quickly by several tipsy hungry people (including ali in a bunny suit), at which point i decided i had rocked out enough to put a nice exclamation point on my 20′s.

Sunday was a slower day. Sunday night Michael gave me tickets to see Richard Buckner at Du Nord. it was a great gift, but Buckner sort of mailed it in. Then the Red Sox won the world series, the 2nd of my lifetime, and 2nd since i turned 27. that was good times.

thanks to everyone who called or got in touch on Saturday, it meant a lot to me. I hope my 30′s are just as fantastic as my 20′s except with slightly less drinking. slightly.

go sox! go pats! booo everyone else!

first thing i’ve seen in awhile that really got me geek out excited…

http://www.creationonthefly.com/

yeah, no update except that stuff is still up in the air. i have a few interesting work related options which i am happy to discuss with any of you off-blog if you’re that interested, but suffice to say, tomorrow will be a big day for the future of my “career”.

also, this uncertainty has driven me into a very odd place lately. i’m restless even without the caffeine, and today i had an “office space” moment where i really thought about getting a construction job. and then i remember that those guys have to start work at 4AM, at least around here. and also that i’d be really bad at it and would probably end up driving the wreckdozer into the wooden dowels, or whatever they use to support buildings these days (clay?). in the theater most of the walls were made of sheets. i imagine that would be lacking in insulation.

on the other side of things, Ron and I will be playing a little 30 minute set next weekend, as part of MAPP, which from what i can tell is some sort of mission arts project thing or other. I’m going to try to link to the facebook even that ron set up (remember when the web was about linking to sites and not events on other social networks? now i feel like i have to send out evites, twitters, pownces, facebooks, upcomings, dodgeballs, and maybe jaiku’s now just to get people to freaking show up. how did we do it in college? i don’t even remember sending out emails for parties. i remember saying: “hey, we’re drinking at briehan’s house. everyone meet there. briehan, is that ok?” sigh.). anyways, here’s the event:

Rue Fondue

i didn’t choose the name.

maybe i can get something done at 4:30

life has been exciting. hectic, and occasionally stressful, but exciting. here’s why:

1. The Red Sox are doing very well. hence more games. hence more wins.
2. The Patriots are also doing very well. which leads to 10AM drinking on sundays
3. October is the time for parties. and birthdays
4. My mom is coming to visit next weekend
5. i’ve been trying to catch up with people. so, basically i’m going out a lot
6. Work is strange. and not good strange. more “there are wolves in the bathroom” strange
7. my apartment is a little better. the cat slept on my chest last night. i woke up and her little cat face was peeking over the covers. it was very cute. also we’re getting Digital Cable.
8. and i’m going to turn 30 in a few weeks.
9. so there’s that.

so, i woke up this morning, got all prettied up for work (including new kicks), and headed out to my car. when i approached my car, the trunk was open. that’s usually not a good sign. upon further inspection, someone broke my front driver side window overnight, and stole my ipod and nwo that i think about it, probably the cd changer in my trunk.

things about this that are funny:

1. my ipod sucks. seriously. it’s a 3G, won’t hold a charge for more than 5 minutes, and has a busted audio input jack from the time i put a crooked plug into it. street value is probably like $50, maybe a little more if you love the 20 gigs of random indie music i have on there.

2. you know who is annoying? my insurance company:

me: my car was broken into
Ins: ok, here’s your claim number, i’m connecting you to the auto glass people
me: great!
Auto: we need your insurance company to call us
me: but i just got connected from them
Auto: ok, hold on
me: ok
Auto: ok, we’re back. and we have your insurance people here as well
Ins: yeah, you don’t have comprehensive insurance, so we’re not covering this
me: why couldn’t you tell me that before?
Auto: i’ll sneak away while you talk about this
Ins: sorry, but there’s nothing we can do
me: i will cut you open with the broken glass from my car.

3. you know what’s great about living in a less neighborhoody part of sf? there are auto glass companies a few blocks away. my car is currently getting a new window courtesy of Mayna, who runs the auto glass place on 2nd and harrison.

4. this makes me nostalgic for 17th and bainbridge, where this was at least a bi-monthly occurrence. Philadelphia, SF’s got nothing on you. don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

(update) 5. let the record show that the people who fixed the glass in my car should probably have their own sitcom. two guys, both about 45, one of whom had a long braided ponytail, and one guy who looked like he was taking a break from his accounting job. they kept arguing with each other about where the glass and other parts of my car were supposed to go, and the accountant kept trying to pound the car door in place. once it was all done, the ponytail came over to me and said, in a low voice: “too many chiefs, not enough indians”. good times.