I went to BaGG last night, as I always do. Afterwards, went to Denny's with Carol and Erika.

On exiting that lowest-common-denominatorestaurant, found my passenger side window smashed in, my stereo faceplate and CD case stolen, and the rest of the things in my car rifled through, tossed around, and generally made a mess of. Carol's purse was also taken.

The faceplate didn't work anyway. The CDs were all burned copies. Carol's purse had only her business cell, her keys, and some miscellaneous papers, no wallet/money/etc.

In summary, they broke my fucking window, which I have to pay to get replaced, for a worthless piece of plastic and LCDs, some nearly worthless burned CDs, housekeys to a soon-to-be-foreclosed-upon house, and that's it.

This shit never happens to me in the East Bay. Only SF.

So, tonight, Lauren and I went over to SF to hear the SF Symphony perform Schubert's Great C Symphony and Berg's Chamber Concerto.

We even got all

They actually played the Chamber Concerto first. It was a piece very much on the cusp of Romanticism and Modernism. Dissonance and chaotic, frenetic harmonies were everywhere. I liked it, but Lauren thought it was too modern for her taste. She said it was like avant-garde jazz, "where they throw the saxophonist down a set of stairs." Take that as you will.

The Schubert was magnifique, as could be anticipated. It was a symphony right at the beginning of the Romantic movement, and you could hear the expressionist tones and the almost epic-in-scope harmonies building between the themes.

Despite being not even close to the first time I've seen the SFS perform, this was the first time I actually got to see them conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the principal conductor and music director of the SFS. He was fun to watch. His rhythm hand was not really consistent except on bits with complex tempo changes, but he definitely was into the music in the way that good conductors are. He would move with the changing melodies and styles, and clearly emoted the feelings he felt each passage evoked.

Definitely a fun evening!

After work, I headed over to ms. a's to watch Linda Linda Linda. To sum up, it's a heartwarming japanese film about three japanese girls who alienate the singer of their punk band and recruit a korean girl to replace her for their school's rock concert.

Yeah.

Totally awesome movie. "Wow! Ribs!"

Still not sure where I stand with the lovely ms. a. Ah, well. Life is in the uncertainties, n'est-ce pas? I've invited her over to this side of the bay next Wednesday and left open the possibility of spending the night, so we'll see how everything goes.

Tomorrow, I get to see Trinity some more, after an all-too-brief night together after her return from LA. *does the happy going-to-see-Trinity-soon dance*

In other news, I have revised my opinion on Zack and Miri Make a Porno after discovering that it was actually a romantic comedy written by Kevin Smith. Yes, THAT Kevin Smith. Now looking for someone to come see the movie with me. Takers?

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, my mother was the volunteer coordinator for the San Francisco finale to the Tease-O-Rama road show. As such, I was drafted into doing some volunteer work, with the promise of rewards in exchange. Thus the great porn pick-up from a couple weeks back.

Anyway, last Wednesday, the volunteer work swung into high gear. I drove a bunch of the DVDs I had picked up over to the apartment of a member of the San Francisco Devil-Ettes, so she and hers could put them into goodie bags for the performers and VIPs. Yet another porn delivery on my mom's behalf.

Then, Thursday, I headed back over to Sugar Snap's place, picked up a shit-ton of goodie bags and took them over to The Rickshaw, near Civic Center, for the Meet and Greet. I stuck around to help set up for the event, then went to get some dinner. Came back later in the evening, got to meet a whole bunch of the Devil-Ettes and the performers, along with watching some of the performances and scoring some more swag. Let me tell you, in addition to being, to a one, hot and excellent dancers, these are also some of the nicest women, as a group, I've had the pleasure to meet. Usually, in any group of people, there are some domineering or rude ones to go with the nice ones. I met the leader and organizer of the Devil-Ettes as well as the overall stage manager of Tease-o-Rama, Hellcat; Kitten on the Keys, who is another neo-Burlesque scene icon, and a bunch more. After the event, we cleaned up, stowed the merch back into mine and Sugar Snap's cars for transportation to the main event Friday.

Friday started fairly early. Goodie bags over to Bimbo's 365 Club for the actual event, then a bunch of set up and coordination with vendors ensued. Dark Garden had a booth there, along with Hey Sailor! hats, and a couple more I did not recognize or remember off-hand. In addition, there was the Tease-o-Rama merchandise and some Devil-Ettes merch as well, of which I managed to score a t-shirt and a poster (pictures to come). I also got all kinds of goodies from the goodie bags, including some new matching sets of fishnet thigh highs and garter belts (swoon!) and other assorted fun & naughty things. I, unfortunately, could not stay for the performances Friday, as it conflicted with a previous commitment to go to Bent, so I took off from Bimbo's around 7:15 to head there.

Tease-O-Rama. FUN-TASTIC.

I will do some ex post facto tomorrow to catch everyone up on my doings.

Tease-o-Rama. Bent. Rain. Good day.

I hate to keep putting off explanations of the days, but they're just too full. Maybe Sunday?

More on the whole thing tomorrow, for now, I must sleep.

This weekend is going to be very very busy.

Had a good evening. I went over to meet ms. a at her work in SF. She was held up there a bit by some work-related stuff, then we escaped. We ambled down Market chatting about work experiences, then stopped by Frjtz for dinner. I had a Goya 'savory crepe,' which is basically a crepe with chicken, swiss, and some tomatoes and peppers. Delicious. She had a Rembrandt, the ingredients of which I can not remember off-hand. We also each had some gourmet fries with interesting dips. My choices were creamy wasabi mayo and some sort of chili pepper ranch. Both were quite tasty.

Afterwards, we wandered over near her apartment and walked up the hill a bit, slightly into the Castro, and sat in the park watching the sky darken and the city light up. I walked her back to her place, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and bade her good night. A quite pleasant evening we both had, if I may so so without consulting her directly.

Since it's been my current song of note: Eric Clapton's Old Love is awesome. Lyrics are

The version from his Unplugged album is the one currently getting a lot of play in my room. You can download the song here, and as always, purchase it at the Amazon link if you like it. Not like Slowhand is short on cash, but still.

Wednesday, 9/17:

Got up a little bit earlier than I usually do, but a little bit later than I would've liked. I took an abbreviated shower and hopped on BART to go meet ms. a in SF. It has been quite a while since we've interacted much at all. We met about 2.5 years ago at a party in SF. I got her number then, and we tried to hang out a time after that, but circumstances conspired to make me hours late (traffic, weather), and after that we kinda fell out of touch. We recently got back into touch when she started posting to her myspace blog, and when mention was made of pastries and tea, I jumped at the chance.

We met up in the Mission district around 10:30 and went to a nearby coffee shop. Some mocha/tea and cinnamon crumb cake later, I think we had both concluded that each of the other was as awesome as we had remembered. We went back to her place to sort laundry, then down to the laundromat. We put the clothes into the washers, then I accompanied her grocery shopping. Back to the laundromat to swap the clothes around, then we went to a bakery place in the Castro to get the ingredients for a mid-afternoon snacky-thing at her place. Back again to pick up the clothes, then back to her place. Folded, put away. Took care of fish in the tank. Watched some Neon Genesis Evangelion. By then, her partner was home and I headed home (7:30ish), but with the promise of a dinner to be scheduled later.

Simply a marvelous time. I am very glad we're back in touch.

New tag!

Had a good time with Trinity. She came over, and we wrestled a bit and talked. We changed our clothes to get all gothed up (Trinity looked HOT!). Then we went out to the Macaroni Grill in Dublin. Mmm tasty. Since it was getting a bit late, and the restaurant wasn empty, the waitress had lots of time to bring us several loaves of the warm, spiced bread. Tasty marsala chicken ravioli for me, and Trinity made her own pasta so she could get some vegetarian pasta without cream sauce.

After dinner, we headed over to Bondage-a-Go-Go. There was drinking. There was flogging. There was making out. There was dancing. Saw Maggie get suspended. Again. I swear, I've seen her more half-naked and tied up in the air than I've seen her clothed. Not that I have any problem with this. I definitely had a good time.

Came home, made out with Trinity, went to sleep. Woke up, made out some more. Showered, got Jamba Juice and a Cinnabon for breakfast, then dropped her off at her car. Picked up sub paperwork from CVUSD. I swear, I have to get a job in order to pay for all the fees to get a job substitute teaching...$55 for the sub certificate. $10 for an official transcript, $77 for fingerprinting...sigh.

So, yesterday, Trinity came by to pick me up. The plan was to go to SF, get some dinner, then see a play which her friend Alan is stage-managing. Unfortunately, on the way to pick me up, she got into a fender-bender on the freeway, so by the time she was here, the time was a bit tight to get dinner. So, we went straight to the New Conservatory Theatre and saw Friends are Forever. As you can all click links and read synopses yourselves, I'll spare the summary. =]

It was enjoyable. The acting was good, the writing was crisp. As you can probably tell from the description, it was pretty much exclusively for the gay crowd (there were a total of four women in the audience, and we later found out that was practically a record). I didn't mind, though. The issues it was mainly talking about weren't ones that just impacted gay couples, and the humor was accessible even to someone as painfully straight as I am. =] The theatre was a very intimate one; there can have been no more than 40 seats, and the front row was literally abutting the edge of the stage.

Afterward, we hung out with Alan a bit, then headed over to BaGG. I was still in a nice shirt and tie, but the outfit was carefully picked to blend into both social scenes easily. We had drinks (blue margarita for me, bailey's cocktail for her). We danced a little (her neck still hurt). We mingled. We each ran into people we knew. Trinity was invited (with a +1) to FNW's anniversary thing this weekend. We ran into Maggie, which could've been way more awkward, especially given that after we talked, Maggie got suspended and Trinity watched. I will never understand women, specifically what will and will not upset them. I flirted with Nicole, then snuggled up with Trinity.

A little tipsy after the second drink, we walked Nicole to her car, then walked back to ours (via an accidentally circuitous route). We sat for a little bit to make sure I was safe to drive home, then off we went.

Got home, made out, went to sleep. Woke up, made out some more, shower and breakfast, and then she headed back over to Marin. Her neck had been hurting since the accident, so she wanted to get back over while her doctor was still open.

Other than the car accident, a very good 24 hours. =]

So let's see...came home from Board Game Night, glasses broke...ah, right. So, later that night, Kitten invites me out to meet some of her Ren Faire friends. She's trying to get me involved in doing Yeoman Guard, I think. I take BART out to the city to meet her, out in the Mission, at a place called Pops. I walk there from the 24th Street BART station, and she arrives a little bit later, with a friend in tow. Drunk.

I mean, not falling down drunk, but clearly several drinks further in to the evening than I am (zero). We wander into the bar, we order a drink each, chit-chat about stuff. Kitten dances. We watch appreciatively. Rose and I have a conversation about a weirdo at the bar in ASL, resulting in some true hilarity for the ASL-fluent (I think we were the only two).

It was at about this point that Kitten realized how inebriated she was. She handed over her key to me, I walked over a couple blocks and found her car, drove back, and started driving back over to the East Bay. We had to pull over a few times for motion sickness, but eh, that happens. I get home safe and sound around 3:30, tuck her into my bed, and crash out.

Morning comes, we make out, then shower and she drives me down to the BART station to pick up my car. She has to be in Berkeley to pick up the keys for her new place at 10, so I go back home. I rest for a little bit, then I ride BART back out to the city, this time to meet Maychild17 and Trinity at the fancy-schmancy mall on Powell. We eat at the pretentious Food Court^H^H^H^H^HEmporium on the bottom floor, then Trinity and I head back to the East Bay (in Trinity's car).

The original plan had been to go salsa dancing at Linden Street Dance Studio. I have been wanting to learn how to dance for a while, but MzTornado never showed much inclination to go dancing with me while we were together. Trinity is just as interested as I am, so we've been looking at a variety of options. This looked (and looks) like a good option, but in the hour before we would leave, we both realized that having gotten up early for the past week, neither of us really had the energy to go learn what we both think is a very high-energy dancing style. So, instead, we went down to Fremont for dinner and a movie. Dinner was sushi at the Koi Fish, and then we headed over to the movie theatre on Alvarado-Niles to check out Clone Wars. It was entertaining, albeit a bit childish and very cartoony. The droid jokes were amusing, and the action sequences were well-paced.

Afterward, back to my house. I gave Trinity a backrub and then we made out for a while before she headed home. She didn't spend the night, because of the aforementioned need for quality sleep. Sometimes, sleeping in one's own bed can be more restful, even when it involves passing up on sleeping next to one another.

Woke up this morning on time, headed down to San Jose to play in the Exalted game with Mars and TwoTeeth. Managed to convince some Solar ghosts that it was totally legit for us to rob their grave. That was pretty nice. Played some SoulCalibur IV after TwoTeeth had to go to get ready for his hockey game. Kilik is fun, Voldo is weird, but they are both still my favorites. Back home to greet the returned parents and post about it all to my journal.

Sub teaching orientations start on 9/2 for PUSD and 9/11 for DUSD. Still checking on the other local school districts, still waiting for my CBEST results (August 25th is the latest they will be posted, according to the website). Still, steady work will be nice. As much as I like the transcription and copy editing for 2K games, it's not really a job so much as a bunch of small jobs.

Happy Monday!

After we wandered away from PRIDE, we moseyed over towards the Westfield mall on Market. We decided that we wanted to see WALL-E.

First, we go downstairs one level for reasons passing my understanding (1 escalator-floor). We then decide to go up to the theatre to see what the times are. Basement to top floor, so we're up to 6 escalator-floors. We arrived there at roughly 2:30, and the next showing was at 3:30.

So, the three of us purchase tickets and head back downstairs to get something to munch on. Naturally, the food court is on the basement floor. 11 escalator floors. Trinity has some seaweed salad. Alan gets a burger. I wander a bit before finally just getting a pair of pretzels. Nothing strikes my fancy. As an aside, the food court there (which calls itself an Emporium) is probably the most up-scale mall food court I have ever seen.

Our late lunch finished, it's 3:15, so we head back up to the theatre. 16 escalator-floors.

Wow, was that an awesome movie. Seriously. Awesome. Go see it. It was as entertaining as The Incredibles, one of my favorite Pixar/Disney movies, but it was simultaneously more aesthetically and artistically satisfying. The direction, the writing, the imagery...it was incredible. See it.

The short preceding it was also quite amusing.

Trinity and I are both fading by now and hungry again, so we decide to get some food. I suggest that since we came here on BART anyway, we can go anywhere to get food that's reachable by BART. The BART station is on the bottom floor. We finish our time in the mall with another 5 escalator floors, for a total of 21. I persuade them to come with me to Chaat Cafe, my old workplace, on University Ave. in Berkeley. My ex-coworkers still recognize me. We eat, and Trinity and I start to feel rejuvenated somewhat.

She asks if she'd mind if she came over to my place instead of going back to Richmond to pick up her car immediately. I, naturally, am quite happy to have her over. We bid Alan goodbye, and head to Castro Valley.

Went to PRIDE with Trinity and her friend Alan. We met up in front of the main stage at 12:30, where there would ostensibly be opera at 12:45. There was not. We gave up eventually, and wandered away to read through booths.

The mode booth was a jewelry booth with rainbow bead necklaces and/or amulets. The next most popular were booths from various human rights organizations asking for donations or volunteers. I was delighted to talk to them the first time I was greeted by one. The second and third times, neutral. After the fifth time I was accosted, I began to be annoyed.

At any rate, when we wandered basically as far as it was possible to wander from the main stage, our ears caught strains of operatic singing. Sigh. We mosey back that way, but by the time we get there, it had ended.

Getting hungry, we decided to wander downtown SF.