Celeb sighting: Charisma uniqueness nerve and talent

On the Sunday of a three-day weekend, I kind of expect for things to be, you know, going on. Typically there's all sorts of city-type rejoicing and people out and about celebrating the fact that they can get drunk and not go to work the next day.

Well, Boston doesn't seem like that sort of town. At least, not from what I've seen (and I admit that I'm not "in the know"). Last night, Puppy and I went to the local bar (totes empty), downed a couple of drinks, then went to an advertised weekly night called "Hot Mess." Puppy led me a few blocks away and we arrived ... at a Courtyard Marriott.

Skeptical, I went in with pretty low expectations, and we descended a few flights to the basement level, which was rather stylishly appointed (but it still felt like the basement of a Courtyard Marriott) and quickly filled with people of all shapes and sizes. And I do mean all sizes!

The DJs played fun mash-ups (and one dared to play "Money Can't Buy You Class" by the Countess LuAnn DeLesseps from the Real Housewives of New York) and people all let loose. I was sort of mesmerized by a petite fellow with a very defined body because he seemed to be of indeterminate age. While his body looked like that of a young twenty-something, his face may have belonged to a fifty-year-old. And with his Guy Fiyeri/Zac Efron hairdo and raggedy goatee, it really was tough to tell.

But bopping around the crowd was Mystique from the most recent season of RuPaul's Drag Race. She was a large lady with quite the entourage. She didn't seem at all happy to be there and I certainly hope she wasn't getting paid much for her "appearance."

I have to say, however, that I think it was my favorite night out thus far, possibly because there was a dancer who had a rubber chicken strapped to his head.

That's not my name

Yesterday, Puppy and I went to a celebratory lunch for Flabs's daughter, who received her Hebrew name in a ceremony the prior evening. I hadn't been to Flabs's parents' house in probably a decade, but it was comforting to see that little had changed, including the family portraiture with creative poses and the maternity series.

Anyhoo, it was a lovely brunch with lots of little kids running around. Flabs and her husband gave their six-week old daughter some kind of lovely name which I cannot remember, pronounce or spell. I had hoped she would receive a name derived from the designer of Flabs's bat mitzvah dress. Something like ... Yessica McClintach!

Movie note: Valentine's Day

TWO STARS

Despite having met two of the actresses in this movie, I still found it convoluted, contrived and corny.

Municipal misery

One thing I hate doing is dealing with local government employees. After two parking tickets, I decided today I needed to brave Boston's City Hall to get a residential parking permit.

Unlike San Francisco's City Hall, which is beautiful, ornate and spacious, Boston's City Hall is a huge, boxy structure from the with an interior that typifies local government: dark and run-down.

I made my way to the "parking clerk" area which had a huge line feeding into four windows where frumpy, grumpy women served Boston's citizens. And like local government employees everywhere, these women did plenty of eye-rolling, sighing and took their sweet time between transactions.

When it was nearly my turn, something happened at one of the windows which required all four women to huddle around the single customer. Something about having two cars or something. Needless to say, it was an ordeal that seemed to take forever, even with the mighty brainpower of all four employees.

Summer hours

I think the best thing about my new company is ... summer hours! Starting today, and ending the Friday before Labor Day, we get to leave work at 1pm. The condition? We have to make up the "extra" four hours sometime during the week.

At the pace we work, this is no problem. Also, I wasn't able to leave until after 2pm today. Still, I'll take it!

It was just Charlie Salinger's dream

It's been a few days since Lost ended its run and I've been pondering the season finale. What if it had ended Newhart-style and featured Matthew Fox, waking up as Charlie Salinger, surrounded by his beloved brothers and sisters from Party of Five? I think I could have been on board for that conclusion, even if it would not have made much sense tonally.

But seriously, did I like the finale? Well, yes and no. I appreciated seeing characters from throughout the season and I liked the emotional closure the episode gave to each.

However, I think some fundamental questions remain unanswered, and this is a cop-out. If you're going to ask us to follow along as your characters skip ahead in time, back in time, and into some other parallel universe, I want to understand some basic mechanics of the island that's creating all this! And I just did not like the whole "put a cork in it" approach to resolving the good vs. evil issue.

Walk on the wild side

Lest you think that our housewarming party was all dullsville, I'm pleased to report that the party also featured:

1. A guest who exposed her breast
2. A guest who exposed her vagina
3. A guest who was armed with a handgun

But to be fair, guest 1 was breastfeeding guest 2, who needed a diaper change. Guest 3 is a friend who works as a Boston police officer and swung by on his lunch break. Still, it was kind of weird to have a man in full police uniform at the party, with the requisite gun and handcuffs!

Warming the house

I woke up unusually early yesterday to prepare for our little housewarming brunch. My duty was to shake the cobwebs out of my brain and make two quiches: one with bacon, and another inferior version without bacon. I learned that it's remarkably easy to make a quiche and probably something I'll do again soon.

Puppy and I cooked, cleaned, bought coffee and donuts, put out boozes and welcomed our friends to celebrate our arrival in Boston. Throughout the day, I think we entertained five kids, ranging in age from six weeks to three years old.

Parties with kids are sort of new for me, and I didn't expect all the chaos that comes with toddlers. Fights over sharing, eating, playing ... who could have expected that? Plus, all the spitting up, crying, diaper-changing... It definitely seemed like a turning point in the types of parties that I'm used to throwing.

But it was a fun event and we now have tons of champagne, juice and eggs in our fridge. Some friends even stayed well past the "end" of the party and we continued imbibing and ordered some pizzas to soak up all the alcohol. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to soak up enough because I am fuzzy-brained today at work. Oy.

Movie note: April Fool's Day

ONE STAR

Mayor Gavin Newsom's wife is not a great actress.

Ice box

We're having a party! To commemorate our little move across the country, Puppy and I invited our friends over to a brunch/booze fest tomorrow morning and early afternoon. In preparation, we went online and ordered a bunch of groceries to be delivered today.

Well, the grocery man arrived at approximately 8:30am, carting seven large totes filled with goodies. Two of the totes were filled with 10-lb. bags of ice, which we thought would be a good idea to buy in advance.

Our little refrigerator doesn't really hold that much ice, so now we're keeping it closed with packing tape. Classy!

Eating for two

Yesterday, I walked to the company cafeteria for lunch with two co-workers, one of whom is about to pop out a new human. She's nine months pregnant, due any day now, and huge!

As we entered the cafeteria, pregnant-co-worker exclaimed, "Ooh! Make your own sundae! I'm having a sundae and fries for lunch today." My other co-worker encouraged her, "Well, you deserve it."

Sadly, the cafeteria was out of fries, so pregnant-co-worker opted for ... just a sundae. For lunch. For her and her soon-to-be-born baby.

Tasty? Yes.

Healthy? Doubt it.

Judging? Totally.

OMFGG

I'd all but written off Gossip Girl, thanks to a very lackluster season where I even skipped a few episodes! But Roommate J assured me the season finale had some gasp-worthy moments, so I gave it another shot last night and caught up on the last two episodes of this season.

And OMG, he was correct! Georgina remains my favorite and needs to be a series regular now that her other nursey gig got the can.

Be grateful you're already hurt

Last night, Dickenator was in town so Puppy, Reebs and I did a little dining out in the 'hood. We went to a local restaurant that's definitely having its moment since the last time we tried to eat there we were quoted a two-hour wait.

This time, the hostess said she could seat us outside immediately, so we were pleased. Suddenly, this surly-looking girl with messy hair and a disheveled cardigan hobbled to the hostess on her single crutch and blocked my way in the restaurant doorway. I couldn't exactly hear what was going on, but she and her elderly parents were seemingly more important than us and got the table outside.

The hostess rolled her eyes and apologized to us for the misunderstanding and convenience. She even brought us a plate of very yummy meatballs to enjoy while we waited.

I don't really know what happened, but the crutch-girl better watch her back. I won't soon forget that jacked-up face and bad attitude.

Spin cycle

One of the hugest, worst, most irritating, terrible, soul-sucking, despairing, unflattering, gruesome drawbacks to our new Boston digs is the fact that we have no in-unit washer/dryer. It's been a while since I've had to use common laundry facilities and it's something that I loathe.

High on my list of chores this weekend was to clean my clothes, something I've been putting off because I don't like having to be prompt in moving my stuff to a dryer or in picking them up when they're done.

So, after clearing two hours of my Saturday morning, I descended into our building's basement and surveyed the laundry scene. Puppy had warned me that you had to purchase a card to operate the machines and that he'd lost $5 in the process of figuring out how to use the laundry facilities. I was determined to figure out how to do it properly, but was thwarted by the first step: procuring a laundry card.

I basically walked around the laundry room, investigating every inch of every wall for approximately 10 minutes before I mustered up the courage to visit the building security guard to inquire about how to purchase a laundry card. Ever the helpful gentleman, our security guard let me know that one purchases a laundry card "from the machine." Upon further prodding, he showed me said machine, next to his office (and nowhere near the actual laundry machines).

I inserted my $5 (It only accepts $5 bills) and went on my way, pouring detergent into a machine and dumping my clothes into it. But when it came time to select the cycle and pay for the service, my card suddenly had a balance of ZERO. I apparently followed the steps too quickly for the machine to register and therefore lost all my money. And of course, I had no more $5 bills, so I had to scoop my detergent-covered dirty clothes back into the hamper and trot up to the apartment, having accomplished nothing except increasing my blood pressure level.

You'll be happy to know that I figured it all out yesterday and successfully completed two loads of laundry. And the machines seemed to work well enough and I didn't have to spring for an extra drying cycle, like I have in past laundromat situations. I didn't officially meet any of my neighbors in the process, but I did marvel at the lady with the two big garbage bags full of clothes who hogged four machines at one time. These are the people in my neighborhood...

Out and about in Beantown

This past weekend felt like the first one where I simply lived my life without any special events, errands or chores to consider.

On Friday night, with Puppy gone in San Francisco, I met up with some of his friends at a downtown bar for some libations. We went to an event that occurs either weekly, monthly or semi-monthly (no one seemed to know the true frequency) and I think I got to experience Boston's bear and hipster scenes simultaneously! When I first arrived, it was all bears, but by the time I left, it was pretty much leaning toward hipster, with the requisite American Apparel uniforms and ironic-unironic facial hair.

Gerbil is in town visiting his parents, so we got to hang out on Saturday night, first going to dinner where he knew the owner (another SF transplant), then going to the bar for a few cocktails.

And yesterday was a lovely day for strolling along Newbury Street, doing some window shopping and a little bit of real shopping before a bunch of Puppy's friends came over for a delicious dinner.

I think the biggest takeaway for me was that it's more alarming than I expected to be in a new city not knowing many people. I'm used to going out and running into people, catching up with friends or at least recognizing faces. The anonymity is a bit disconcerting and I haven't been able to muster up the energy to try to make friends. I guess only time will tell if this will prove to be a problem or not!

Side-eye Erin

Have I mentioned how much I am loving Erin on The City? Allegedly the youngest Director of PR for Elle magazine ever, Erin Kaplan seems to be the only person on the cast who's ever had to work for a living and act professionally in an office environment.

The poor thing has been given the task of filming scenes with the formerly interesting, now increasingly bonkers Olivia Palermo, who routinely walks out on conversations, misses appointments and otherwise undermines the efforts of those around her. In so doing, Erin appears to have absolutely no control of her facial expressions, which include variations on enraged, puzzled, flummoxed, vindicated and shocked.

Even when Erin purposefully brings Olivia down a notch or two, you root for her, because she seems to be the only one with any sense on the show. Except for Kelly Cutrone, that is.

"You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget"

I've been thinking about this book I read on my flight home from CA the other day, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Going into the novel, I had no idea what it was about, but didn't quite expect it to be so ... bleak. Yet so optimistic?

It's one of those narratives that gets in your head, makes you think and causes great unease. At least, that's what it did for me.

I also spent some time wondering who might do a good job portraying the main fella in a film. Hugh Jackman? Thomas Jane? Who knew it was already made into a movie? With Viggo Mortensen! Good job on the casting, boys.

Mama's boy

I spent 24 hours in California this weekend - just enough time to miss it, but not enough time to fully enjoy my home sweet home. Not only was it Mother's Day yesterday, but it's also my mom's 60th birthday in a few days, so my uncle hosted a very large, very creative, very delicious feast in her honor. He and my two cousins apparently planned the menu several weeks in advance and spent all day Saturday cooking.

During my short visit, I visited a Chinese painting gallery with my mother, sister and sister's boyfriend to look at paintings, one of which my mom planned to purchase as a gift to herself. They were all by a friend of hers who has been gaining fame as a Chinese painter in recent years. We narrowed down the selection to three and took them home so others could weigh in.

I also got to visit the local Starbucks with VALedictorian and catch up. The walk between my parents' house and the Starbucks is probably less than the walk between my apartment and my gym, but it still felt strange to traverse the distance on foot, instead of in an SUV like most suburbanites.

All in all, it was a nice visit, but way too short. I wish I'd had time to visit SF and see my friends, but I guess I'll have to save that kind of trip for another day!

The Candidate

Last night I watched this week's episode of Lost. Wow. Um. Sad.

Ironically inappropriate

There's a conference in town this week that I've attended in the past, but didn't feel the need to attend this year, given the new job and all. But, I crashed the networking part yesterday evening and I attended a dinner with about 20 other company representatives in Boston's North End.

Of course, we went to a little Italian restaurant that served some decent pasta and chicken marsala. The other entree option was veal marsala, which had several of the sustainability professionals all buzzing. "Veal? How inhumane! And no vegetarian dish? I cannot believe it!"

But after several bottles of wine, we let down our guards and started talking about anything and everything, often making some pretty un-PC jokes that are tangentially related to our line of work.

It's a funny thing, being in the business of "doing good." We sort of feel like we know the proper way to comport ourselves, and it's clear that on some level we all care about the planet and our communities, so we have license to say whatever off-color thing we want. So let's just go ahead and make jokes about mountain top removal mining, child labor and discriminatory hiring practices! We all know it's not right - we speak with irony!

Lucky day

The other night, Puppy and I dined at a local Asian-type restaurant and were served by a petite Asian-type lady with a very high-pitched, squeaky voice. We were one of two tables at the restaurant (Boston doesn't seem to have a very hopping Monday night dining scene!) and when we were through, our waitress brought us the bill.

Instead of simply placing it on the table, she opened up the bill holder and said, "It's your lucky day! Look!" She pointed to the bill total, which read $66.66.

Lucky day? A variation on the number of the beast is lucky? Were we in Lucifer's kitchen?

Movie note: Skins, vol. 2

FOUR STARS

I'm sure MTV will ruin this show when it remakes it for the states. The Brits sure can make a drama-filled, yet comedic show that tugs at the heartstrings.

Movie note: Clue

THREE STARS

The Madeline Kahn love-fest continues! She is woefully underutilized in this moderately funny movie. More films should have multiple endings!

Parched

Thanks to some sort of broken pipe nearby, Boston has no drinking water available. I'm thirsty, but haven't yet started boiling water, thanks to the multitude of bottles of Pellegrino Puppy had delivered yesterday.