| Dancing: New Wave City: David Bowie Tribute |
[05 Oct 2008|12:44am] |
I don't think I danced to one David Bowie song. I'm not a huge fan, and I actively dislike most of his '80s stuff, perhaps attributable to its overplayment on the radio/MTV at the time.
This night was actually a first for me! I went to the event alone. I mean, I had kind of almost done that once before, when I was first getting to know Amanda. I knew she'd be at the club...but we weren't, like, hang-out-constantly buddies, so it felt akin to being there alone, seeing as how there were chunks of time when I didn't even see Amanda.
Okay, okay, so tonight wasn't entirely utterly alone either because I asked Dan beforehand if he'd be there, and he said he would. And now I've gotten to know enough of the regulars, I was hardly alone all night. Plus Amanda had asked one of her friends to keep an eye out for me and also to walk me to my car at the end of night. Isn't she the sweetest?
It wasn't a spectacularly fun night, but I'm glad I did it anyway. It was nice catching up with people, but I danced remarkably less than I usually do and left at midnight.
Low Points: - Getting hurt by "Teeters," the platform-high-shoe-wearing transvette in a neck brace. Here I thought that if I was ever hurt by her, it would be her stepping on my foot or dancing into me with her huge frame, but instead she must have been wearing a ring or a bracelet that smacked me when I got too close to her.
- Not hearing any of my requests played.
High Points:
- When I first went to the upstairs dance floor, I said hi to the DJ and he said, "Wow, you look gorgeous!" !!! This was especially nice since I've been feeling decidedly un-gorgeous of late.
- The same DJ, later in the night, playing the clearly NOT new wave "Borderline" by Madonna followed by "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and me telling his wife, "You need to control your man!!"
- The fact that Dan, mohawk and all, and I danced to "Borderline" anyway.
- My telling on this DJ and being told, "He is SO fired."
- Skip giving me my birthday gift from Amanda: A New Wave City Membership! Complete with membership card and New Wave City t-shirt! Yay! Thank you, Amanda!
( Some songs they played... )
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| Dancing |
[27 Sep 2008|01:11am] |
Tonight was The Pleasure Principle at Catalyst Cocktails. It's always a fun time, but this time, the music was particularly good! Thanks mostly to the fact that the guest DJ (Fact 50) is as big an Oingo Boingo fan as DJ Prince Charming and I are! He even played a song that we didn't know.
Totally crazy. I know everything by them!
At least I thought I did....
I went up to DJ Fact50 at the booth and asked him, "Who is this?"
He said, "Oingo Boingo."
"It can't be," I said. "I've never heard it before."
He said, "It's from the soundtrack to Summer School." (?)
Visibly upset, I said, "I've never heard this!"
He said, "Don't worry; it's okay."
I took him by the shoulders and gave him a pleading-type shake as I said, "NO. It's NOT okay!!!"
Amanda and I were there, along with Davy and Brina plus four of their friends.
( Some songs they played )
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| How To Create a Laff Riot: Put "Mister" in Front of a Silly Nonsense Word |
[21 Sep 2008|12:23pm] |
Yesterday, the kids and I picked up some supplies for a craft project we were going to do at some point, maybe today, maybe another weekend. But certainly not first thing after I woke up this morning, right? Right.
Well.
Halfway through my cup of coffee, Gwen entered the room wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a purse. She put a Post-It note next to me that said there was going to be a meeting at the table right now.
How could I resist? She looked so official!
Another note soon followed, saying to bring Spencer and a cable tie. Aha. Now I knew what was up. She wanted to start on the craft project. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I hadn't even had breakfast yet! I decided to attend the meeting (she'd put so much into it) and explain my point of view.
Gwen, Spencer, and I sat at the kitchen table. Gwen had our craft project book and a pencil. She began the meeting, all business, by saying her name was Miss Hozman. She informed me that this meant my name couldn't also be Hozman. "But it's my anniversary," I protested. "I can't change my last name!"
We decided it was okay for me to use my maiden name, since it's now my middle name.
"What do you want your last name to be?" Gwen asked Spencer.
"Oinkslopes," Spencer said.
"Okay," Gwen said, "so we're Miss Hozman, Mrs. Andreasen, and Mr. Oinkslopes."
She then began dividing up the craft supplies amongst all three of us. She read the first step from the instructions, which was for an adult to cut up some sponges.
Before I knew it, we were going forward with the craft, and we finished it. Then I got to finish my coffee.
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| Kids stories |
[20 Sep 2008|01:04pm] |
One I forgot to blog, from back in August:
We were all out at the racetrack for Sam's birthday. I was standing off to the side of the bleachers, with the kids, letting them run around. Spencer was bugging Gwen quite a bit, and finally, she just sat down and said to him, "Get away from me, freak!"
Some guys standing near us thought that was uproariously funny.
And from today:
We were driving to South San Francisco's Day in the Park. The kids were in the back seat, each coloring in a Tinkerbell book. Spencer colored his Tinkerbell's legs red and announced that they were "bleeding color."
Gwen tried to talk him out of such word usage, and I, too, suggested that maybe she was simply wearing red tights.
But Spencer kept insisting that, no, Tinkerbell's legs were bleeding.
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| Miracle Fruit |
[16 Sep 2008|11:10pm] |
Have you guys heard of this stuff? Miracle Fruit? I hadn't until Ray mentioned that he and another coworker of ours was having a tasting party with it at work. He explained that it's some kind of berry that, when eaten, changes your perception of sour tastes and makes them seem sweet instead. Unbelievable, right? But it's true!
They had a huge spread of all kind of sour, bitter, and spicy foods. There were maybe 20 of us that dissolved the freezed-dried pill-type version of the fruit on our tongues (yes, it felt a very odd thing to be doing) and then tried different foods, exclaiming all the while, "This tastes like candy! This is like sugar water! I can tell this is spicy, but it just tastes sweet!"
The effects are supposed to last from 20 minutes to two hours, I think I read. They definitely lasted more like the 20 minutes for me.
My favorite foods:
Grapefruit
Lemon
Lime
Also good:
Green apple
Seltzer water (I usually despise the stuff)
Not crazy about but not bad either:
Green olive
Cheap tequila
And the most surprising concoction of the experience, tasting almost exactly like cream soda:
Sugar-Free Red Bull with vinegar
Why, yes, my tummy does feel a bit strange tonight. Why do you ask?
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| Dancing: Club Gossip's Tribute to The Smiths/Morrissey |
[14 Sep 2008|10:12pm] |
Last night was mucho fun-o. Strangely, Tim and Brina dislike The Smiths and yet they came out anyway. So did Davy, Amanda, and my coworker, Ray. Dan showed up, which was great. We all had a lot of fun hanging out and dancing.
Highlights:
- Ordering two-for-one well drinks resulted in the bartender giving you two drinks at once to carry around and look awkward with.
- Getting to hear that awesome "World in My Eyes" mix again (and giving the DJ a thumbs-up for it; he knows I love it).
- Ray's adventure in the smoking alley. We had been wondering if it was open-air or not, since it's in between two buildings, so Ray went in to check it out...and disappeared for a long time. I thought maybe it led to an alternate dimension, but when he returned, he said it led to a statue of Buddha and a couple who started talking to him about religion and wouldn't let him leave.
- Handlebar-Mustache Man (a New Wave City regular) stopping me just to tell me something like, "I like what you do. Keep it up." Something like that. I can't quite remember. But I think it referred to my dancing, so that was nice, since I do have so much fun doing it.
- Ray dancing up on one of the little stages and taking pictures of the crowd, then Amanda going over and comandeering his iPhone to take pictures of HIM.
- Ice cube fight.
( Songs I remember.... )
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| Fetch |
[09 Sep 2008|07:29pm] |
The kids were playing with Vesta and her squeaky toy, but since Vesta has never been big into fetching, she gave up pretty quickly.
Then this:
GWEN: Spencer, do you want to be my dog?
SPENCER: Yes.
GWEN: Go get it! *throws toy*
SPENCER: *runs after it*
GWEN: Ewww, no, don't pick it up that way!
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| Dancing at a High School Reunion...Not |
[02 Sep 2008|06:21pm] |
We're in Pennsylvania to attend ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shozman 's high school reunion. He's from a small town in central PA, so there are many differences between his reunion and my own. His, for example, was about $30 a ticket. Mine was about $80. While the food and the atmosphere at his reunion probably wasn't worth $30 a ticket, the fun time he had was worth closer to $80. He was all around the room, catching up with old friends and having a great time. I was very happy for him.
I, meanwhile, sat at the table, visited with the other spouses, and had a good time even if it wasn't all my cup of tea. It did help to have a like-minded spouse (okay, girlfriend) there, poking fun at people/circumstances as well.
I suspected we were in trouble when I heard the name of the place the reunion was being held. It wasn't a hotel or a nice restaurant, like the previous year. It was the American Legion. I wasn't even sure what that was. And when we arrived and headed for the front doors, we were instead directed to two double doors, gymnasium-style, by a handwritten sign that said, "Reunion Entrance Here!"
The next thing I noticed was that the wait staff was...quite burly. Rough-looking women, wild-eyed and wiry men, all wearing red t-shirts and jeans. Plus? They were smoking. Cigarettes. Inside.
As we got settled at our table, one of the waiters started going around, lighting the candles on each table. I watched as a heavily tattooed arm reached for our candle, picked it up to light it, started to put it back, noticed it wasn't actually lit, and muttered, "Son of a bitch."
I was hopeful, though, all through dinner, because although I could barely hear anything the DJ was playing, he was labeled as an All-Request DJ! so I thought I could definitely get him to play some good stuff once it was time to actually dance. I dabbled with the idea of requesting songs like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division and "Sin" by Nine Inch Nails, but in the end, I requested a song that I know Sam loves, "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" by The Human League. I did also ask, "Do people here know Depeche Mode?" and he said, "I think so. Maybe 'People Are People'?" So I agreed. And since he seemed happy and eager, so when I returned to our table, I asked around to see what people liked and went back to him with Tears For Fears (I decided to ask for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" rather than, say, "Pale Shelter"), Duran Duran (I asked for "Save a Prayer" since I also had a request for a slow song), and Bon Jovi.
The only one he wound up playing was the Bon Jovi.
Just like the smoking-in-bars, I am NOT used to the DJs not playing my requests, back home.
As the night wore on, I wondered if the DJ would ever play a song good enough to make we want to get up and dance. I mean, don't get me wrong, there were several songs that I would have danced to had I not been one of only four girls on the dance floor, but under those circumstances, I really needed a song that would pull me onto the dance floor. Unfortunately, I never did hear it.
Several other people certainly did hear their equivalents, though. And it shocked me every time. A song would start up, I would hear whoops of joy and see several people rush to the dance floor...yet I did not recognize the song! I would spend a moment being flabbergasted before I would realize that...oh, dear God...it was country.
Maybe I should have foreseen this. Maybe the line dancing to Queen at the Corn Festival should have been a warning. And sure enough, the Electric Slide was done at the reunion as well, to something as equally inappropriate.
Strangely, the second biggest crowd pleaser, genre-wise, seemed to be rap. It didn't get as many dancers out there, but the four white chicks who danced to almost everything simply loved it. "Funky Cold Medina," something by Ice Cube, "Brass Monkey" by the Beastie Boys, and let's throw in "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls too.
The only new wave songs I heard all night were "If You Leave" by OMD, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds, and, in what must have been some kind of misheard fluke or double-click accident, "All You Zombies" by Midnight Oil.
It was a strange night for me, musically, and I am still offended by that DJ.
( A few more songs I remember... )
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| Love/Hate meme |
[28 Aug 2008|10:24am] |
I was tagged by ginamak, and so:
1) Post a list of five things you currently love/like, and five things you currently hate/dislike.
2) They can be people, places, things, ideas, whatever.
3) Tag five people to do this
Love:
1) Caramel
2) My favorite mix CD
3) Playing Rock Band
4) Snuggling with my kids
5) The Sims
Hate:
1) Cilantro
2) Spiders
3) Being too cold
4) Being too hot
5) People who don't use their turn signal when I'm waiting to make a turn and wouldn't have had to wait if they had just used their turn signal.
I tag anyone reading this who would like to be tagged.
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| Dancing x 3 |
[24 Aug 2008|11:10am] |
Friday, August 15 and Friday, August 22: Coworker showing up at the club = extra fun!
Saturday, August 23: Group of drunk-by-10:30-p.m. party-goers from San Jose celebrating someone's 23rd birthday = extra annoying!
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| Rigatoni Bolognese |
[19 Aug 2008|10:45am] |
Wow. I've been working so much/so late, I haven't felt like cooking anything. But the work madness is over for at least a week, so yesterday was a calm enough day that when I got home at 6:00 p.m., I actually had enough energy left to cook a real dinner instead of just throwing together something fast!
I have a recipe from Cooks Illustrated that I've been wanting to try. So I made my very first from-scratch meat sauce! And...I loved it! Which you don't hear me saying much about my own cooking. At least my non-dessert cooking.
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| Wikipedia Birthday Meme |
[17 Aug 2008|07:56am] |
Go to Wikipedia and enter your date of birth. Then pick 4 events, 3 births, two deaths, and one holiday.
My birthday is October 17th, so here's what I came up with:
EVENTS:
1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
2005 - The Colbert Report first airs.
BIRTHS:
1918 - Rita Hayworth, American actress
1920 - Montgomery Clift, American actor
1968 - Ziggy Marley, Jamaican musician <-- Hey, we're exactly the same age!
DEATHS:
532 - Pope Boniface II
2007 - Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack
HOLIDAY:
French Republican Calendar - Aubergine (Eggplant) Day, twenty-sixth day in the Month of Vendémiaire
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| I'm Going to Hell |
[10 Aug 2008|11:03pm] |
Why? Because I kicked a Bible study group out of a conference room at work so that my coworkers and I could play Rock Band in there instead.
Okay, I didn't really kick them out; I just asked if they'd mind leaving. Is that the same thing? In God's eyes?
But come on. Say you're working hard and working really late and the thing that's really keeping you pumped is the thought of playing Rock Band afterwards or as a break. Then say you keep hearing from your fellow coworker bandmates that there's already some people in the special Rock Band room and all they seem to be doing is sitting around, reading.
Next, say it's a good time for everyone to finally rock out but one of your coworker bandmates is doubtful and says, "Well, sure...if you can get the room." I mean, c'mon. Isn't that pretty much a DARE?
Then say you look over towards the room and see the door open. Wouldn't you go look inside and see what the heck is up in there so late after business hours? Wouldn't you be innocently thinking, "Oh, maybe someone else is already playing the game and would like some company"?
So say you see a roomful of strangers yet, in the midst of it, a coworker that you've actually been working closely with lately. Wouldn't you feel comfortable enough to ask what was going on and, upon finding out it was a study group, suggest that a study group can be held almost anywhere but that Rock Band can only be played in that very room? Is it really your fault that it turns out that what these young men are studying in there is the Bible? I mean, how were you to guess, what with the way they all eyed you from your spot at the doorway and started bombarding you with questions: "You gonna play Rock Band? Yeah? Do you sing? You gonna rock out?"
Well, I went back to my desk and, minutes later, my coworker came to tell me they were moving to the next conference room down the hall. I thanked him effusively but then put my head in my hands as he walked away, ashamed of what I'd done. Maybe I'll bring them some cookies for their next meeting.
(As long as they're not back in the Rock Band room, of course....)
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| New Wave City: British Invasion |
[03 Aug 2008|02:51am] |
Fun night. A little less busy than usual, which is A-OK by me. Less smushed-ness on the dance floor. I cannot abide an overly crowded dance floor.
It was just me and Amanda there, plus some of the regulars. Not a whole lot to report. I'll just throw out some mentions:
- There were two bachelorette parties going on.
- At one point very late into the night, DJ Shindog started playing some '50s/'60s songs, for God knows what reason, and one of the bachelorette groups was up on the stage, and they started doing the Electric Slide. I still have no explanation for this sentence.
- I was thinking on the drive in about whether I should get an alcoholic drink or just have water, and I realized what I really wish I could order: A half-drink. You know, like a half-order of pasta from a restaurant? Why can't I have a half-drink?
- I discovered that you can sometimes (always?) get free water if you just ask for a CUP of water. Asking for "a water" results in the selling to you of a $3.00 bottle of Arrowhead spring water.
- DJ Donimo had a nice, long chat, during which it was revealed that he thought I was divorced and had one child. He couldn't figure out why he would think such a thing if it wasn't true, and I told him it was probably just because he only half-hears me when we talk because there is usually loud music involved.
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[30 Jul 2008|03:34pm] |
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Don't you hate it when you catch yourself in the mirror and you feel like, "Is THAT what I look like??"
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| 2Gether + 4Ever |
[23 Jul 2008|09:32am] |
Amanda and I talk about how we're going to become DJs. I mean, you know I've talked about that before, but now I have a co-conspirator. Well, nowadays it seems that most clubs are monthly, not weekly. So you'll always hear about how New Wave City is "First Saturdays!" or The Pleasure Principle is "Third Fridays!"
Well, I thought I came up with this great joke, that my and Amanda's club night will be: Fifth Saturdays!
Hahaha! Haha! Ha!
And it _is_ funny, yes, because there isn't a fifth Saturday most months.
But the thing is, whenever I tell a friend who's actually in the business the joke...they don't laugh. They say something serious like, "Oh, fifth Saturdays. Yeah, that'd be about 5 events a year."
No! Joke! Funny!!
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| Great quote from dancing tonight: |
[19 Jul 2008|01:28am] |
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"I was doing The Robot, and you didn't even acknowledge me!" - Amanda
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[11 Jul 2008|07:39pm] |
Gwen was annoyed with my persistence about a movie she didn't want to watch, so she told me this as she headed upstairs:
"I'm going to not-interested-dot-com, slash, in-bedroom!"
I still can't get over how funny that is!
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| New Wave City: Synth Night |
[07 Jul 2008|10:31pm] |
Yikes, I'm writing this two days later instead of the day of! I fear my list of songs they played will not be very long this time. I apologize. Cuz I know that's your favorite part.
It was a fine night. Could have been better. The company was great (Tim, Amanda, Dave, Monty, and Virginia, plus most of the "regulars") and we had some big laughs. Dave and I can still really crack each other up, being all zany, just like in high school. Too fun. And I chatted at length several times with his boyfriend Monty, which was really nice, getting to know him better.
It was also immensely amusing to have the DJ upstairs, Low-Life, play our requests. The upstairs DJ booth is just right there on the dance floor. In fact, it's so right there that his table often gets bumped, much to his obvious annoyance. But yeah, it was lots of fun, in a show-offy way, to take Monty and then Virginia over to the DJ and request a song...and then have the DJ play it as the VERY NEXT tune! I thought that was so exceedingly nice of him. PLUS, when I asked him (as I always do) about "World in My Eyes (Cicada Mix)," which he plays, like, every time he DJs and is the best dance mix I've ever heard, he then played that for us, and my friends all enjoyed it as much as I do! That was really cool. (Davy and Brina were with me the first time I heard it, and they love it too. It's so freaking catchy!) Dave even held his drink up to me and said, "I love you, Jennie." I was like, "Uh...why?" He said, "THIS MIX IS AWESOME!" lol. Tim, meanwhile, bought it off Amazon the very next day.
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