(majorly backdating this because I’m a lazy blogger!)

Night One

I spent Thursday in a da vinci suite at a post house in the city for my first color correction session. That was awesome and made me feel so professional. The colorist spoke directly to me as if I were the decision-maker, even though he knew quite well I wasn’t. My self-esteem appreciated the gesture. I went back to the office to catch the tail end of “Thirsty Thursday”, the recently reinstated monthly happy hour at work. It was a gorgeous day up on the roof deck. From there, I ventured down to Hi-Dive for some various celebrations. Now that I think I have my drinking problem under control ;), I’ve been making an effort to evolve from non-drinker to social drinker. I grabbed a Stella (my new de facto drink) and joined a group sitting outside. My timing was pristine apparently, since the moment I walked up, I was informed they’d all just been talking about me. Thanks, guys. Nah, it was cool. They were discussing a link I sent out about human motivation factors (thanks, Cerra). Apparently the dude talking about me got my name wrong and even though Jeremiah was nice enough to chime in with the correction, it was too late. Even he liked the new/wrong version: McCrutchan. Personally, I don’t like what it implies. McCutchan accurately says, “I’ll cut you”, whereas the other is more like, “I’ll help you hobble along.” As if. I’m no enabler.

Anyway, two beers & no food later, my cognitive abilities were slightly impaired. Therefore, I was easily persuaded to join Jules for dinner after she invited me along when I asked where they were off to. That, and I think she & her hubby are two of the coolest people I’ve met out here. (They defend the awesomeness of Nebraska and enjoy my random knowledge about livestock. Win.) So, Jules, Jeremiah, & I pile in a cab toward Haight. I have no recollection how the conversations (if you can call them that) we had in that cab ride unfolded but at one point I did a quiet impersonation of both a dolphin & seal and the topic of which animal you would have sex with if you had no choice came up. Luckily, Jeremiah side-tracked it by telling the story of a comedian he’d seen ask that same question of his audience. Oh, to be a cab driver.

We joined up with some other work people and Jules’ hubby and had dinner at Saffron Grill. Food was great. It was a nice, unexpected evening.

Quotes of the night:

“Prawns me.”

“I can’t believe you thought I was 36.”

“Wait, your whole platoon stared at you for 48 hours straight?”
“No, that’s what Gene said.”

Night Two

Well, it all began on the roof at work, where we had staged an elaborate surprise party for Matt before he left to get married and explore New Zealand for a month. We wanted to do something special, so at the end of the day, we gathered on the roof and Jeremiah sent him a bogus text about needing some help with a camera. His fiancee later told us, he IM’ed her, “I’m getting roped into something *sigh* brb” So funny.

We presented him with a bottle of scotch and the largest mother’s day card ever. We enjoyed some OMGWTFBBQ on the projector until it was dark enough to start our zombie movie. Even though it was chilly, it was a pretty awesome venue…AT&T park behind us, the marina off to the other side, and downtown SF in view. The movie, Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, was terrible in a fantastic way, exactly as I’d hoped. Our boss had seen it when he was little and he remembered it terrifying him, which made it that much more awesome. Matt’s fiancee eventually joined us and raised the party up a notch.


After the movie, we were still enjoying having a projector on the roof too much to part with it, so out came Photoshop. We invented a game I like to call Inappropriate Live Action Photoshopping (ILAP). It’s a more sophisticated version of writing inappropriate words on people’s foreheads with permanent marker. I highly recommend it. The worst lasting shame you risk is someone blogging a photo of your photoshopped self. (sorry guys)

From there we piled in the boss’s Vanagon for a trip to Rickhouse, a classy bar where watching the bartenders mix the drinks is as fun as drinking them. In the short trip there, we had a techno rave where we executed some techno dance move called “pass the ball” or something. I’m not hip on the lingo, but it was hilarious. As we parked, people walking by were staring down this random van emitting mad techno beats. We rocked it around a bit just to make them uncomfortable. Pretty awesome. Rickhouse was fun. I had a Cherry Blossom Cobbler, which contained 12-year-old Japanese whiskey. It had a bite to say the least. It was a fun atmosphere. The drinks made for a great conversation piece, as perfect strangers asked what you ordered while watching the bartender (quite literally) construct it in front of them. Pretty neat.

We closed down the night at Vesuvio in North Beach. It was my kind of place. Quiet, cafe-like atmosphere with a great little balcony offering a view of the alley out the window. I loved it there. It was a really amazingly fun night overall and this blog post would better reflect that if I hadn’t waited a month to post about it.