Day Off

Thank goodness for Martin Luther King Jr. day and granting all of us a day off. I so needed it. I blogged this awhile back, but I was at Jackie's soup party one night. We were playing a game where random question cards were drawn then everyone went around answering the question. One particular question was who did you missed the most in the world. I was about to answer when a girl beat me to the punch and said her grandmother. I was shocked! I declared to the group that I was planning on saying Martin Luther King Jr. Chrisle then said, "Girl...did you know him personally?" LOL! Chrisle has the best one liners ever. So as you all can imagine that particular Monday was uber special to me. I ended up bumming around during the day and didn't do much.

In the evening though, I headed over for a dinner party at Austin's. He had cooked quite the feast for us. There was stuffed salmon, roasted vegetables and all sorts of other yummy goodies. Bill actually showed up in time for dinner and brought pound cake with strawberries for dessert. The dinner was the perfect way to end the long weekend. We sat around eating and drinking. Chrisle and Chrisn was in fine spirits that night and got super wasted. The two of them and Austin kept forcing wine down by throat, literally holding the full glass to my mouth. Mama no! In the midst of their drunkenness, A4A got loaded and people got IMed when they shouldn't have. My favorite moment was when Chrisle ran over, almost breaking the living room table to prevent Jay and Austin from...Chrisle, Chrisn and I left in the end to share a cab home together. I had to steady the two of them. It was totes weird to be the sober and responsible one. LOL!






Tuesday was back to the good old grind at work. I really wanted to have a hot toddy and chicken pot pea because I was feeling a little under the weather. However, Cindy invited me to join William and her for dinner at Weird Fish in the Mission. The place is famous, and I would never go on my own so I decided to put my original cravings on hold. The restaurant was tiny, and Cindy and I met the manager of the restaurant while we were waiting for a table. The dude was so friendly and even offered Cindy some great relationship advice. My fish and seafood stew was indeed quite yummy. The clam chowder wasn't the best I've ever had though. We each had two glasses of wine and were all craving dessert. Cindy sadly couldn't join us because she had to go see her boy.

William and I headed over to Chow on Church since he couldn't stop raving about their ginger chocolate cake, which did turn out yummy. In our typical decadent style, we ordered a bottle of wine to split. We totally didn't that, but oh well! Life is too short not to indulge. When it got close to leaving time, I leaned in close to William and asked him if he was thinking what I was thinking. With an air of mystery, he asked me what I had in mind. "Want to go to Bagdad's for an omelet." William laughed so hard. I was being serious too. I have been insatiable when it comes to food recently. Sadly no omelet that night as I bused it back to the Marina.

~A

The Year Of The Panda

I am suffering from blogging withdraw so badly, but I have had literally no time to sit down and write. I am determined to churn a few entries out this weekend though. Let's go all the way back to Paul's see you later brunch at Lime. Our dear African got a gig researching lions for four months in Africa so he is returning to his homeland. He had never done the Lime brunch thing so I thought it would be the perfect going away extravaganza for him. I couldn't get us a table for Sunday, but it turned out that Sat. brunch at Lime is as popping at Sunday now. I guess the good word finally spread. It was definitely a very good looking crowd when we arrived to the endless mimosas and loud club music. The 3 Musketeers stepped up our game as well. I decided to wear a jacket and cinch it at the waist with a brown belt. Chrisle wore some super cute suspenders while Chrisn brought the Adam Lambert hair along with a Bohemian headband. Loved our look! We got a great table, and I forced everyone to drink mimosas like it were water. Before we knew it, we were all tanked out of our minds.






Brunch at Lime is always filled with laughter and good stories. On this particular day, the place was filled with breeders. Apparently some straight girl was celebrating her birthday and had the whole back section reserved. So a lot of the hot studs wandering around the restaurant turned out to be straight. Imagine the Marina guys in the Castro. While we were downing mimosas, this not attractive dude came over and slipped a note to Paul. It turned out the man was giving our African his digits. Chrisn was so drunk that he grabbed Paul's phone and messaged the guy back. The problem was that Chrisn proposed a threesome between the ugly dude, Paul and the ugly dude's hot friend in a stripped hoodie. It turned out that the cutie was straight, and the ugly dude wouldn't stop nagging Paul. At one point, Paul and I were at the bar because I was gonna buy him a shot and get a pic of him with his crush/bartender. The ugly dude came over again. This time, I started yelling at him on why he was hitting on my husband. The dude didn't believe me, but I wouldn't back down. LOL! Paul was so grateful that I protected him. The drinking last for like three hours where we also befriended a bunch of random girls. We were probably the craziest group in the restaurant; we typically are. It was also the first time Marco hung out with our group and came to the realization we party hard. See all the pics from the brunch here and here.






After brunch, we all stumbled our to Jay and Austin's to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Of course a group of the boys got distracted and made a detour to the porn store where old issues of Playgirl was purchased. People drank even more when we got to the apartment. But being the responsible drinker that I am, I slowed my pace down. We spent the next few hours doing all sorts of silly thing: group fun on Paul's bed, Chrisn doing a handstand and failing miserably, trying to make me suckle milk from a nipple while I was napping and more! Everyone was a super tranny mess. Soon it was dinner time, and Paul ordered pizza for all of us. I've never seen gays down carbs that fast in my entire life. LOL! Drunken slores definitely get hungry. The last thing I remembered before leaving the apartment was that Austin, Chrisle and Chrisn were all dead asleep. It was such a hilarious sight to behold.

When night rolled around, I had to drag my hungover ass back to the Marina to shower and change. I had no time to rest before cabbing it to Soma to pre-game at Chrispy's apartment before rejoining the rest of the boys in the Castro again. Dear readers, I am sure you are wondering how I do these marathon drinking events. I ask myself that on a daily basis. I really couldn't ingest anymore alcohol when I arrived at Chrispy's, but I ended up with a champagne glass in hand. Chrispy's friend Jacob was a total sweetheart to him and flew in from Boston for his birthday weekend. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with Eric. It was a nice, casual and intimate gathering.






The night continued as we all got into cars to drive back to the Castro. As we were parking, I explained to Jacob that knowing others' status as a bottom or top is like a handshake in the gay community. Jacob then went onto ask me to guess his role, and I am not one to reveal secrets! I parted with Chrispy's gang to meet up with Paul and co. at Moby Dick's. Apparently Austin and Chrisn were both too drunk and unconscious to continue the festivities. Paul showed me a pic of Chrisn dead asleep on the sofa with Playgirl magazines littered on him. Do not fall asleep around the Working Gays, nothing good can come of it. We had a few drinks at Moby's before I declared to the group that it was time to dance! So we mobilized Toad Hall where we busted our moves. Chrispy's gang joined us. Jeremy texted me to find out where I was, and he brought his gang as well. The merging of three groups meant we took over the bar. That was such an amazing moment! I started to sober up because I decided I didn't want to be too messy with continued drinking. Toad Hall is the only place in the Castro I've ever had fun sober. I guess the music and dancing just really do the trick. We shut the bar down pretty much. I think dear Paul had an amazing time, and we sent him off with festivities galore.






I was gonna rest on Sunday since I was exhausted from all the activities from the week. But instead met up with Dustin at Tian Sing in Union Square for dim sum. It turns out that the place has amazing Shanghai dumplings where you can taste the broth when you bite in. Yummy! I am totally going back. After lunch, we went to the top floor of the Grand Hyatt for some wine. Doug had recommended the place to me back in the day, but I never got around to it. The view was amazing! We couldn't stay too long though because we caught a showing of 'The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.' I wasn't super crazy about Heath Ledger's last film, but my #1 celebrity crush Jude Law was in it so of course I had to see the film. Dustin had already seen it and said it was good enough for him to see again. The movie was good, kinda out there but entertaining and thoughtful. Next stop was Blackbird where we had another round of cocktails. You gotta love drinking on a Sunday.



For dinner, I headed over to Chrisle's place who baked a chicken for Chrisn and me along with corn butter sauce as well as a ponzu sauce. We had daikon radish on the side. Apparently the whole meal was supposed to be Asian themed. We ate heartily and joyously! We watched TV, discussed why we were single, gossiped about other gays. Chrisn and I stayed over till almost midnight. We missed Fresh that night, and it would have been a good one to go to because of the long weekend. But I wouldn't have changed what we did instead. Thanks for having us over Chrisle!

~A

The Night I Met The One

Chrisle and I met for dinner again on Thursday night. I was craving Vietnamese so we went to Aux Delices in Russian Hill. That place is cheap and delightful. Not to mention, it's located just between Chrisle's apartment and mine. We were starving when we arrived so we ordered way too much food. The cuisine was delicious as expected but there were some quite unexpected eye candy. There was this hot tall dude who just came from the gym. I would have rather eaten him than the crispy chicken. LOL! After dinner, Chrisle and I decided to grab a drink at Cinch. Some of the other boys were headed to Blackbird, but neither one of us felt like traveling south. At Cinch, this drunk (potentially straight) guy came up and started chatting with us. All of a sudden he sprang a knock knock joke on Chrisle and then ended up slapping him. Poor Chrisle! It was totes weird.

Friday night, Kia and Corey had Erin and me over for dinner in the Mission. Corey made this amazing lamb shank that he had in the slow cooker all day. The meat was so tender and flavorful. Kia and Corey are my favorite straight couple and quite the hosts. We sat around the dinner table drinking wine and swapping funny stories. It's funny that I see them probably more often than I see Aaron who introduced them to me. Aaron is always accusing me of stealing his friends, LOL! As much fun I was having, I couldn't stay to play drunken Wii with everyone else. There was another adventure waiting for the 3 Musketeers.

To prove to Chrisle that we don't always just go to the same bars in the Castro, Chrisn and I agreed to go set up bear traps with him at the leather bars in Soma. The first stop of the night was The Eagle Tavern. Side note, Kia and Corey apparently had gone to the place and had a total blast! God bless liberal minded breeders who try out daring gay activities. Anyways, the place was pretty damn empty. There were two cubs who were pretty cute, but we were over it. We moved onto Lone Star Saloon. I was pretty drunk at this point so I don't remember anything particular about this place except that we hung out in the backyard and drank Red bull vodkas. When we left, I was the first one outside. Apparently I missed a hot bartender asking Chrisn to return to the bar the next night for his birthday party. Too bad for the Menbargo Act of 2010. HAHAHAHAHA! We stumbled over to The Stud, which was packed because of a drag show. I think we were supposed to pay a cover, but the 3 drunken Musteers didn't give a fuck and just wandered in. I wasn't really into the show and sorta fell asleep on in the audience. All of a sudden, a dude turned to us and said "If your friend can't stand up on his own, you need to take him out." Oops!




Chrisle and Chrisn escorted me out, and thank goodness they did because that place was just too much. And more importantly, it was the turning point of the night. We didn't know where to go next but stumbled upon this bar called Chaps II. When we saw the name, we knew it was gonna be a good place. The place wasn't that packed; Chrisn and Chrisle ordered another round of drinks while I sat down. There were two go go dancers performing on the bar. One of them decided to move away from the bar and come dance on the platform next to us. Chrisle immediately pulled out $1 and told me to tip him. I was too shy and surprisingly the least drunk out of the three of us. We started to argue about who will slip the dollar in the dude's jockstrap when I finally had enough. I went over and tucked the money into the hottie's crotch but when I was about to withdraw, he held onto my hand and had me do some extra rubbing. Before I knew it, he was crouching down to hold me. O_o Soon he was holding me and rubbing me. And it doesn't end there...we kissed on the lips, a gentle sexy one. As he held onto, I felt weird and actually said out loud, "This is awkward." LOL! So to make it less awkward, he had me resume touching his one eyed monster. This time I knew I had to say something better, so I followed up with "You're really hung." He liked that one and winked at me. I ran back to Chrisle and Chrisn, and we gigged like little girls. I think that go go dancer was probably the love of my life! I mean talk about a deep connection. That $1 got me so far because we're soul mates. LOL! The running joke for the rest of the weekend was to go up to a hot guy and ask him what we can get for a dollar. Does this mean that I have to forgo the nights at Badlands and isntead frequent Chaps II, the fine establishment where my husband works?




Keeping it classy, we followed the neon sign of Burger King where we gorged ourselves on fried fast food. So we didn't trap a bear that night, but we did even better. We found me the partner I am destined to spend the rest of my life with.

~A

You Make Bad Look So Good

With the start of every work week, things get rough. Two Mondays ago, there were just fire after fire to put out. My pod and I then had to stay late for a VC meeting with our India counterparts who are total sweethearts. I got back to the Marina around 8PM and was starving! I went to Pasta Pomodoro on Union and ordered up a storm. I had rock shrimp pasta, a soup, a caprese salad and then a tiramisu to complete the meal. No big deal, I went to the gym earlier in the evening. The best part? The restaurant apparently does a 30% off your meal if you spend over $30. All that food ended up to about 20 something dollars. I had a very good night of feasting. The next night I met up with BB, my dear SNAP buddy for dinner. We went to South Park Cafe (not to be confused with South Beach Cafe). Bill had gone on a date there ages ago and raved about it. I thought it would be such an appropriate venue for BB and me. We had a decadent French meal and caught up on each others' lives. BB's boss is coming into town from Germany and will be staying for two weeks. And of course he is too ashamed to introduce me to her, so heaven knows when I will get to see him again. LOL!

Wednesday was action packed. In the early evening, Chrisle and I got tickets to go to the Dine About Town opening party in the Westfield. I was torn between going to the gym and getting to the venue early to ensure the most amount of booze will be consumed. As my coworked Lee Anne stated, "The gym and vodka, Alex's two favorite things." Guess which one I picked? I headed to Union Square early because I remembered that I had to also pick up Chrisle's and Chrisn's holiday gifts. They finally came in! After that was done, Chrisle and I ran into each other and got in the long line for the event. There were plenty of people who thought like us and got there early. At first, we were concerned because the space looked small. We thought we wouldn't probably end up getting all that much food or booze. Well, we were dead wrong. The event turned out to be organized very well; they didn't oversell on the tickets. All the restaurants who participated were efficient in getting their food out, and there was plenty to go around. My favorites were the pork belly from Fish & Farm and the pulled pork brioche sandwiches with Luce. I would like to note that I've had the wisdom to dine at both of those fabulous establishments. But I would like to give mad kudos to the Blue Angel Vodka booth who started the night conservatively with tiny mixed cocktails, then moved onto pouring martinis and finished the night by giving us shots. LOL!


When Chrisle and I were stuffed and quite drunk, we met up with Chrisn for him to get a bite in the food court. I continued the drinking by getting a bottle of the Buckhorn Special. When we were all seated, I presented the boys with their gifts. I ended up getting each of us a sterling silver necklace with a Fleur De Lys charm (purchased at the World Of Charms) to represent the 3 Musketeers. That way, no matter where we are, we will always be united. Or as Chrisle said drunkenly, "I will wear this when I slore so it will feel like the two of you are watching over me." LOL! Chrisle and Chrisn loved the necklaces and that made me very happy! At the food court that night, out of nowhere our SF stud of a mayor, Gavin Newsom, showed up to pick up some pasta. A couple of people went up to him to say hi. Since I was filled with liquid courage, I decided to go up and say hi. The man looks even better close up. I shook his hand and told him that I remembered him from the Google SF office grand opening, and he should come back to visit us again. He laughed and said he hadn't been invited back. I then explained that he is welcome for lunch whenever he wants. LOL! Apparently during the short conversation, I touched his arm a few times (there definitely were some biceps underneath the suit). Chrisle and Chrisn shook their heads and told me that I touched the mayor inappropriately. HAHAHAHAHA! Chrisle and Chrisn are indeed wise proven by the quote, "Choke him before he chokes you! O_o

Even though I was falling asleep in the food court, I convinced Chrisle and Chrisn to come with me to A-List at Amber India. I bought us another round of unneeded cocktails when we got there. At least, I got some fruity drink and not a martini. It was the usual A-List crowd except we had a straight invade our space because they were making out amongst all the gay men. Totes ridiculous! Tyler and Mark showed whom I hadn't seen in awhile. Too bad Eric didn't come with them as well. The night did take a wrong turn though. Because of my intoxication, I was a little "too liberal" with my hands pertaining to a certain individual who showed up at A-List. In retrospect, I am horribly embarrassed. At the time though, it seemed like a hot idea. And anyways, if it was so bad, he would have stopped the situation. LOL! Let's just say Alex was a tranny mess but an endearing one.






Whenever we do A-List in Union Square, there is always the prospect of Katana-Ya afterwards. Chrisle was surprisingly against it, so Chrisn and I had to strong arm him into it. We each looped one of his arms and led the way to Mason and Geary for some ramen bliss. BG4J! I heart fun weekdays. See all the pics from Wed here.

~A

Fireflies

Sorry! I have fallen behind on the blogging again. Every time I think I am gonna catch up, more social activities come up. Two Saturday nights ago, I cabbed it down to the Castro to have dinner with the boys. I was cooped up all day in my apartment and was in desperate need of social interaction. We went to Frances, the newest restaurant in the Castro. Thank goodness for Chrisle who made reservations months ago. The place was packed when I arrived. The best part was that we got the best table in the house, prime restate for people watching. The service was superb, and the food was even better. My chicken dish practically melted in my mouth. I think it also helped that we got this amazing bottle of wine for the table. The whole dining experience was simply amazing! I also had a chance to hear about everyone's adventure from the night before. Totes interesting! As I mentioned in the previous entry, I learned to never go to the Mission late night unless I want to get attacked. Mama no!






After dinner, our posse divided in half. Some went to slore, some went straight clubbing and some went...oh who am I kidding? Those whores all went to slore. William, Chrisle and I stayed pure and went to Humphry Slocombe's anniversary party in Civic Center. Sean and Jake had their party at some crazy dive venue, which was supposedly the bottom floor of someone's house. The vibe was totally emo and grunge. They served Pabst Blue Ribben and Tecate, classy I know. The drag queens who performed were beyond tragic messes. The highlight though was that I saw the dude who kissed me the week before at The Cafe. He was totally drunk, but I was still able to confirm his name. He told me I was "amazing." Too bad I was like 80% sure he didn't know my name. LOL! At one point, he used to me to escape from this bearded drag queen who was like ready to rape him. Besides him, plenty of the other Castro characters showed up. After an hour, I was over the cheap beer and the whole scene. I was ready to dance! We said our goodbyes (to the cute boys) and headed back to the Castro.




Next stop? We returned to our old stomping ground of Toad Hall where Jonathan, Tom and Dave met up with us. Since it has been so long, my memory is kind of hazy on what happened that night. But I can guess that we had plenty of alcohol. I guzzled vodka since I didn't really drink much of the beer at the party. Then we danced, danced and danced! I really gotta say that Toad Hall has really stepped up their music selection. Marco came for a brief second to get us to go to Badlands, but we didn't follow. Instead to appease Chrisle and his lust for bears, we mobilized to The Edge next. William and Chrisle wanted to show us the "back room," which was actually just a bathroom trough. LOL! Austin showed up as well and was a total mess. Loves it! Towards the end of the evening, we of course needed a late night snack. Chrisle and I headed to Orphan Andy's and was able to secure the very last booth. I blinked and Emily, Chrisn and Emily's friend were sitting next to us and pigging out as well. We somehow always get the judgmental waiter who clearly was over dealing with drunk people late at night.






I originally planned on being a total bum on Sunday, but I got a text from Dustin asking me to hang out. And I never turn down a social invitation. I met him at the AMC on Van Ness to watch 'Leap Year' featuring my second British husband, Matthew Goode. He is so charming and sexy. The movie was super cute and made me want to visit Ireland even more. You all should know I am sucker for romantic comedies, but the ending was kind of the ridiculous and ruined a part of the film for me.


One of my favorite things about Dustin is that the boy is always up for a cocktail. Even though he was supposedly not drinking for the month of January, he caved to my persuasive arguments. "Let's go drink Dustin!" We walked over to Polk and went into Vertigo. I hadn't been to that place in years and never early in the night. The few times I've been it was to dance the night away. Dustin and I had two rounds and gossiped for a storm. I was actually pretty buzzed by the time I left the bar to meet Maryam for dinner. I bused it over to Japantown for shabu shabu at Cafe Mums. She was up for the all you can drink deal so we went to town. It was exciting to introduce her to the art of shabu shabu. By the end of the night, I was so stuffed and drunk. Too bad I ended the night on a sour note because of some foolish text messages. But what cha gonna do?

~A