Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Rosey's Diary: Love Is In The Air (10/22-11/12/2012)



I was trying to keep up with these diary posts because they always seem to get really long winded, but despite the fact that I actually prepared this post after I returned from Mexico (10/28), it has been sitting in a draft format in the queue since then. My last diary post was on 10/21, and naturally there have been so many things to add since then, even beyond my little headers that I write when I post listings. I guess mostly it's long winded because I have a lot to share-as the title suggests- and it would be cheap to leave any of the good stuff out.

So yeah, as always, if you're just here for listings or show recommendations, or contests or scene news, you can skip this post entirely. On the other hand, I've learned that I essentially have three types of readers: people who have a lot of free time to read anything and everything on the web, friends who live vicariously through me and/or want to keep up with me, or people who read my writing to judge me, though hopefully there aren't too many of those. Whatever category you may find yourself, by all means, click the jump.

Let's rewind, shall we? So after that crazy weekend where I worked at Rocktoberfest, the Frightened Rabbit show at the Irenic, and then went to the Livewire Anniversary party, all while on crutches, I was called the next day to do merch at Soma for Crystal Castles. I'll save you the rant I originally wrote, but I'll state for the record that there was nothing fun about that night. I was in pain, kids can be mean, and there was so.much.merch. I was pretty happy when that was Darren arrived to take me home.


I definitely enjoyed taking Monday off, but by nightfall I was seeing Jason Lytle of Grandaddy at the Casbah. That was a special show and you can see videos on my YouTube channel.While I can say that it surprised me that the show was lightly attended, it only made it that much more enjoyable after a crazy weekend of sold out shows and ravenous crowds.

By Tuesday, my leg had turned a deep purple from the tennis injury a week prior so the day was pretty much devoted to work and pajamas and hanging at Darren's until Wednesday when Matt & Kim and Oberhofer played at House of Blues. It was a Casbah presents show, but above that, my friend at Livenation/House of Blues put us in the VIP section after seeing me hobbling on crutches over the weekend. I had a photo pass, however, so here are some of those shots.













Believe me, I know I'm no photographer, but more of a shooter, but it was still fun to be in the pit. On top of that, Darren really likes Matt and Kim and we saw Oberhofer during one of our early dates, so it was really cool to get extra special treatment at the show. We had an awesome night- fantastic show, a nice walk around downtown, a couple drinks at the Casbah, then used UBER to get back to the hood, where we had a few drinks at Eleven before calling it a night.

I had to make sure all of my work was done on Thursday before heading to Chula Vista to stay at my parents' house so my mom could take me to the border on Friday for my trip to Puerto Vallarta. My nieces were staying for the weekend since my sister was already in Mexico, and it was really fun to hang out with family for a night, even if it always makes me feel 14 when I stay at their house.

On Friday morning at 6 am (after I finally went to sleep at 3:30 am), I went to the Otay border crossing, caught a cab to the airport, and caught my Volaris flight to Puerto Vallarta. I have to tell you that Volaris is awesome; the Southwest of Mexico, and we booked over 8 months in advance so my flight was only about $75 roundtrip. My room at Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta seemed expensive at about $165/night, but when you consider that it was all inclusive- all meals at any of the restaurants, room service, gratuity, mini-bar, facilities, and any drink at any bar for the duration, this was a pretty inexpensive getaway. I bought the Nexus 7 Google tablet for the trip (8 gb, $199) and was in contact with home exactly as much as I needed to be. I also have to give a shout out to Chase for petsitting while I was away to make this a short but utterly relaxing and amazing weekend.











It was purely magical in Puerto Vallarta. It was hot and humid, but when you're on vacation and have nothing to do but relax and then you sleep in an air conditioned room at night, there are no complaints. Sara has been one of my best friends since high school and she was just glowing all weekend, and the wedding- with 74 guests who flew in for the weekend or longer- was just amazing. Without getting crazy personal, her father is on the winning end of cancer, so we were all completely thrilled and there wasn't a single dry eye as he walked her down the aisle, and there were some gushing tear moments as he toasted the newlyweds and sang "Sunrise, Sunset". After a blissful wedding, I took the camera to the room and just purely enjoyed all of the special moments through the reception and after-party. It was also glorious to get a note about daylight savings...Mexico 's big "F You" to Bush, I suppose, and we had clocks turn back a week before the US to get an extra hour before our departure the next day.



On Sunday we flew home, and I'm not gonna lie, it was a total pain in the ass compared to the way down. The checkin line was ridiculously long and slow moving, there were about 20 mountain bikers on our flight so the baggage check was nutso, and even after arriving in Tijuana and getting our things and catching a cab back to Otay, the pedestrian border cross took well over an hour. I had to keep reminding myself that my flight was sooo cheap. I wish I could express the joy I felt when Darren was there with his cab just on the other side of the border waiting for us.

Admittedly it took me a couple days to get back into real life. I skipped shows for a couple days and was either at home catching up on my laptop or out biking the neighborhood or playing ping pong or generally hanging out with Darren. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder, of course).

Come Tuesday, I caught up on errands and finally made it to a show at the Soda Bar to see Zammuto which was pretty fun, but it made me realize that it was probably the longest period without a show that I've gone since starting this site. Perhaps I need breaks like that more often.

As Halloween rolled around, we had a Casbah decorating day so I made this pumpkin for Obama, then completely avoided Halloween stuff by hiding under my covers for a majority of the afternoon, and then hanging out with Darren's daughter at night until he got off work around 3:30 in the morning.

On Thursday, I was a guest on KPBS Midday Edition to do the weekend preview which is always fun, and then worked most of the day until Elliott picked me up to see Good Old War and NeedToBreathe at Humphrey's. I don't need to tell you how much I love Good Old War. They're from Philly, and their songs like "Better Weather" and "Loud Love"were especially poignant because of all the destruction on the East Coast from Sandy.






The crowd for the night seemed to be dominated by students from Point Loma Nazarene (judging by how many friends Elliott saw there) and they were especially rabid for NeedToBreathe from North Carolina. I shot the first few songs but decided to sit in the back of the venue for the show since the entire crowd decided to stand for the show. There's not much legroom at Humphrey's as it is, but standing wasn't how I wanted to experience that particular show. I have to say I was surprised that Humphrey's let them stay standing. NeedToBreathe sounded to me like a cross between Switchfoot and Kings of Leon. The crowd ate it up. After the show I stopped by the Casbah for Lord Huron, then went to Bar Pink for a nightcap with The Beautiful View. It was a gorgeous night out and it was nice walking home from the bar.




I really value the daytime more than I ever thought I would. Darren and I have opposing schedules, but we generally have mid-morning to afternoon to hang out and kick around town. What was an unsuccessful trip to get new tires for his car resulted in a great late lunch at Tita's Kitchenette in National City and some grocery shopping at Vallarta's before he had to get on the clock and I kicked around home for a few hours until it was time to head to the Ruby Room for Andrew's (AMD Entertainment) show. It was a Walking Dead them party, though hopefully he's forgiven me for not partaking. The bands were great and it was just a fun vibe all around before I went back to the hood for a nightcap at Eleven before calling it a night.

Saturday was thankfully a lazy day until the afternoon. We left Darren's car at American Tire and Brake Company (near Hoover High) to get new tires, alignment and brakes, then walked home along the Boulevard, meandering into the interesting little businesses along the way until it was time to get Pyles and head to the wedding of Lucina & Tim Mays.

I titled this post "Love is in the air" because despite my obvious happiness with Darren, three couples that I absolutely adore were married in the past few weeks with Daye & Kathryn Salani, Brandon & Sara Lee, and Lucina & Tim Mays. Maybe because I've been so single for so long, I'm generally not invited to many weddings yet all of these...Daye & Kat's picnic reception at Liberty Station, Sara & Brandon's in Puerto Vallarta, and Tim & Luci's at their home were completely unique and mostly just evidence that both couples have so much love around them and between them. It's also kinda great to have a boyfriend who doesn't turn and run at the suggestion of going to such events with me even if his work schedule means he has to leave early and come back to get me at the end.




After the wedding I dropped by Eleven to catch Skyline Union then Ugly Boogie at Soda Bar, but I didn't really bother with photos and such. Sunday was a pretty awesome lazy day with Darren until the Other Lives show (which will get its own post), then Monday followed suit with the Diamond Rings show at Soda Bar. Tuesday was spent avoiding election info by day, the evening with Jeff at Bar Basic and Dark Dark Dark and Emily Wells at Luce Loft, then complete obsession with election results, as obvious by my tweets/blog posts. That was definitely a great day for my political leanings, not just nationally with the reelection of Obama, but for statewide propositions and local seats.

It was a typical Wednesday with our Casbah meeting, then lunch at Lucha Libre with Pyles and Darren where we kicked off our bi-weekly 24 hour date, which this time around involved buying a couch, running errands, seeing Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots at La Jolla Playhouse, a meandering drive home that included stops at Scripps Crossing (the bridge at Scripps Institute), Children's Pool, Windansea beach, then parking the car at home to have drinks at Eleven and Soda Bar, fun times in the rain, breakfast in bed, and work. Yoshimi is awesome and nothing like I expected, as I mentioned, and if you plan on seeing the show, don't wait to buy tickets because I hear the entire run is selling out quickly. Grab obstructed view seats in the first two rows for only $15, but consider that there are only 27 seats at that price per show, so don't wait.


The rest of last week was pretty great. I finally did an official San Diego Beer Week event at Bottlecraft- a vertical tasting of Lagunitas Brown Shugga' (tasting the '12, '10, '09, and '06) and hitting up the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion show at the Casbah, seeing Metz at Soda Bar, and closing down the bar at Eleven. I ended up staying up till sunrise as I got through some work and household chores, which meant a long day of sleep and then some time with Darren before he worked and I was off to dinner at Blue Water with Jeff and the Sea Wolf show at the Casbah. I completely fell in love with openers Hey Marseilles! so I'd definitely recommend checking them out. After the show, I went to the Ken Club but just missed Twin Shadow, but it was nice to hang out in the old hood.

The weather on Saturday was perfect...super chilly but great for sleeping in, then catching a bike ride through Normal Heights, Kensington, Talmadge, than back home through City Heights. I worked at the Casbah for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, but I already mentioned how amazing that night was here. After the electricity from the night wore off, Sunday was nice to just hang out in pajamas and watch football and the SDSU basketball game that was held on the USS Midway flight deck, but before Darren worked, we decided to investigate the San Diego Activity Center in Balboa Park since we've heard so much about the badminton and table tennis facility. The SDTTA (San Diego Table Tennis Association) website said there was a tournament, so we were very happy to arrive in time to see several final matches for various competition levels. There were some very serious players and it was a bit inspiring because I thought I was a decent player, but they're just on a whole other level. I can't wait to go back and maybe enter one of the Thursday night round robin tournaments.

Eventually the sun was setting and Darren and I parted ways to work. I had a couple hours before, however, so I made a dinner feast that was ready by the time he came to drive me to the Casbah. I did merch for The Sea And Cake and it was another really great night, with one of the band members acting as tour manager and having everything set up upon my arrival. At the end of the night, he cut me loose, too, saying he could load and count everything which was fine by me. We dropped by Eleven in time for a beer, but too late for karaoke and called it a night.

I'll finally put this post to rest on Veteran's Day, which I spent with my family. We did part of the day in Pacific Beach and then most of the evening in Chula Vista, where we ordered some pizzas as we all gathered around the TV to watch my SoundDiego piece on their DVR. Thank goodness for editing as they completely cut several of my questions and kept the segment short and sweet and with fewer cringeworthy moments than I expected. Which brings me to this moment. My cable just blacked out and the clock is off by almost 4 hours, which means I'm going off to dreamland after a couple hours earlier in the night watching Ping Pong Playa at D's on Netflix and then watching my Bravo shows at home. I'm super excited for Tuesday because aside from our daytime plans, Darren and I are going to opening night of Cavalia and have VIP tickets. Of course, you'll hear all about it here, and I promise not to wait so long between my diary posts. Sweet Dreams, San Diego. See you in the morning afternoon.

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