Rosey's Diary: New Year, Fun Times

The other day I was at the park with Darren and his daughter when he turned to me and said, "I bet last summer you didn't see yourself spending your days hanging at the park with a bunch of kids." The comment choked me up a little bit and really got me thinking, probably more than he intended with his simple observation. We were running around, joining in on games of hide n seek and climbing monkey bars and making batches of sand cookies and I was thinking even further back than last summer...the difference in my life from a year ago to now is beyond words. I kinda buried it in this post from a year ago, my 5,000th post on this site,  but I was pretty much a walking disaster and on an emotional tailspin.

Things have definitely turned around and it's not just the parks, but work is good and steady, my apartment is officially "home" (even with frequent water & power outages from street construction), and as you can tell from the declined frequency of diaries and posts, I'm spending more time actually enjoying San Diego instead of spending my days writing about it from this horizontal position on my bed that is the reason we call these devices 'laptops'. So no, Darren, I didn't have any idea that my days would involve meandering bike rides, playing in parks, shooting arrows, braiding hair, table tennis in rec centers, frequent trips to Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, open space hikes, San Diego River Cleanups, 24 hour dates, getting back on the tennis court, and just lazing in bed by choice instead of the lack of will or energy to get out, but all of this in addition to my regular night life and shows and I feel like a more full and well-rounded human being. All the sunshine and rainbows makes for a really boring blog, but since I haven't really posted a diary since mid-November, I thought I'd sort of get to it before I attack the 600 emails waiting for me. If you dare/care, after the jump.





Today I was trying to find the site that started my online writing "career" back in college and it is totally gone, so as I've said before, these diaries are for me more than for you, since this has completely replaced my notebooks and journals, tweets disappear and I suspect Facebook won't last forever. I don't need to go into crazy detail, but here's where I've been since my last diary (on November 12).

Media Night at Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

My last post was 11/12...so from there, we had an amazing VIP night at Cavalia (11/13), AC Newman & Harriet at the Casbah (11/14), and the SD:Dialed In Anniversary Show at the Casbah (11/15) which was awesome. Races and Generationals played at the Casbah (11/16), I went with Chase to media night for Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots at La Jolla Playhouse and Transfer at the Casbah (11/17), and D and I saw Grammatical B at Soda Bar (11/18). Darren got sick but it didn't stop us from getting in some table tennis and a hike (11/19), a trip to the Safari Park and seeing The Faint at HoB (11/20), Rachael Yamagata at Anthology (11/21), Thanksgiving with my family followed by a neighborhood bike ride and This Must Be The Place at Ken Cinema (11/22), and a picnic and archery at Morley Field (11/23). Of course, Darren wasn't sick forever and got back to work, so I was doing my thing with karaoke at the Ken Club (11/23), hanging with Abraham when he came to town (11/24), and still had an occasional all day Walking Dead marathon (11/25).

Darren and I enjoyed a date night at the Zoo, Balboa Park, dinner at Blue Water, and Three Mile Pilot at the Griffin (11/26), then a chill day of Minh Ky, table tennis at the Rec, and errands (11/27). Real life kicked back in and (11/28) was my usual Casbah meeting/lunch/errands then a night at Whistle Stop and Soda Bar and SoundDiego Live at Seven Grand (11/29). We went back to the Zoo (11/30) followed by Old Tiger and The Paragraphs at Ruby Room and Colin Clyne at the Casbah. My friend Lorelei had a holiday party before I went to see Milo Greene and J Thoven at the Casbah (12/1), and Sunday I was a zombie and didn't do a thing (12/2).

(By the way, this is a really fun brain exercise/memory game/reminder of the cool shit worth tweeting/facebooking about.  I highly recommend stretching your brain and finding a daily highlight. Since I'm having fun as I catch up on Gray's Anatomy OnDemand, I'm going to keep going.)

Paul Banks at X-Session

As December kicked in, Paul Banks was in town so I went to the X-Session at 91X, dinner at HoB with Jeff before the show, the actual show, then Hot Snakes at the Casbah (12/3), checked out free museum day with Darren (12/4), and had my Casbah meeting and errands day followed by Kopecky Family Band at Soda Bar (12/5), and David Bazan with Mike and Elliott at Casbah (12/6). I pigged out at RB Sushi with Darren before he worked and I went to X-Fest with Chase (12/7), and hit a double-header with Jeff with Metric/Beast Patrol/Grand Tarantula at HoB and Pacific Air at Casbah (12/8). Darren and I stalked Craig's List and picked up a free ping-pong table in Oceanside, then I hung out with my sister, and followed with O'death and Turbo Fruits at Casbah with Jeff and late night karaoke at Eleven with Darren (12/9).

Alt-J at Iacon

I took a couple days devoted to work/home/Christmas shopping/errands (12/10-11), and after my usual Casbah/errand/lunch Wednesday had a fun date night at 777 Noodle House, Blondfire at 710 Beach Club, and a long walk on the beach before calling it a night (12/12). I got to see Alt-J at Iacon Studios followed by lunch at The Fishery with Jeff and a night of work at Brick By Brick for The Sword (12/13).

On Friday, Darren showed up at my door with my Christmas gift...the bike I'd been eyeing since we met. We rode around and enjoyed the day until he had to work. That evening, I finally took part in Boulevard Nights at the Lafayette, the Coffee & Tea Collective, and Media Arts Center, then checked out Barbarian and The Growlers at Casbah (12/14),  and we took a bike ride to Lefty's and North Park errands with Darren followed by the comedy of Fortune Feimster at American Comedy Co with Chase and Trans Am at the Casbah (12/15). We had the Casbah holiday brunch at Starlite then all day Christmas shopping with my sister and Jeff's birthday at the Casbah for Poor Moon and Pure Bathing Culture (12/16). On Monday I was back to the Zoo, got a Christmas tree, then saw Night Beats, Wild Wild Wets and The Woolen Men at Soda Bar (12/17), made a visit to my parents' followed by a night in the hood (12/18), and an early morning San Diego River Cleanup with Darren before Casbah meeting/Napoleone's and a night working at Brick By Brick for High On Fire, Corrosion of Conformity, and Goatwhore (12/19).

Fortune Feimster

Thursday was a work/errand day (12/20), then a chill day with Darren at Minh Ky and a North Park bike ride before heading to the Belly Up with Jeff for Dead Feather Moon, The Heavy Guilt, Trouble In The Wind. From there, Robin Roth and I went on to Low Volts at the Casbah and some drinks at the Ken Club (12/21).

Darren and I played tennis for the first time since my October injury, then I saw Japandi, Cuckoo Chaos, and Gothic Tropic at Soda Bar (12/22), I worked at the Casbah for X and My Jerusalem (12/23), had a nice Christmas Eve bike ride with Darren and Nova before we had dinner at my sister's, then I worked at Exile on Kettner (12/24). I spent Christmas with my family (12/25) then the next day at the Safari Park with Darren, his mom, daughter and nephews (12/26).

Safari Park

I went ceviche tasting at Vallarta's Supermarket with Jeff,  to Lyn's birthday party with Jake, then Louis XIV and The Howls at the Casbah with Pyles (12/27). I went to Lestat's for Josh Damigo's Birthday (12/28) then a full Turista Libre day in Tijuana for Kristian's Birthday (12/29). On Sunday, an overcast day quickly turned to hail but not before Darren, Nova and I wandered Balboa Park, climbed trees, and played in the park, then went home to dry our clothes and cozy up for dinner (12/30). I spent NYE helping to decorate the Casbah, going to the Zoo by myself for a couple hours, then I met Darren for dinner at Crazee Burger before I had to get ready for work at the Lafayette for the amazing sold out Casbah party. Darren was working, too, but nobody takes a cab at midnight on NYE, so he got to make hang out with me for an hour. After I was off, I stayed at the hotel until 5am when he was done working and we had an awesome New Year's Day biking and playing tennis in Coronado then walking around the Hotel Del, the beach, and the empty streets of Coronado (1/1).

So at least that gets me to this month. I was slow starting this month so it was catching up with work (1/2), dinner with Josh Damigo and seeing The Midwinters at Soda Bar (1/3), then a night that started off with my NBC interview about Anthology, Big Bad Buffalo at House of Blues, and closing with UJBOD, Fluf, Black Hondo and Ghetto Blaster at the Casbah (1/4). Saturday and Sunday were mostly just hanging with Darren, watching football do-nothing days (1/5-6), then a day of errands and date night to bingo at Eleven and the Barbarian residency at Soda Bar (1/7). I worked online all day (1/8), then Wednesday routine followed by tennis in Coronado (1/9) and more online work (1/10).

On Friday, Darren had errands in PB, so we took our bikes and rode around as we waited for his phone to be fixed then I went to see Jon Caparulo with Chase before heading to Soda Bar for Hi Ho Silver Oh, Charlene Yi and Boy King (1/11). After watching football and hoping to get my heater fixed for that week that was freezing here in San Diego, I left to El Zarape for the SoundDiego contributors' party, then the 91X Anniversary Show at House of Blues long enough to say hi to friends, then to the Casbah for Mrs. Magician and the Howls (1/12).

Keane

Sunday was a football day before I went to Keane and Youngblood Hawke at House of Blues with Jeff (1/13). Mondays are always good for errands and in the evening I had a North Park Festival of Arts meeting, popped into URBN to see Kristian and Jesse, then went to the Casbah with Pyles for the Family Wagon residency with guests Strange Vine. That's the night I came home and tried to turn on my heater and a fireball blasted my face, completely burning off the hair around my hairline and my eyelashes (1/14).

Darren felt bad about my face explosion, so it was nice knocking out more errands and walking around Balboa Park and discovering some of the more unknown areas. Later that night, I went to The Patio on Lamont Street with Jeff for San Diego Restaurant Week and on to The Griffin for Nightmare Air (1/15).

Mystery Pool at Balboa Park

The holidays had our schedules kinda tweaked, but things were back to normal so after my Casbah meeting, Darren and I had a 24 hour date that started with sushi at Azuki for #SDRW, grabbing our bikes and ended up being a 16 mile bike ride meandering around the city- through North Park, University Heights, Hillcrest, and Balboa Park. It was freezing by the time we got downtown so we loaded up on warm gear from Octopus, then continued our ride through downtown, around the harbor, and dinner at Mona Lisa, before we bussed home at 9 and then went to The Loft at UCSD for Sea Wolf (1/16) then went and got haircuts from his friend Sharone (1/17). That night I went with Jeff to He's My Brother, She's My Sister at the Casbah, then I closed the night at Eleven.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

The past week is obviously much fresher than the rest of all of this stuff. On Friday we spent some time at Froggy Park, then the afternoon walking around Golden Hill, playing the musical bridge, and climbing trees at the park before Darren had to work (1/18). After Saturday lunch at Tacos de Mexicali, we went on another meandering bike ride that started in City Heights, through Alta Dena and South Park, Golden Hill, then on to Sherman Heights, Logan Heights, Barrio Logan, Downtown, and The Harbor before Darren had to get to work. Wiped out, I stayed in that night (1/19).

Sunday was a football day and Darren reassembled our Stiga table that we acquired back in December. That night I went to my sister's for awhile, then we went to American Comedy Co for Henry Phillips and to the Casbah for the Roots Factory 3rd Anniversary, and I think it's the first time I went out with my sister and nobody else in over a decade, so it was a great time (1/20). Monday was Inauguration Day and MLK, Jr. Day, so we watched C-Span for much of the morning, then went to Froggy Park for awhile, then Darren and I reconvened for date night which involved riding bikes to URBN (where they now have Thorn Brewery beers available) and then riding to Adams to Park, through the Prado and down Laurel to the Casbah for Family Wagon and busing home (1/21). Tuesday was an all day work day and another water main break in my hood (1/22) and Wednesday was a Casbah meeting/errand day to the San Diego Public Market and Las Cuatro Milpas with Pyles before I spent the afternoon hanging with Nova while Darren handled some errands then staying over for dinner and some serious coloring (1/23). I' didn't intend to stay up all night writing, but I guess I needed to get all of this out of my brain because it was holding me from writing about other stuff.

To be completely honest, when I started this post, I was having a bit of a girl moment, feeling unproductive and a little unbalanced and disappointed in my slacker ways, but after getting all of this out, I feel really good about the big picture, know that I haven't actually slacked at all except in sharing all of my adventures. Mostly I realized that I haven't gotten away from the mission of this site; rather I've been doing nothing but enjoying San Diego to its fullest.