Christine’s Birthday

January 10, 2004

To celebrate, we all started off the night with dinner at Papajin. Funny thing, since I had just eaten Papajin last night. But no matter – I couldn’t help myself. I ended up getting miso soup and sushi. Again. There were a lot more folks in attendance than show up in these pics (I felt a bit awkward breaking out the camera, as I had only met a few of Kent and Christine’s friends briefly before).

Heather and David. I sat next to them during dinner, and first met them at Kent and Christine’s wedding. We hit a lot of topics (80’s movies like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Krull and Tron). I mentioned Tron 2.0, and at some point there was a big talk about video games and arcades and Ataris.

Turns out, Heather owns a stand-up arcade version of Tempest she’s thinking about selling. Later on in the evening, I mentioned that I might be interested. Granted, I was a bit in the bag when I mentioned interest… but the idea of owning it is pretty tempting.

Table view.

Christine’s birthday cake. We had been sitting around after the meal for a while, talking and resting when this came out. Christine was a bit surprised.

Danny’s (this is on the doorstep to the bar). How long have I been coming here? There’s an upstairs to the place. I had no fucking idea. Tonight, we showed up with the place starting to fill, and our big group was scattered across the front room, half sitting at the bar, half standing. I’m not sure who it was who asked, but we were able to go upstairs – which was an incredibly fantastic area, away from the crowds and the noise and everybody else.

The upstairs was dark (like the rest of the bar), and had cushy seats agains the walls, and a wide island/seat. I was worried we’d spend the night splintered into small groups, but the upstairs area not only allowed everyone to stay together… it was a great spot to hang out.

Kent, hanging out on the windowsill talking with his sister, Valerie. Most of the upstairs was dark, the only light being the candles on the tables. You’ll probably see a lot more colors because… well, we’ve all been drinking, and people started to care less about the constant flashing. Actually, a lot of these photographs were Justin’s handiwork. The camera got passed around, so I’m not entirely sure who shot what.

Mary, who joined us at Danny’s. We talked a while about art and process, and it seemed like we shared a similar aesthetic as far as how we felt about the accessibility of art. She comes from an English background, is working on her MFA (video/painting), and has been considering pursuing psychology. I found this a pretty interesting combination of fields. When she talked about her show in June (graduation), I insisted on an invite.