Happy Birthday Dave!

May 3, 2005

Dave’s birthday is today, and a bunch of us met up at Handlebar to celebrate his big three-oh.

I’ve heard a lot about this place. but tonight was my first night. Great food (I had the catfish tacos for dinner), and somebody behind the bar has an amazing pitching arm. Dave and I were both working on whiskey, and the drinks we were handed rivaled the monstrous drinks I got from Opie.

Sidenote: happened to see Jamie working at Handlebar. I tried catching her eyes a few times, but didn’t get the chance to say hello.

Hillary, Jonathan and Gretchen. It’s been a long while since I saw Hillary and Jonathan – I think I last saw them together at Alex and Linda’s wedding. And the last time I saw Hillary, we were all hanging out at her apartment eating Hot Dougs.

Great talking with the two of them again. I got some really good interviewing advice from Hillary, and some audio hardware advice from Jonathan. Over the course of the evening, I got this idea regarding couples and them telling their stories of how they met. I don’t know whether I’ll pursue this idea to completion, but it’s a really interesting one. I think I could do some fancy stuff with this material in Flash.

Also got to hang out with Gretchen some (although I didn’t get to talk to Rob very much at all), and got caught up with what’s happening on her end. She’s looking to switch gears job-wise, and there’s a potential teaching gig she’s looking into. We talked teaching some, and I gushed about how great and rewarding it is (albeit the fact that it also comes with some super frustrating days).

Tori and Dave, right as the “cake” arrives.

Sven (who’s visiting from out of town), chatting with Christen and Katie. I think I first met Katie and Matt (and Mai) at Justin’s place, but didn’t end up taking many pictures that night. I recalled really enjoying my conversations with Katie and Matt, and had the same fun chatting with them this evening. It’s a shame they’re moving in about 3 weeks, but I hope to hang out with them again – they’re lots of fun to talk to, and I find myself laughing a lot when I do talk to them.

Let’s see… Christen I met a really long while ago (I’m not sure if I’m even spelling her name right). But it was cool to talk with her a bit more tonight as well. I’ve heard her name mentioned several times by friends, and it’s always in a positive, admiring context.

Oh! And over the course of the night, a bunch of us were blowing bubbles. One of the big tricks we were trying was to blow a bubble inside another bubble. After a lot of experimentation, Christen and I discovered that with the help of a straw, we could sort of “insert” one bubble inside another. This discovery was pretty exciting, and I have to admit I feel like I reverted to being a 5 year old, playing with bubbles again for the first time.

I also met someone named Suzanne (sp?), who seemed to sorta know me. I had a hard time placing where we might have met before, but we determined that we might have crossed paths at some point prior. She surprised me by mentioning that she stumbled across something I had written for a site called Minima, ages ago. That was a big blast from the past. I ended up jotting down my blog and linking to a few more recent bits of writing. The two of us talked a bit about short/micro/flash fiction, and I’m hoping to pick her brain more, as she seems to be fairly well read in this particular form. And to top it off… she had a Moleskine notebook as well. That totally made her go up in points, in my book.

Dave, looking all suave for the camera.

Outside, I finally get a good photograph of Mai. She stays in this bag most of the time, and seems to be pretty contented to just hide out and sleep or whatever. I think it’s hysterical that Mai is just so content to hang out in this bag, only occasionally peeking out to grab some fresh air or a bit of attention.

Group portrait, post-party. A lot of other folks took off prior to this shot, but we were the last ones out of the bar. L to R it’s Christen, Katie (with Mai peeking out), Dave, Sven and Matt.