My Isle of Innisfree

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer,

And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say,
But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away.

Spring Break was great. I would have been happy just to lay back and relax someplace warm. To be able to hang out with your best friend from college in Los Angeles was total bonus.

Disclaimer: I would have had more pictures had I found my digital camera a little earlier in the week (I'm very good at hiding things from myself without trying). I only found my camera on the last day so these pictures basically retells what happened the last night I spent in LA.

This is the sign to the entrance of the Standard. It's one of the most famous clubs/bars in the US. The rooftop club had a warm water pool at the perfect temperature that was lined with these plastic lounge chairs shaped in a strange fashion but would be perfect for, well, tanning. They also had a projector that projects a movie to the building across the street that you can sit in these other weirdly shaped plastic chairs to watch. But best of all, they had these inverted onion shaped domes that were hallow with a water bed inside of it! The best part is to just jump head first into one of those things and just bop up and down with the water forever. Not to mention these heat lamps that are placed around lounge couches that acted not only like little oasis of warmth on a cool night but also provided the perfect level of lighting to give off this lamp in a garden feel.

As great as all of this sounds, I don't have any pictures of the rooftop. The first time we went was a weeknight and they let us in for free, but when we returned, digital camera in hand, they were charging $20 a person to get in! Screw that!

So we hung out in the lobby bar instead. I tested out several different drinks and decided that gin and tonic definitely wasn't my thing. Also, apparently, salsa dancing is where it is at. The bartender, a female, was of the opinion that once I learned salsa, I'd get those "hot Mexican women" and have to beat them off with a stick. This is something I plan on investigating.

Also while at the bar. I unsuccessfully hit on this girl wearing fur. But this turned out to be very fortunate because only a couple of minutes later her date showed up. Her date who was like 6 feet 250lbs of African American alpha-maleness who would beat me to a pulp, marinate me in some nice seasoning and eat me for breakfast between grits and pancakes. So that was interesting. On a slightly unrelated note, the girl was wearing this nice rabbit fur coat, so that maybe should have tipped me off there was some sugar daddy somewhere that I did not want to mess with.

The bathroom at the Standard was also pretty interesting. There were advertising for Asian "Massage Parlors" above each urinal in the Men's room. (No pictures of those available though, I'm afraid. Guys don't take kindly to the idea of someone taking a picture while they are going, and once again, I did not want to die.) But I do have a picture of the entrance. Before I say anything more, I'd like to establish the double image in the picture comes from the reflection of the flash and not from the fact that I couldn't hold the camera steady because I was slightly drunk. Anyways, unfortunately, there wasn't any Sistine Chapel style painting on the ceiling to match the walls.

Also, that is Daniel washing his hands there. No worries ladies, we got better pictures of him later.

After hanging out at the Standard for a long while (and almost getting killed, in my case), we headed off to pick up Pearson, a friend of Daniel's from high school who was going to hook us up with VIP passes into a club.

Pearson is part of a sketch comedy group that might get picked up by a TV network soon (my only advice, lay off on the punchlines a little). Also, when it's his turn at the mic on Karaoke Night, stand back and get ready to be blown away. The man is a BEAST.

This picture was taken immediately after an impressive display of beer chugging by Pearson, so please don't judge the relationship between the two of them based on this. Very soon after this picture was taken, Mama, the doggie, helped herself (himself?) to some diarrhea and unloaded a couple of bombs in Pearson's bedroom. Daniel and I took this as a cue to go fetch our car and scadattled before we get any inclination to help.

Daniel and I a couple of hours later at the club. We are, once again, tempting fate by throwing gang signs. But I think we got away because we did such a poor job of it that nobody understood what was going on. Yes, it was St. Patrick's Day but once again, nobody believed that I was Irish. Such is the hazard of being adopted.

In this club, it was Daniel's turn to almost get killed as he tried to pick up a couple of girls who turned out to be 1) "not cute at all" according to him and 2) supposedly dating a couple of HUGE boyfriends, according to a jackass that was with them. If you are keeping track, the 2 of us were 0 for 2 in trying to pick up girls but 2 for 2 in surviving. So it's all a matter of perspective I suppose. (But in my defense, I only whiffed on one girl while Daniel whiffed on 2 at the same time.) As this picture was taken, Pearson was busy getting the phone number of the girl who owns that hat. So in one club, he was more successful than Daniel and I did collectively in 2 clubs.

After Last Call, we called it a night, but not after watching a whole first season of Entourage (funny ass show, whoever played Ari Gold is a genius).

This is Daniel and Nina the next morning. Nina is a great person whom I absolutely adore and is dating Daniel's sister and had spent the night (not to mention possessing the ability to make me write run-on sentences). Daniel lives with his sister. I took this picture because the two of them just randomly matched this morning. And why not? Incidentally, Nina is also the first person I am really friends with that has an actual IMDB page.

Not to mention that Nina used to be a tennis pro, meaning that on my best day, I'd still get slaughtered love-love-love.

Nina also has an inexplicable urge to drop kick Stewie.




"I come bearing a gift. I'll give you a hint. It's in my diaper and it's not a toaster."

I do regret not getting around to getting a picture of Daniel's sister, Jessica. It was her birthday too! I had to leave later that day but I really wish I could have stayed. They were planning to go to a burlesque club to celebrate and that would have meant I would have alot more fun pictures to share. (They kept on assuring me that it was a "classy" club; but come on, black lingeries and garter belts are still lingeries and garter belts whether in a classy place or a seedy place.)

Speaking of classy. I got news after I returned from Spring Break that my roommate from college is getting married and I will be invited to the wedding as a groom's man. I heartily accepted as it is widely known that groom's men have better chances of picking up girls in weddings.















"Now who are we this time?"

Now, back to the daily grind at least until I get to go to Vegas with Daniel during the Summer, blah! Hopefully, I can convince Daniel to come up to Chicago for a Cubs game some time late April or early May. Here's hoping!

But dreams don't last --
Though dreams are not forgotten --
And soon I'm back to stern reality.
But though they pave the footways here with gold dust,
I still would choose the Isle of Inisfree.