Three days in one

I love those days that are like two or three days rolled into one. Friday was just such a day. In observation of my b-day, Jenny took my out to a movie and lunch. First we went by Flight Path, where we figured out how to start up the wireless networking on her fancy-schmancy new Powerbook G4. It worked, and that was cool. Ram was there, he came over and was pretty wowed by the machine.Then, after doing a little web-surfing and caffeinating, we headed over to the re-opened Highland 10 movie theater. Highland 10 used to be owned by one of the big chains, but they closed it. Not a surprise, the place was kind of a dump, and some of the auditoriums smelled noticeably of mold. Well, it has been re-opened by some penny-ante operation that not only has done nothing to remedy the mold situation, but has done a laughable job of keeping up such infrastructure as remains. Case in point: the RESTROOM sign was made by cutting a template out of electrical tape and cardboard. This might have been a 2nd-grader’s class project.The movie we saw was the new Ocean’s Eleven, which was quite entertaining. Not the most cerebral of movies, but that’s fine. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. He’s good.After that we went to lunch at Kim Phung, a big Vietnamese joint. Noodles, spring rolls, Vietnamese coffee. Good. Then we stopped at the My Thanh grocery next door, where we amused ourselves greatly looking at strange food products and purchasing some of them. I bought two packs of these gummy ginger candies that are just fantastic. They come in what look like kretek packages.Ting Ting JaheJenny dropped me off at home, where, lucky me, my recently ordered firedancing video had just arrived, so I watched that.Tracy was having a little happy-hour get-together at Opal Divine’s, so I then made my way down there by bike, meeting her and some of her friends. Caesar was at another table with another group of friends, oddly enough. Jenny showed up on foot (she had gone for a run) and she had my birthday present with her, a very slick leatherman. As Jenny might put it, it’s juicy. I like it.I then rode to the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, where Shanti (among many others) was having an exhibit/sale of her stuff. I hadn’t seen Shanti in, like, forever, so I was looking forward to going. The place is a little hard to find, and as I was making my way there, what do I see but the distinctive yellow Beetle driven by my also long-not-seen friend Audrey, who is headed the wrong way trying to find it. We meet up and say hi.The Blue Genie warehouse is a huge place, really cool. I saw a woman working there who works at Vulcan Video, who I only know because she looks curiously similar to someone else I know. She pointed me to Shanti, and Shanti and I had a brief chance to catch up. Shanti introduced me to Rory Skagen–one of the Blue Genies, and an artist whose work I really dig. There was lots of interesting art to look at, and lots of interesting people-watching to boot. The postcard for the event promised firedancing, and it turns out the firedancers were Sage and Natalie. I asked Sage “need a bucket man?” and she did, so I volunteered for that. John showed up.Sage, despite having recently suffered some nasty burns, and despite a goopy gravel driveway to perform on, put on a typically excellent show, as did Natalie and, what’s her name, Addie (?) who performs with a flaming hula-hoop.After the show, I bumped into a friend of Justin and DuShun’s, Jay, said hi to him, and waved hello to Raq. Said my goodbyes and headed out, catching up with Audrey as I left.I turned north on Springdale, took that to Airport, and decided that, even though Airport is a pretty nasty road to ride on, it would be the most direct way home, so I took it. It was the first–and second–time I’ve been chased by a dog on an urban ride. And they were both junkyard dogs, too. They didn’t get close though. Phew. Made it home feeling totally jazzed, and decided to record the day for posterity.