Oakland

I arrived in Oakland mid afternoon the next day and met up with my friends Chelsea and Elyssa at Chelsea's apartment in Oakland where she lives with her boyfriend and my good friend Dion. Unfortunately Dion had to take a trip to the Bahamas the day I arrived so I didn't get to see him for the majority of the time I was there. We started out by going to Dion's place of work which is a fancy shmancy bar in San Francisco called The Heavenly Dog. We rode the BART back and forth from SF to Oakland which made me feel bad for Chelsea and Elyssa because at every turn they were hooted and hollered at by the various riff raff at each stop. It was pretty hilarious to me trying to picture Dion working in a place like this because he is the most un-fancy person I know. Everybody there was really nice though and was hooking us up with all sorts of crazy cocktails filled with booze I have never even heard of before. One particular type (I forget the name) is made by Buddhist Monks who have passed down the secret recipe for generations. It's so secret that no one single monk knows the entire recipe. Three chosen ones are selected to learn a third of the recipe so as to not leak this magical drink. It tasted like Ginger and Black licorice. We dined on $30 a plate meals and sipped our cocktails with our pinky's firmly extended.

After our time at The Dog I called my friend Kris who I've known for years back in Olympia, to see if he wanted to hang out. He accepted my request and asked us to come to some house party that was not too far from where we were at. We cabbed it over there and found a pretty raging birthday party going on for some girl. He walked us in and started introducing us to everybody. We went into the kitchen which was covered in chocolate and spilt beer. At one point the birthday girl put on Andrew W.K. on the stereo and cranked it to 11. A dance party erupted in the kitchen which probably wasnt the best idea because of the slick floor. Imagine 10-15 people drunk of their ass trying to bust a move on a freshly zambonied ice rink and that's what it looked like. Bodies were dropping left and right and yet no one seemed to slow down because of it. Over all it was a good time though and after the dance party ended, Chelsea, Elyssa and I cabbed it back to her place in Oakland.

The next day we went to a friend of Chelsea's restaurant which was also fancy as all hell where, again, we were treated to delectable cuisine and fine drinks. At this point I had decided to stay an extra day so that I could surprise Dion when he got back from his vacation. The next day Elyssa left to go back home to Portland and Chelsea and I took their hurse (yeah, they drive a hurse) to the airport to get Dion. I climbed in the back where I waited for him to arrive and smoked a cigarette which gave me an overwhelming feeling of irony... smoking a cigarette in the back of a hurse...
Dion finally arrived and climbed into the front seat, completely unaware of my presence. After letting him vent about the plane ride for a minute I jumped out and grabbed his shoulders shouting "HEY FUCKER!" The look on his face was priceless. It transitioned quickly from sheer terror to delighted surprise though. I spent that night at their apartment one more time and the next morning said my farewell's and went off to go pick up my next rideshare. A Lithuanian photographer named Berta. On to LA!