Well September
and October were somewhat of a blurr… school was about to start and
life seemed an extra bit more hectic than it should have been. I got
back from Germany and realized something. I was tired, but happy to
be home. I got a letter from the nice German couple that took me in
while I was stranded in Frankfurt. If I haven't mentioned it already,
their names were Ute and Manfred Rumrich.
The neat
thing about those two was that they were both highly educated and they
had an amazing love for three things that I keep dear to my heart :
Travel, Food and Wine. Ute and Manfred were to go to Egypt a week after
I left, so they should find themselves somewhere in the Gaza strip in
the beginning of October.
I, on
the other hand, was in nesting mode. Must find a home says I. And so
the home look was on. Erik and I saw a great Live work Loft in Oakland.
Very nice open space and lots of walls to hang pictures in. However,
I didn't like the way the windows were oriented in the loft so it ended
up being a no go. After a day of not having much fun, we decided to
wait for our safety housing choice.
Erik knew
of a house in Antioch, in between Davis and San Jose, where a duplex
was being rented for cheap. Better still, or neighbors would be Jen
and Dave, part of Erik's family.. whom were all around great people.
We break into the place to look at it (Don't Ask) and discovered that
the place was awesome. It had a huge kitchen, living and family room
unit, three large bedrooms and was designed in the American Victorian
Gingerbread Style. We decided to wait this one out. So, I became content
with the thought that we had found a place. The catch? Well, it was
being remodeled and we had to wait for them to finish it.
August Disneyland
Picks
Remember
or not.. I went to Disneyland in August too... here are some pictures
from that to stir things up a little
(Matt,
waiting for all of us as usual)
(Erik
molesting a donkey)
Bridal Shower / Bachelorette Party
Either
sometime in October or August.. or maybe September... we had Elicias
Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party. We had tea and we drank a lot.
here are some pictures... use your imagination. Oh I got her four pounds
of truffles.. yum.
(Happy
Elicia .. getting presents)
(Karen
saying naughty things)
(Elicia
eating out)
Vegas
Baby
Erik and
I had planned a trip to Vegas. Well actually, Erik planned it and I
let him take me for my birthday. We stayed at the Aladdin. There weren't
many performers, and when we did see performers, they were white in
Arabic Dress. Is Arabic the correct qualifier for that statement? Well
it doesn't matter cause you understood. The purpose of this trip was
also to meet Hiro and his fiancée, hang out with my hommee Richard in
a bachelor type of way and spend time with my honey Erik.
Hiro and
his fiancée couldn't come though. They were going to fly from Japan,
but the whole Taliban thing made air travel a bit hard during this time,
so their tour got canceled. So, we didn't get to see Hiro and his fiancée.
You can see a picture of Hiro in "Richard and Nam's Japanese Odyssey"
section of the website. I think it's under Past Adventures.
Erik and
I get to the Airport in Oakland. We came TWO HOURS in advance because
they told us too. I had already been through two weeks of traveling
hell, bouncing through Europe, so in a joking mood. We somehow mentioned
something about guns to the check in lady and she said not to joke around
or she would call security and have us escorted out of the airport.
When we went through the security check, Erik got groped by the security
checker. Erik felt used and violated.
Anywho,
we did the whole Vegas thing and ended up seeing three shows in three
days.
(Erik
at the Star Trek Experience)
The first
night, we saw Les Miserable. It was a good cast, however the facilities
sucked. They allowed people to walk in and out of the theater and eat
food. This really annoyed me. Secondly, the acoustics in the Aladdin
theater were horrid. But, all in all, we had fun. The next night we
saw Mystere at the Treasure Island. Before the show we got to have a
snack at the Bar in Treasure Island, which was really cool. They put
these fuzzy pipe-cleaner palm tree in your drinks. Mystere was my favorite
of all the shows due to the fact that it was the show I liked the best.
Erik and I did a lot of the shopping stuff their and Erik got me this
really nice necklace that I had my eye on for a while at Tiffany's.
Truth be told, I had my eye on it since I went to Vegas with Karen about
a year back…. But had no one to buy it for me until now. The last night
we saw "O" at the Bellagio. It was neat. I must saw that the only thing
I really liked about it was the opening sequence. The rest of it was
overrated. There is just a limit of how many diving acrobatics that
I care to see. And people swimming just isn't as magical as trapeze
work in my opinion. However, I commend them for their excellence, as
well as for their exploitation of all cultures and not just little Chinese
girls, like some other circus acts do. Then on one of the days we hooked
up with Richard's friend Shawn… oh and Richard. Richard and been hanging
out with Dan and playing one of the Mario games all day.
We get
together and have dinner at this café in one of the big casinos. We
then end up going to one of the night clubs. The place was pretty empty,
but Sean had a connection so we got in for free. Erik and I danced for
a while and noticed that not many other people were dancing. Soon the
time came when everyone was "done" with the club. We then ask Richard
wanted to do. Sean said "Anything you want Richard, It's your night!"
Some how we end up going to a strip club. This particular club was called
Crazy Horse II, I think. We got there, and saw the usual skank and Ho-age
that we had expected. Erik and I have been to these things before, so
we had no problem, and Sean…. Well Sean isn't just a member… he's like
the president of strip clubs. He has his own little way of dealing with
them and many of them seemed to be his friend. Richard seemed slightly
uncomfortable. This is probably due to a child hood Christian barrage
of guilt which resurfaces due to things such as this. Well, Sean gets
a girl to come over, and Erik and I keep getting girls coming over,
and Richard keeps saying "I can look but I won't touch." I was like,
OK… it's your party you can NOT touch if you want to." This one girl…
I remembered her name a month ago, but seem to have forgotten… Erik
calls her Boodilicious. Anywho, she gives Erik a lap dance for a while
and then she goes away. Then suddenly I see a huge Boob in my face,
and so she was back. I got this neet inverted lap dance thing and my
shirt unbuttoned and crotch fondled. Erik got jealous, so she gave him
a little bit of fondling too. Sean gawked in the unfairness of the situation.
Truth be told.. gay men get the stripper chicks for free… must be some
kind of challenge to try to convert a gay man back to the other side
of the fence.
October
was a blurr. I ended up doing a lot of homework and school stuff. I
also did a lot of nothing and a lot of things that weren't nothing but
not interesting enough for me to remember at this time. I'm sure Erik
will remind of something we did in October.
The night
continued and we finally leave the club. Richard unscathed but happy
to see his gay best man get a lap dance. The sun had come up and we
were on our way to our respective hotels.
At the
end of October, Erik and I decided to go use the season passes we bought
from Disneyland and go to see the new Nightmare before Christmas themed
Haunted Mansion.
(Erik,
Me and tevin....... Laura and Tevin and Woody)
So we
went and had a blast. November November was epic because it was the
month that Elicia and Richard finally got married.
Richard
and Elicia's Wedding Adventure
The Players
(Elicia, the Bride)
(and
Others..
OK, I'll
name them....Renee, Lori, Karen, Misty, Some Lady, Richard, Robb, Nam,
Steve, Tim)
The
Course of Events
Ring Ring…
I got a phone from Elicia saying that I needed to get my tuxedo fitted.
SO I drive down to good ol' Newpark mall to try on my tuxedo. It fit.
I was happy. I also had to try on Robb's tux cause he was unable to
try it on… It didn't fit me.. which was good cause it was supposed to
fit Robb. What I then remember is that we had Margarita's, so we must
have went to get Mexican food.
(Mafia
wedding?)
The day
before the wedding, I took the boys out for a night on the town. The
boys being Richard and his two brothers. We went to eat sushi and Seto
in Sunnyvale, one of my favorite places to eat. Everyone gorged themselves
on food and beer. Richard didn't want to have Sake due to a problem
he had experienced in Japan. So I didn't force it… maybe I should have
:) We then went to sing karaoke. We rented a room and OK BOX in Sunnyvale
and sang the night away. Richard loves Bon Jovi. The next day we all
drove down to Santa Cruz to do the whole wedding thing. I brought a
whole truck load of alcohol, but not much of it ended up getting drunk.
Strange…. This is where things get a little blurry. I remember that
I possibly picked up Kurt from Karen's parents home and that we then
headed down to Santa Cruz.
The girls
had gone ahead to do their girly things and Kurt and I drove down aimlessly.
(Karen
and Jurt and a glass of wine)
We ended
up meeting up with them at Shadowbrook, where the reception and wedding
was to be. We were the first there so we decided to drink. I had a whisky
sourer, and we shared some kind of processed cheese thing. The bartender
was cute, I overheard him talk about some Maxim Magazine party he wanted
to go to that night. He was asking his co-worker over the phone if he
could cover for him. The girls finally came and then the rest of the
guys finally came and we started the whole rehearsal thing. It went
pretty smoothly. Afterward we headed to the Babbling Brook Inn to check
in. Karen and I got rooms next to each other. Lori shared a room with
herself cause Matt was sick and was going to school.
(Lori
and Matt.. Matt's gonna get sick)
Renee
and Joycee and Daniel were running around doing things as well.
I then
remember valeting cars in the parking lot in the rain for Sharon and
Patty, (Elicia's mom and Elicia's mom's friend.) I remember that being
fun because Patty had a huge van that I needed to back up into a small
space. Erik, meanwhile was driving up later that night to meet up with
us. We all left for the rehearsal dinner. Since, someone else was paying
for all of us, we didn't want to burden the person with all the food
we wanted to eat. So, we tried to order light. I had an appetizer and
a side salad, Karen and Kurt shared something small, and we all ordered
quite frugally. We were very proud of ourselves. Lori and I went to
the bar to get some alcohol. The bartender asked us why our server wasn't
getting us alcohol, but we assured her that no wrong doing was taking
place. When dessert time came, the group of us shared some kind of cake,
which was pretty good. Elicia and Richard then passed out all these
gift things to thank us for being in the wedding party. I won't go into
specifics of what exactly what we got but lets just say that we got
a plateful of Italian wedding cookies that were quite original and my
nails will always be nice and maintained at all times.
On our
way back, I realized I didn't get anything for Erik. So I stopped by
a pizza place and ordered a huge greasy pizza for him. However, during
the car ride home, the smell of grease was s intoxicating that we got
hungry again and ended up eating most of it. Erik finally came and I
was happy. The next morning we all had to meet up in our clothes at
Shadowbrook. Us guys got there first and just walked around. The parking
lot had the pungent smell of manure from the freshly fertilized planters.
What better way to begin a wedding with odor of warm dung in the morning
mist and dew of Coastal California.
The wedding,
of course was spectacular.
(The money
shot)
Richard
cried but wouldn't admit it and Elicia cried on cue. Everyone was so
happy and photogenic.
(Ah....
a lesson in photography... Elicia, being the main focus of the picture,
is well centered, yet humbled in this picture. Her eyes closed in the
momment that she will cherish all her life. Richard, eyes open, joins
her with happy intentions. The officiant is layered aback from the couple....
recanting joyous and solemn words, her eyes closed in prayer and reflection
of future tidings. On the left side, the bridesmaids look on in contentment.
Misty stands firm to anchor the picture whilst Karen forces the focus
toward Elicia with the direction of her neckline. Perfectly composed.)
God damn
we're a good looking bunch. Unfortunately, Karen and I missed the first
dance and some of the other goodies cause we needed to help clean up
some of the stuff downstairs after the reception. And I had a good old
diabetic attack, which was quickly alleviated by a shot to the arm in
the bathroom. The poor guest seeing me do it probably thought I was
doing drugs.. but hey.. whatcha gonna do.
What really
sucks is that I got confused on when things were supposed to be done.
Elicia had reminded me a few months back, that the best man speeches
were gong to be done while appetizers were being served. However, I
prepared a dinner speech so was not prepared to make a speech. However,
I feel that it doesn't matter cause the other best man Robb made a great
speech and that I have the rest of our lives to tell them how great
they are, so one speech isn't gonna be that big of a deal.
The luncheon
was nice. I had the filet of mignon. I think everyone at my table had
the filet minion…. Oh… and Elicia decided that she wanted to have cupcakes
instead of a large wedding cake, because it was different and it was
cute. The cupcakes were good, they were very useful in smearing on other
peoples faces. We finally leave the Restaurant and head back to the
Inn for a nice Rest. Erik's car decided to die so we had to leave it
at the parking lot and deal with it later. Karen and I made a nice basket
for Richard and Elicia. It included some "toys"… wink wink and some
alcohol. We then went to have drinks and snacks at a restaurant down
the highway.
(Karen,
Azin and Nam)
We followed
Richards Mom in the pouring rain. She almost got us killed! She tried
to back up out of an intersection that she didn't want to go in. We
ended going down the high way and making a U turn at one of the exits.
Unfortunately, Santa Cruze has some pretty boony areas, and we were
freaked that we had gone the wrong way for a while. We get to the restaurant
and some unfortunate circumstances occurred. But, we ended up having
some drinks and a nice dinner.
Oh yeah,
Lori went home early to comfort a Matt, who was home and sick in bed.
Karen and I spent the night catching up on life, liberty, the pursuit
of happiness, and our usual rounds of gossip. The next morning Erik
got up and drove his car home to see if we could get it fixed. I went
up to have breakfast with gang and to watch Richard and Elicia open
their gifts. I got them the Ronco Rotisserie thing. Hee Hee. I packed
up and loaded Karen and Kurt in my car and drove them to the airport.
We said our good byes and our wonderous wedding weekend was done.
| Hey
Yall, I need pictures of the wedding for Richard and Elicia's wedding
Site. If you took pictures please scan them or send them to me so
I can scan them in. Their Website should be refinished in about
a month, so any stuff you got, or anything you want to say or contribute
into the site is welcome and encouraged!!!!! |
Thanksgiving
came and went. I spent Thankgiving with my family and Erik spent it
with his family. I made some awesome food... yum yum. December then
came. Erik and I did the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Milpitas
as I did last year. It was fun.
Tragedy
!!!!!!!!!!!
(My beloved
Mr. Matzo Ball)
One morning
I woke up and found Mr. Matzo Ball paralyzed and making a sad crying
sound in his little bed. So I rushed him to the Vet. The Vet took him
in and I went to school because I had tests that morning. After my tests,
I got a call from the Vet saying that the cat had some unknown problems
and that tests needed to be run. So I told them to run the tests. I
rushed to the Vet from UC Davis after classes and got another phone
call. The vet tells me that I had to rush Mr. Matzo Ball to a cat neurologist
up in Santa Rosa, which is about an hour north of San Francisco. So,
I get down to the vet around 4 in the afternoon and pick up Mr. Matzo
Ball. Mr. Matzo Ball was placed in a cat carrier with an IV and monitor
hooked up to him. He was completely paralyzed now and he couldn't open
his mouth to cry, so he made this awful grunting noise instead. It was
SO sad. I get to the neurologist at around 7 that night and they take
him and monitor him. They put him in Kitty ICU for two nights. The neurologist
gave him all the tests, Cat scan, Spinal Tap… etc etc. Then he calls
me in the morning and tells me that all they can really do is put him
on life support and keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. So
I tell them to Euthanize him. He got a private cremation and all the
fixins. It cost me about $4,000 for all the veterinary costs. What they
found out is that Mr. Matzo Ball was infected by some fungus in the
lungs which was affecting his nervous system. Alejandro has been crying
all day and all night because he thinks I locked his brother in the
closet and won't let him out. Cats or so cute.
December
moved forward. Erik and I decided that the Antioch house thing wasn't
going to work out. So, we went to look for a place in the city. The
first day we went, the places were awful… it was like five square feet
four a billion dollars. It was terrible. Then we got an appointment
to see apartments in the Fillmore Center the next day. Erik gets to
the appointment on time and I come late cause I couldn't get to the
city from Davis in time. When I got their, they had already looked at
the places and they were going to show me the places since Erik felt
I should see them. After seeing the places. We fell in love with the
fact that they were decent sized apartments with a nice price in a great
location.
Ten minutes
later everything was sign sealed and delivered, we just had to wait
a day to get approved. The next day we came and five minutes later we
walked out of the office with keys to the apartment.
NAM
and ERIK have moved to San Francisco
The day
was Erik's Birthday and Erik and I had gotten our first apartment. We
had a nice lunch from Popeye's in our empty apartment and I gave Erik
his birthday present. I gave his this awesome Snowboard with a Raven
on it.
Erik and
I did a day Disneyland trip and had a nice time.
(Erik eating a salad in a Breadbowl)
It was
jam packed that weekend since it was near Christmas, but we were calm
and collected and just enjoyed being there. It was nice. Then we did
the whole Christmas and New Years thing. Nothing very eventful. I spent
Christmas with my family and then spent the next day with Erik's family.
Lots of presents and food.
We worked
on our apartment and ended up getting some furniture for the place.
I used a lot of the gift certificates I got from people to buy things
for the apartment… thanks guys.
After
new years, Erik, Kai, Kenny, Anh, Jacky, Adam, and I went snowboarding
in Tahoe. We all pitched in and Rented a cabin for four days. The first
day was nice, Erik, Anh and Jacky took the beginners course and I watched.
They did pretty good for their first days.
That night
Erik and I had to head back to the bay area cause I had to show up for
my first day of school and Erik needed to work. After the day was over,
Erik and I met up at Davis and we drove back up to the Cabin… Oh yeah,
Kai got into an accident on his way up to the cabin. His car slipped
on the slick road and he hit the bank, which put some minor damage to
his car.
Poor Kai.
To top
it off, everyone that week was sick. That got Erik sick. But Erik got
better before Kai did, even though Kai got sick first. Poor Kai, he
had to goon
Antibiotics.
I had
a sour throat for a day and that was it. Adam didn't get sick either.
Well, we didn't go snowboarding again that weekend instead we went to
Reno. The guys that stayed up there went to Reno twice. I then explained
to my friends my way of cheating at Roulette, which I will be happy
to send to you for a nominal fee of $29.95.
One of
the nights we threw Erik a birthday party… This was a great surprise
since it was about a month after his real birthday had occurred.
Well,
there was a whole lot of other stuff that happened, but I just don't
remember it at this time. However, when I do remember it, I'll be sure
to just happen to add it into the journal at random frequencies, in
order to create a sense of mystery and wonder in my writing.
Oh yeah.
Erik wants to be a DJ, so if anyone has DJ stuff that they want to part
with… like old records and stuff, we would greatly appreciate your contribution.
Oh and
everyone is invited to our apartment warming party of which a date has
not been determined yet. This party will be especially warming due to
the fact that I have decided the heating system in the apartment is
a fire hazard. I don't allow it to be turned on. So We'll need everyone's
body heat to help warm the place up. Thanks for listening.. End Transmission
