RIP Spooktacular and What I've been up to

The picture above got me in the mood for Halloween. Now that I'm getting into the spirit, I feel the need to apologize to my Maine friends this year for not returning to help throw the Spooktacular. The legendary Halloween Soirre had a great multi-year run and all of the great memories that accompany such events. Some of my favorite memories from Spooktacular's past had less to do with the actual party and more to do with the preparation for the party. Late night brain storming sessions with Chris and Ben, getting the music and decorations together with Shorn, coming up with costume ideas and crazy games to play will always be among my fondest memories.

As I mentioned in my last installment, I'm trying to improve my San Francisco experience. Part of me hopes that I'm able to land a job eventually through doing this, the other part just wants to get out more often and make more friends. This past Saturday I checked out Potrero Hill History Night with one of the guys I volunteer with at KALW. I am eager to simply learn more about the city and the night included listening to interesting stories about what it was like to grow up on the iconic San Francisco hill in the 50's and 60's and about the early days of public gardening. The night was interrupted by the roar as the Giants won the NL Pennant.

On Tuesday night I checked out an event at Swissnex entitled Brain Date. My girlfriend Candace and Erica from KALW joined me for the discussion on how brain waves can be matched up to help you find your match. They even served free food and drinks after the event and let folks in the audience try out the brain date interface. I really liked the venue and the topic was quite interesting. I'm hoping to join Swissnex for future events.

The World Series starts today and I predict that the Giants will handle those pesky Rangers in 6 games and bring San Francisco a much deserved baseball championship. I guess we'll have to see.

Surfing, singing, and Seinfeld

During my last visit to Maine I decided that upon my return to San Francisco I would try new things, meet some people, and most of all have more fun. After all even in a city where the average 1 bedroom apartment is more than 15-hundred dollars per month, there is some good cheap fun to be had. After all, my Broke-Ass Stuart Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco tells me so.

The week following my return from the land of lobster and pine trees, I got a wonderful and unexpected offer to join a group of KALW news co-workers on the beach for a surfing spectacular. We arrived at the beach in Pacifica early enough to have to wait a few minutes for the surf shop to open. After grabbing boards and wetsuits we changed into our swimwear and lugged our boards to the surf. After some on the beach instruction from our resident on-staff expert surfer girl Martina Castro we hit the water. After figuring out how to sit on our boards and listen to instructions on what waves to take and which ones to let roll under us we prepared to catch waves.

The feeling of catching a wave is remarkable. You wait for just the right one and then you lay down on your board and paddle like hell with your arms. If you do this properly the wave will carry you in towards shore. People who know how to surf have developed the timing and balance that allow them to stand up and look like they belong in Point Break. On the other hand I tried to stand up twice and promptly fell on my face and with that I'm grateful that we surf on water and not asphalt.

Friday marked the beginning of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. The free music fest has 5 stages and is a lot of fun. MC Hammer opened the show for the 3rd consecutive year and my concert review blog was a major hit with SFGATE readers. Friday night after working my shift at the store, I joined some of my radio co-workers out for a night of Karaoke where I helped deliver such hits as Bon Jovi's 'Living on a Prayer' and Pat Benatar's 'We Belong' very poorly.

If I could somehow boil my Saturday down into a half hour, it would have made a great Seinfeld episode. That night was Phillipe's birthday. Phillipe is one of my co-workers at TJ Maxx. TJ's is his second job. His first job is working at a sex shop located at 5th and Folsom. I should have known that something was up when he called and asked me pick up his b-day cake at the sex shop and deliver it to the bar where his party was being held later that night. I agreed to deliver the cake thinking I would have my car, but Candace needed to borrow my wheels to run some errands and she went out with friends leaving me without wheels for the evening.

I arrived at the sex shop shortly after escaping from TJ Maxx on Saturday evening. The cake was locked in a closet. When it came out of the closet I could not believe my eyes. Lying on the cookie sheet was a frosting covered penis the size of my upper arm. After a quick chuckle, the reality set in that I had to carry this cake without covering about 5 blocks through the not so nicest part of SOMA.


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I collected a few smirks and a couple of jaw drops along the way, but about a mile later the penis cake had reached its final destination, Club 93.

After I made the drop I hustled up to market street only to see the bus I was intending to catch roll away from the stop I was aiming to catch it at. 25 more minutes until the next bus. Patience is a virtue that I don't have a lot of so I decided to walk the rest of the way home. No bus passed me on the 1.6 mile walk to my front door.

I got ready, went back to Phillipe's birthday party, went out to Pandora and sang more karaoke. Then ended up waiting for another bus home at quarter to 2 in the morning. Suddenly I heard the voice of a strange say she was looking for a cab to my neighborhood. After spending a minute convincing Angela and her friends that I would make a fine cab mate we started trying to flag down some cabs. A few minutes later we had given up. Dejected, the girls and I headed for a doughnut shop to try to formulate a plan. Luckily they had a friend willing to pick all of us up. Casey, Angela, Claudia and blond haired friend whose name totally escapes me were gracious enough to invite me along for the ride and by 3am I fell into my own bed. Thank you!