I don't own anything with Aslan in it...

I spent much of this weekend running around. Doing...stuff...

I got a call friday evening enviting me to come to a Birthday dinner for Paul's Sister in Law, Anel (Ricardo's Sister). Drove out to City of Industry to meet up with, and had a good time. I was maneouvered (with much obviousness) to sit across the table from Anel, and would up chatting with her muchly. Which, I have to say, is not a bad thing at all. Lovely girl, she is. MIGHTLY lovely.

After dinner, lit out on the highway and the biway to Hollywood to hit Underground, and as I was chugging along in record time, there was a wall of traffic. Not that traffic through LA is unusual, but dead stop is weird for the transition from 10 to 101 on a saturday night. Dead stop.

Looking up and ahead, I saw the wonderful CHP doing a rolling stop to block off the norhtbound transition to the 110. Neat that. Irritating, if not neat. Almost a poetic dance against Sammy Davis, Jr. belting out "There's a boat that's leaving soon" through my stereo. A ballet of flashing lights, swerving back and forth against the freeway bringing us to a temporary halt.

Made it to Underground just in time to check a band leaving the stage with an iMac in tow. Saw the good ship europopkid churning up and burning out on the dancefloor, and joined up. Chatted a little bit with Annie and Julie for a bit, and then hit the bar for Scotch and Soda. A good mixture, if for nothing else but getting your head on straight and then twisting it sideways on a blurry half vision.

Danced a bit, drank a bit, and then wandered around seeing who was doing what until snuff_daddy showed up, and joined in on the happenings. pussycatmeow and her Poe Posse showed up and caused chaos, and Mary spilled my drink, and I found out some stuff that I guess I'm dumb enough not to have noticed, even though everyone says that it's common knowledge. Go figure.

Got on the highway after chillin' around talking, and dropped off Drew and made it home to bed.

Woke up and got going on Saturday and worked in the yard for a while. The sweet smell of fresh cut grass, and being in my head for a while is a wonderful thing. Especially if I'm left alone while I do it. It was a good time doing so, no neighbors giving me crap, no Grandma breathing down my neck...

It's a lot like my thought time late night in the car...save that it's filled with grass stains and dirt.

Finished up my yard time, and rushed to get finished, when I got a call from Alex to say that he'd be killing his boss--ur--going in to help his boss with something stupid, and that it'd be a bit later for getting together for going out. So I opted for that all important nap.

And overslept.

But it worked out well, because Alex was STILL torturing with work stuff. On saturday.

I got dolled up (Yes, *I* said *dolled up*) and got out on the road and made record time to his place, and got a call from him that he was not going to be able to join me for staring and drooling in Hollywood, as his boss had put together a really stupid late night thing to do.

So I whipped around and down I-10 eastbound to La Brea, and after sitting behind two accidents, took a right onto Selma, past Highland (turning right at Mel's Diner) and a quick left back onto Selma and up on Vine and found parking near Daddy's.

I cut back and up through a parking lot or two, and past the Metro Red Line Station to the Ford Theatre to meet up with Liz and Carlos for Richard Blade's all 80's night and drinks. They were sitting on the smoking patio sipping $8 V&T's and $5 Buds.

We sat around for a while chattin' about club olden days (ie 3 years ago) and music, as we listened to the same playlist we heard from BANG! for almost 3 years (at least from Jason's sets). 80's yes, anything neat and wowzers, no. But good music, still. Just a little overplayed.

Out of nowhere we stumbled upon some old regulars from said club of olden days, and hung with them for the rest of the night, as Carlos and I talked about short skirts, and funny lookin' people, and danced a little bit (not Carlos, but the rest of us) and I sweated a bit, and then we hit it and quit.

Carlos, Liz and I walked back through the parking lot past the remains of a parking lot fight. One guy was bleeding from his head, a bouncer had a baseball bat in hand, and the cops were swarming around as some hispanic guy was screaming his version of events.

We bid ourselves adieu and, in pure LA fasion head to our three different cars. I had the longest walk back two blocks, and I cut through a parking lot, and walked past another weeping victim of the earlier scene. She and her boyfriend declined help, and I continued on, wondering just what the hell went on before we left the club. I figure it was as Carlos said "Can't get laid at the club, so someone gets punched in the Parking lot."

I cut back around on Selma, swung by this building entryway that I'd been past before, and recognized a blanket covering a homeless woman. She looked up as I passed, waved at me, and then buried herself beneath her bright yellow blanket. Past some drunk folks in front of Daddy's Lounge--

"I swear I was trying to."

"Keep eye contact?"

"Yeah, I swear to god, but I couldn't help it. She just had really huge boobs, and everytime she looked away--blooooop--my eyes went down!"

"She so caught you!"

"I know she did!"

I kept walking, found my car, unlocked it, and got in. Drove over to the Poe Palace, to see if Melissa and Company were still awake. I made the turn onto their street and managed to find a parking spot right away. Climbed up the hill a bit, walked past two girls making out in their SUV, and to the gate. Punched in the code (Which I swear, half of LA must know), and up to their place.

Everyone was up, and drinking, and some guy was hanging with Jihae, and Mel's boy was there, and this guy from the newstand down the street, and Mary. We went back and forth for a while, watching Blur and ABBA videos, and sitting outside getting yelled at by the so-called "Mean Black Lady," who, to their credit was mean, and happend to be black. I think that folks forget about...you know...me sometimes...but she did come from all the way from the other side of the freaking complex to give random shit that was louder than anything coming out of their apartment. And note that none of the other neighbors made any fuss.

"I think she's the only non-alcoholic in the building."

"No shit. And where does she live?"

"Hey, did you hear that siren?"

"Yeah, it's loud here."

"Totally."

I excused myself, and headed out, and drove off, music blaring, and heater blasting the cold out of my bones. Made a quick stop at a 7-11 on Sunset and La Brea, and watched the hoochie girls swish around trying to get the boys to look at their barely covered asses. I walked in the doors past hooting guys and a well dressed bum and his shopping cart to overlapping hollars of "Bring it here baaaaybeee!" and "I never touched your damn bag of cans! Never touched them!" Got in, nodded to the two attrocious drag queens got a Vanilla Coke and two snack pockets, paid my dough and back to my car.

I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that one girl had pushed up on some guy and was making out with him, his hand groping her g-string "covered" behind. Nice ass. But somehow, I just wasn't amused. Nor turned on. Go figure. Guess I'll turn in my guy card.

The journey home was quiet, and uneventful, and full of me thinikng about much of everything and nothing at all. Home was calling, bed was calling, and it was really early on Easter Morning.

I got home before my family, who'd been gone since 11:30 am. I parked myself in the chair in front of the TV, turned on the DVD player and popped in Dawn of The Dead, and popped on the commentary.

I glanced at the clock: 3:57 am, Easter Morning. "The stone has rolled away, and He is Risen" ran through my head. Thank you, and Amen.

And then I watched the movie, slowly drifting off. And I went to sleep chuckling at the irony of my choice in bedtime viewing.