To Good Friends

Headed down to Ventura Friday afternoon. Turns out my good buddy JOTP is leaving me for his family in New York. Though I respect the decision, on a personal note it sucks. I have two brothers in this world. One by blood who I love dearly, and one by friendship who I also love dearly. JOTP is that other one. He will be missed, but luckily is only a plane ride/phone call away.

Anyway, Friday was a beautiful day. Left work around 12:30 which in itself made it a fantastic day! I had the old T-Bird convertible again. Top was down and started cruising down South. I forgot sunscreen and was about an hour into the drive when I thought about it. Unfortunately, I'm one of those folks who doesn't stop unless I need gas. I think it's all in how you are raised. Our family vacations we drove and you didn't stop unless you needed gas. That was when you peed and did anything else you needed to do. So I didn't stop until I hit Arroyo Grande to gather MB. After a short stop at MB's place and a gas stop for his bike and the t-bird we were off. MB suggested taking 154 which was fantastic! Beautiful drive if you ever get the chance. We dropped down the mountain into SB. Stopped at S69's house to gather more folks. MB headed off on his own to drop his bike at Glib's. The rest of us carried on our merry way into Ventura. I've never been to Ventura so was looking forward to it.

First stop - Dargan's Irish Pub. Great little spot! I walk in and it's just JOTP and MM. We had a drink and caught up as the rest of the crew began to arrive. It was a great to see everyone again. I hadn't seen a lot of folks since campout. I had parked my car in a lot and had to have it out by 3am so was restricting my alcohol intake. Turns out B has a house just up the hill and was kind enough to let MM and myself park our cars there. Thanks B! With that done it was time to get my drink on.

S appeared with his girlfriend who seems like a pretty cool chick. Then again, she enjoyed grabbing my ass so how could I not like her? ;-) Well, her and a few others. The problem is I'm just coming off the end of Ren Faire season. I'm used to people coming up behind me and grabbing or petting my ass. At faire I generally have a rabbit pelt back there and people like to pet it. Well, the girls like to pet it, the men like to pet what's underneath. Anyway, because it is faire you get in the habit of bending over a little bit to make it a bit easier for folks. Since I'm still in faire mode that's what I did at Dargan's. Took me a bit to realize that's not what people noramlly do. Oh well. S bought a few too many rounds of bombs which were enjoyed by quite a few of us. Thanks S! How you managed to get to work at 4am I will never know.

People wanted karaoke so we headed off to the Star Lounge. Turns out there was no karaoke at the Star that night. They had a band playing instead. A few of us started to dance. JOTP was one of them. Now by this point, and those of you who know JOTP will not be shocked by this, he was already a drunken punken. First he took off his shirt and threw it by the band. True to form, the band played on. Glib then tried to pull his pants down, which thankfully his belt prevented. I turned around to talk to someone and when I looked back around, there's JOTP pulling his own pants down around his ankles and doing the happy dance. The chick bartending was having none of it and wanted him out. As he was talking to one of the male bartenders, he almost had the guy convinced to let him stay. The chick came around again and said he had to go. All I can say about her is she must hate men b/c man she had no sense of humor.

Off we go to some other place whose name I can't remember. I know it's something like Sushi but that's not it. Pretty cool spot. I run to the bathroom and when I get back I learn that my brother has been kicked out again. That may be a new record - 2 mins. We eventually head out and decide to call it an evening. MB headed back to Glib's place and I decided to stay at JOTP's so we could hang out a bit more. Plus I really shouldn't have been driving at that point, let alone driving 20 mins on back roads. BBB, MM, Ryan/Frank/Robert and I all headed back to my brother's place to crash. Ended up ordering some Papa John's (haven't had that since college! oh the flashbacks!) and opening a bottle of champagne.

I ended up sharing sleeping bag and down comforter space w/ MM and Ryan/Frank/Robert. Do you have any idea what it's like to be trapped between two furnaces under a down comforter and not able to kick off the covers b/c then it kicks them off everyone? Holy crap! Especially considering I have a lot of body heat as well. Not sure how much sleep I got but it wasn't much. The next morning BBB left early and then what's-his-name went home. The rest of us went out to a kick-ass breakfast. My brother then dropped us at our cars, we said our fond farewells and I headed off back to Santa Barbara to collect the clothing I had left at S69's house. I cringed on the way to think of what had been done to my bra and shirt that night. Luckily I think he had been too drunk and tired to molest them in anyway. To be on the safe side I threw them in the washer as soon as I got home. :-)

ML came over as well and we all hung out for a bit. Then I was back on the road, this time with sunscreen on my face. Had to stop on the other side of Paso Robles at a rest stop and sleep for about 45 minutes. I think it's a sign of age that I now actually pull over and sleep instead of trying to power through like I used to. Maybe I'm growing. Made the rest of the drive home w/o trouble. Always nice to have a good long drive and get some thinking time in. Crashed out early last night as I was exhausted.

Got up early this morning to watch some friends compete in the Nike Half-Marathon. It was fun to cheer folks on. Then spent the day working which sucked. Oh well, at lesat half a weekend spent with good friends makes it all worthwhile.

I also learned some interesting news this weekend. Apparently quite a few more people know about my blog than I thought. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It was originally started as a place I could vent about anything, including the hash. Will a greater number of hashers knowing about my blog prevent me from venting like I normally would? Do I risk pissing off other folks? Or do I view it as an opportunity for them to see how they look through someone else's eyes? I just don't know.

This was brought to you by the letter F and the number 3.