[Updated, Nov 5] Holy shit, Los Angeles is weird. I had dinner tonight with Daphne at a restaurant in The Grove (Daphne loves food!), and it was the most bizarre place I’ve been to in a long time. First of all, the place is lit like a fake-outdoor resort in Las Vegas, complete with a fake-looking cloudy night sky. The lighting is just… too even and dim and weird looking. There’s even a mini-Bellagio fountain by Wet Design in the middle of the plaza, and every once in awhile the fountain goes berserk to cheesy music, which is actually kind of cool.

And then, there were the people. (read more »)

Four years ago, I wondered who the hell was voting for Bush (a common phenomena here in the Bay Area). And then I discovered that some of my friends voted for him. They weren’t people I hung out with regularly, but it was still disappointing to discover. And this year, I can’t imagine that any of those same people would have voted for him, but I’m too upset to ask them if they did. I don’t want to know.

Anyway. Disappointed. Very disappointed. No point in going into detail about the reasons. You either understand, or you don’t (on both sides, I guess).

haeyoung, ai-jen, and me

During this weekend, I was asked more than a few times, “so what are you doing here in New York?”

My answer? “Nothing.”

That’s right. I had no plans whatsoever for the extended weekend, and it was good. I kept West Coast hours, going to bed after 4am every night and waking up just before noon, and have been hanging out with Pat, Tony + Ai-Jen, <a href=”/friends/#joechangJoe + Rachel, and Jason + Wendy/Vanessa. Lots of food, and lots of strangely-costumed New Yorkers (I especially liked the women robed in “sexy” versions of childhood costumes. Good eye-candy, complete with that New York standoffishness that I sense while walking the streets :).

I spent Halloween (which was freakishly warm this year) at Ai-Jen’s sister’s party, mostly huddled in the corner in the safety of the few souls I knew; I haven’t been social lately, mostly because I’m home infrequently and prefer to spend those moments with my established friends. The company of my friends is a haven of sorts for me, and sometimes I am so bombarded by correspondence from people I don’t know very well that it takes a toll on my desire to meet even more people.

So, yeah. New York was fun. I have to get up soon to get on an airplane back to Oakland to be in time to vote and to sign some time-sensitive documents. :) [see some photos]