WonderCon 2011

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Hot off the presses, here comes another edition. Getting really excited with my cruise coming up in three weeks. Oh… and that big birthday coming up too… but honestly, I had almost completely forgotten about it. I’d better make some plans for the weekend before to celebrate here in SF with the peeps. Heck, that’s just two weekends away. Maybe rent out a karaoke room or a gentleman’s club or a boat. You know… big pimpin’, spendin’ the cheese… you know how we do. Anyway, updates on that as they come available… other things going on need to be tended to first. Let’s see. What happened this week?

Thursday night, I didn’t really do much after work, ran some errands, made some calls, then sat down and watched “Love & Other Drugs” starring Jake Gyllenhall & the lovely Anne Hathaway. Based on the true story of a cocky Viagra salesman (easiest job ever?) and a cocky girl he meets with Parkinson’s Disease and of course, they’re lovely & hit it off… but then drama gets into it… you know how these romantic comedies work. It was actually a pretty good movie that I thoroughly enjoyed… but yeah, cheesy moments… and how could you get sick of seeing Anne Hathaway… or her body… seriously. I’d recommend it for a romantic comedy. Why not? I’ve seen much worse.

Friday night, I went to a party on Baker Beach, complete with little grill, beers & a celebration of Bubbles’ roommate moving to Chicago. It was fantastic. A little chilly… but the waves were big & crashing… the Golden Gate Bridge was glowing through the mist in the background… the people I was meeting all seemed pretty chill… and then the cops showed up… while the grill was going… and nobody had hot pads or tongs or anything useful like that. Still, for a few moments, it was pretty sweet. After that, we went to a bar in the Marina where there was Foozball & beer so we were good for a while. It was actually a pretty early evening, back home & in bed by 1:30 AM.

Saturday morning, I watched a documentary that seemed like it might be interesting called “The Bridge” about how the Golden Gate Bridge (as seen in previous night’s beach party) is basically the Suicide Capital of the World. The film basically mixed the beautiful scenery that is San Francsico, the Presidio & the area around the Golden Gate Bridge, coupled with some stories of those who committed suicide off the bridge in 2004, as told by the people who loved them. Obviously this show was a laugh a minute, right? But it was actually very poignant & brilliantly done in my opinion, which should carry more weight than it actually does… but that’s another story. One story that got to me in particular… was a kid who suffered from bipolar disorder… and survived the attempt. He told them that he was planning on it… and he was up there on the bridge… and he was just crying & frustrated with his life… and had been there for a while… and a tourist asked if he would take her family’s picture. Yeah. Someone’s balling their eyes out, “Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture for me?” At that point, he just thought that obviously nobody cares, so he went right over the rail… and he said the instant he left the rail, he immediately regretted it, set up as best he could for the landing… and then was just shattered floating on the top of the bay, calling for help, but he had no voice. The part that really got to me… was he was there bobbing like a buoy in the bay, broken & beaten, and then he felt something bump his leg. “Oh God, now it’s not going to be a quick death, a f**king shark is going to eat me.” Nope… it was a seal keeping him afloat. He called out for help on seemingly deaf ears… and a seal saved him. Yeah, I’m tearing up a bit just thinking about it. Don’t judge me. Anyway, basically the story is… don’t f**king do it. Man up. There’s a lot of people out there worse off than you.

I'm sure we've all known someone who has committed suicide. I've known more than a few. It's heart-wrenching, but infuriating at the same time. That's what I noticed when they interviewed loved ones afterwards. They were really sad & they had tried to help them in life... but it wasn't enough for them, so when they did it, they were really sad... but then just angry. Angry that they couldn't help. Angry that the person that committed suicide decided to do it in spite of their love & willingness to help them. Seriously, that's what kept me strong through the tough times as a teenager, was my mother & my family. If I had done something stupid like that, I don't even want to imagine the pain that I would've caused her, my father, my brother, my friends, casual acquaintances, girls who might've been crushing on me (it's possible, I'm a handsome man... and was a fairly handsome boy), all that stuff. Life's a gift. Live it up, b**ches!!!

Saturday afternoon was WonderCon with Bubbles, her roommate J-Mo & two of his friends (I got hooked up with five free tickets). As mentioned, this was my first comic book convention / nerd fest so it was pretty much what I expected… AWESOME!!! There was signings with the likes of Lou Ferrigno (“The Incredible Hulk”), Jim Kelly (“Enter the Dragon”), Richard Kiel (“Happy Gilmore” is probably his most recognized now), Cindy Morgan (“Caddyshack”) and so on… plus amazing artists, writers, & creators of the comic book world. There were also plenty of places to purchase goodies like 80’s T-shirts, video games, artwork, graphic novels, etc and plenty of opportunities to have your picture taken with people in costume. Funny thing though, because I had the camera… apparently there’s no proof that I was there on my camera… but hey, here you go with some pictures…

On the drive home, I had a voicemail from my mom & it was my nephew Vinny saying something unintelligible… so I called them back. I was in very high spirits, just in the back seat driving back from WonderCon, and my mom answered the phone. “Vinny wanted to talk to Uncle $teve. Here you go, Vin.” “Hi! Unko $teve?” “Hey, what’s up buddy?” He chatted for a bit… and I tried to comprehend what he was saying… something about playing with grandma & grandpa… and pots… and Pokey-Hontas or something… and then it came, “Unko $teve, can you come over? I want to give you a hug before I go to bed.” Yeah… a grown ass man could’ve roundhouse kicked me in the face… and I wouldn’t have welled up like I started to right then. “Oh buddy, I wish I could give you a hug before bed… but I live real far away. I’m going to see you soon though, okay?” “Okay, love you Unko $teve.” “I love you too buddy. Give grandma a hug for me, okay?” “Okay bye.” The drive home from there was… well, still had a few laughs & good times… but as soon as I walked in the front door to my empty apartment (roommates out doing their own things apparently), I went right up to my room… and basically had a good cry. That’s right. I’m a man who can admit that he cried. What of it?

I don’t know, maybe it was just a perfect storm of emotions or something. Watching “The Bridge” earlier & kind of remembering my brief feelings about suicide as a young teenager (obviously a flux in hormones) as I’m sure most of us have had brief moments of stupidity… follow that up with such great fun at WonderCon, thinking about all the people back home that would enjoy it more than even I would… then the call from my nephew where out of the blue, he wants to hug his uncle who he hasn’t seen in months… and then it just kind of hit me that I moved out here to be happy… and I am pretty happy… but then I think about what exactly makes me happy… what activities, challenges, people, etc… like my family & friends nearly a thousand miles away… and traveling but not really having the money to at this current time… and how I haven’t really played basketball in years, which always brought me joy… and I haven’t had a relationship with a woman in YEARS… because as I’ve told you many times, the female form makes me happy… and eyes & smiles… and then my overactive mind starts to wonder about past decisions… and if it just seems like I always seem to make the wrong decision… and what the path might’ve been if did this differently… or that differently… if I went to school here… or studied this… or went with her… or stayed in Utah… or stayed in Tahoe… or went into a different career… and how every decision seemed to take me away from what makes me happy… and yet, I’m still pretty damn happy in spite of it. I don’t know, it was just one of those weak moments. Anyway, an hour or so later, Bubbles said she was going to start getting ready to go out on the town. I basically told her that I’d be happy to drive her somewhere (since she recently sold her car for twice what it’s worth to some sucker in Utah) but that I wasn’t feeling like partying, so I was just going to chill at home. Well, being a great friend that she is, she asked how she could help, I told her it’s all good & what happened with the call, she noticed I got pretty quiet after it, and basically she decided that she wanted me to come over for a Movie Night. She wasn’t really feeling like partying anyway… except with her best friend.

So I went over with a bottle of wine, she popped some corn, and we started watching… what’s basically going to be the next show that I’m addicted on… which is “The Tudors” starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyrs as Henry VIII and a pretty star studded C-list cast for the rest of the royalty set in the 1530’s. See, when I was in high school in European history class, this time was always one of my favorites… because it WAS basically just a giant soap opera with the fate of Europe hanging in the balance. There were douches with power, manipulative men, backstabbing, politics, treachery, betrayal, war, anguish, lust, all the steamy sh*t that you look for… and its historical. I almost got Showtime because I heard about this series… but now, it’s on Netflix… so there we go. Anyway, we got a few episodes in before turning in for the night when the wine kicked in. Luckily I only have to stumble about a hundred feet to get home from Bubbles’ place… but I wasn’t that bad at all, just convenient at 3 AM.

Sunday, I woke up surprisingly early (like 7:30) and ran a few errands and watched a few episodes of a show recommended to me by Bubbles’ roommate called “Farscape” an Australian sci-fi series about an astronaut who gets sucked into a wormhole & ends up… somewhere in space. He joins a rag-tag team of fugitives… and it goes from there. Not really deep enough into it yet to know whether I’ll finish it or not… but “Firefly” only lasted one season. Maybe this can be good too… and four seasons. Anyway, in the afternoon, Bubbles & I had brunch in the Mission at the Pork Store which was pretty good, then we went grocery shopping (because Bubbles is tired of getting hit on every time that she goes alone & she likes a second opinion) then we watched a few more episodes of “The Tudors” & emptied a few more bottles of champagne & wine… and ordered Ho’s for dinner. Nothin’ like Ho’s… for dinner.

Monday morning, Tracy comes down the stairs and asks me, “Hey $teve… ugh… have you been getting bitten by fleas?” I’m sure a quizzical look came over my face, “What?” “You know like bug bites or anything like that… because I’ve gotten flea bites seven times in the past two days.” “I ugh… no. No, not at all.” She then went into this nervous rant about how the only time a dog was in the apartment was when a neighbor dog came in for a second & then left (I was there) and she was wondering if it was just a Presidio thing… and then talked about how they lay 2000 eggs a day. So apparently my roommate has fleas… and she doesn’t know why… and she’s the super clean one. My guess would be a family pet at her parent’s house from the past weekend… but what do I know? Just an odd way to start the morning is all… thought I would share it with you. My roommate has fleas… or rather she did until she put a smelly bug bomb up in her room adjacent to mine that night. Awesome.

Well, today hasn’t been a heck of a lot to talk about, mostly craziness at work… but hey, the night is young, the weather’s great… and it’s a Tuesday… with no tacos yet, but I’ve got the ingredients for those & a margarita or two. I should be okay. Have a great evening everybody!!!