Kung Fu party last night, and holiday pic spam

Last night's Kung Fu party was, for me, the holiday season's last hurrah. I came home from work tired and in a bad mood, cleaned up, changed, did my hair and off I went, thoroughly not in the mood but totally unwilling to miss it.

( My hair was really cool. )

I'm glad I went, because it was a nice party for the most part, and I got to see some folks from the other school, most notably my much-missed Tristan. I sat at the table with Lee and her husband Vichai, Chris K., occasionally Tristan (he works the room, you see,) and Nikki's parents. Oddly, I spoke most of the time with Chris. I find his company entirely pleasant. Though I have to say, I was overtired, way too hormonal, wired, and bouncing off the walls by the time we got down to talking. I get really punchy when I'm tired. I think a few people thought I was drunk, but all I was having was cranberry juice (at $2 a glass, Christ!) We mostly joked about the food (though I can't even remember what was so funny about it) and had a very involved conversation about road rage (we both have it, badly.) I also spent some time chatting with Raquel. She is absolutely the most mature 14 year old girl I've ever met. (A lot of her maturity was forced on her, it seems, but she handles it with grace. Sometimes I wish she was more of a child, because I wonder if she's missed out. OTOH, it's not my business; all that really matters is what a nice and together kid she is.) The funniest part of the evening was when I asked her to tell me who everyone was from the other school, and after she did, she wanted to say, "Okay, now you have the scoop!" And instead she said, "Okay, now you have the fish!" Her boyfriend and I both looked at her in silence for a second. Raquel said, "Uhh ... scoop. I get words mixed up sometimes." She's too funny. Sifu really loved the gift, by the way, and I have to say the pu-dao was much bigger and much more awesome than I had imagined it.

The weirdest part of the evening came when I glanced at the TV over the bar and saw that Saddam had been executed. A lot of people were toasting to that and I was standing there thinking, You know, nothing has changed. I mean yeah, Saddam's death changes nothing nor proves anything other than that the Bush administration really can pull some strings, which we already knew. That's not to say I don't think the guy deserved to swing. I really am all for killing this kind of soulless person; but I also think that if you're going to hang one brutal dictator, you know, hang them all. WTF? But what I meant by "nothing's changed" is that nothing has changed since the dawn of history. We like to think we're so evolved from those barbarians who used to go to public beheadings and cheer along; that we've gotten all spiritual and we're beyond the people of ancient times, with our cars and skyscrapers and computers, but god, we are the exact same creatures who used to go to war hand to hand, or even before, who used to throw sticks and rocks at each other. We haven't evolved an iota in thousands of years. One guy at the bar was saying something about the war--I didn't catch all of it--and said something like, "So many people are dying. I mean, I don't care if Iraqis die, but Americans are dying." You know, you can't reason with people that stupid, and as it was the end of the evening, I decided to excuse myself and get the hell home so I could go to bed. I didn't want to get involved in a conversation like that and I almst can't not, so I thought it best to leave.

But then I went to say goodnight to Tristan, and we ended up standing around for about an hour and a half talking about this and that: Kung Fu, the state of the schools, the Kung Fu clothes he wants to design and sell, and eventually we somehow made our way closer to the bar and got onto the subject of relationships. We somehow always end up here. This conversation went on at length until one of the guys from the other school--a hyper, quirky, thoroughly tattooed character--came bouncing on over talking about jogging. I forget the guy's name but he was really funny.

The night ended with Tristan and I exchanging cell phone numbers with the conditional promise to get together--us and some other brothers and sisters--in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year at the end of the month. I hope that turns out and that a bunch of us can go this time. I had such a great time last year.

More in a locked post.

But first, some pic-spam. A visual recap of this holiday season, seriously, TONS OF PICS.

( Dial-ups, run! )

Holy crap, that's a lot of pics!

Kung Fu party last night, and holiday pic spam

Last night's Kung Fu party was, for me, the holiday season's last hurrah. I came home from work tired and in a bad mood, cleaned up, changed, did my hair and off I went, thoroughly not in the mood but totally unwilling to miss it.

( My hair was really cool. )

I'm glad I went, because it was a nice party for the most part, and I got to see some folks from the other school, most notably my much-missed Tristan. I sat at the table with Lee and her husband Vichai, Chris K., occasionally Tristan (he works the room, you see,) and Nikki's parents. Oddly, I spoke most of the time with Chris. I find his company entirely pleasant. Though I have to say, I was overtired, way too hormonal, wired, and bouncing off the walls by the time we got down to talking. I get really punchy when I'm tired. I think a few people thought I was drunk, but all I was having was cranberry juice (at $2 a glass, Christ!) We mostly joked about the food (though I can't even remember what was so funny about it) and had a very involved conversation about road rage (we both have it, badly.) I also spent some time chatting with Raquel. She is absolutely the most mature 14 year old girl I've ever met. (A lot of her maturity was forced on her, it seems, but she handles it with grace. Sometimes I wish she was more of a child, because I wonder if she's missed out. OTOH, it's not my business; all that really matters is what a nice and together kid she is.) The funniest part of the evening was when I asked her to tell me who everyone was from the other school, and after she did, she wanted to say, "Okay, now you have the scoop!" And instead she said, "Okay, now you have the fish!" Her boyfriend and I both looked at her in silence for a second. Raquel said, "Uhh ... scoop. I get words mixed up sometimes." She's too funny. Sifu really loved the gift, by the way, and I have to say the pu-dao was much bigger and much more awesome than I had imagined it.

The weirdest part of the evening came when I glanced at the TV over the bar and saw that Saddam had been executed. A lot of people were toasting to that and I was standing there thinking, You know, nothing has changed. I mean yeah, Saddam's death changes nothing nor proves anything other than that the Bush administration really can pull some strings, which we already knew. That's not to say I don't think the guy deserved to swing. I really am all for killing this kind of soulless person; but I also think that if you're going to hang one brutal dictator, you know, hang them all. WTF? But what I meant by "nothing's changed" is that nothing has changed since the dawn of history. We like to think we're so evolved from those barbarians who used to go to public beheadings and cheer along; that we've gotten all spiritual and we're beyond the people of ancient times, with our cars and skyscrapers and computers, but god, we are the exact same creatures who used to go to war hand to hand, or even before, who used to throw sticks and rocks at each other. We haven't evolved an iota in thousands of years. One guy at the bar was saying something about the war--I didn't catch all of it--and said something like, "So many people are dying. I mean, I don't care if Iraqis die, but Americans are dying." You know, you can't reason with people that stupid, and as it was the end of the evening, I decided to excuse myself and get the hell home so I could go to bed. I didn't want to get involved in a conversation like that and I almst can't not, so I thought it best to leave.

But then I went to say goodnight to Tristan, and we ended up standing around for about an hour and a half talking about this and that: Kung Fu, the state of the schools, the Kung Fu clothes he wants to design and sell, and eventually we somehow made our way closer to the bar and got onto the subject of relationships. We somehow always end up here. This conversation went on at length until one of the guys from the other school--a hyper, quirky, thoroughly tattooed character--came bouncing on over talking about jogging. I forget the guy's name but he was really funny.

The night ended with Tristan and I exchanging cell phone numbers with the conditional promise to get together--us and some other brothers and sisters--in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year at the end of the month. I hope that turns out and that a bunch of us can go this time. I had such a great time last year.

More in a locked post.

But first, some pic-spam. A visual recap of this holiday season, seriously, TONS OF PICS.

( Dial-ups, run! )

Holy crap, that's a lot of pics!