Presumed to be awesome.

Excellent long weekend in L.A. Can I still call it a "long weekend" when it's actually almost 6 days long? That's technically closer to a week than a weekend, but a weekend away sounds less as if I've been shirking my responsibilities than does an almost week away. *shrugs* Well, anyway, it was excellent.

So, in the interest of brevity, and the baseball game that I'm watching, here's the bulleted version of the weekend week awesome time spent in L.A.:

• Wednesday: GEORGE FUCKING MICHAEL!!! While I can probably talk about the awesomeness that is George Michael forever, I doubt that any of you, except for azewewish, really share my boundless glee over the man and his music. So, because I really do love y'all, we're moving on. *g*



• Thursday: I spent the day trying to wrangle a rental car. And "wrangle" really is the appropriate description. Damn Budget. *grumblebitchcomplain* But then it didn't matter at all, because the evening was spent in the lovely company of editorzon and azewewish for a screening of Wanted followed by a Q&A with one of the writers. ( Cut so that I can squee aloud about Wanted. Possibly spoilery. )
  Basically? I loved the movie! So much so that we went back on Sunday to see it again and it was still amazing!
  
  The Q&A afterward with Michael Brandt was really interesting. He was very forthright about the process for this movie and writing in Hollywood in general. It was fascinating.
  
  And, of course, I got to enjoy the lovely company of two of my favorite women in the world! We hung out after the movie, chatting and laughing and striking up random conversations with strangers until we were all so exhausted we crawled home to pass out. Good times, I tell you!



• Friday: I spent a lovely day with annkiri. We had a delicious brunch at Lulu's while we talked and laughed and generally got caught up with each other's lives. Then we drove to Culver City for much needed massages at the Massage Garage. By the end of the hour, I was a puddle of very happy goo.
  
  Then on Friday night, coolwhipdiva, _lisalisa_, azewewish and I went to the Dodgers/Angels game via a party bus from the House of Blues. We had fabulous box seats and yummy food. Chris Noth, aka Mr. Big, was also enjoying the game from a few seats away. We had an amusing conversation exchange about salad. Yeah. I don't even know. Also of the good was the great view we had of Vladimir Guerrero's ass. *g* I would have been happier if the Angels could have pulled off a win, but even so, we had a great time! ( Brenda, Jenna, Lisa, and Me! )
  
  
  
• Saturday: Brenda, J, J's friend K, and I kicked off J's birthday celebration with yummy appetizers and drinks at The Grill. We were hilariously entertained by K's adventures of motherhood which included the funniest story EVAR involving lemon heads and butts. *laughs* I'll just say that I'll never think of a lemon drop in quite the same way.
  
  After dinner, we headed across the courtyard meet up with glendaglamazon, _lisalisa_, annkiri, and a couple of J's other friends for a proper birthday celebration with ( the Nearly Naked and Totally Hot Hollywood Men )
  
  
  Needless to say, we had a blast! Because I love my friends, though, I'll refrain from posting pictorial evidence of our rockin' good times with the nearly naked men! *g* I was, however, a little put off by the new way of coordinating lap dances, (they had everyone go up on stage instead of having the boys work the floor), so I didn't get as many as I otherwise would have. I did make it a point of getting one from Niko, and, as always, he delivered, with lots of yummy hair pulling and growliness and overall hotness. At one point he even hauled me up, turned me around, and spanked my ass quite nicely. *g* He certainly knows how to read his audience. *laughs* So, yes, I had a good time! And, most importantly, the Birthday Girl seemed to have had fun with good friends, plenty of booze, and a bevy of hot men.



• Sunday: Casa Hooker was officially christened with a delicious house warming brunch featuring cinnamon pancakes, Blood Mary's, Mimosas, and CUPCAKES! I see nothing nutritionally unsound with this menu. There was, after all, vegetable and fruit juice with our alcohol. *g* Plus, it was DELICIOUS! It was also very good to see both aproposofnothin and sabrinagb, who I hadn't seen in way too long!
  
  After brunch we saw Wanted again. And, as I've mentioned, it totally stood up to a second viewing. Later that night Brenda fixed her famous nachos and I whipped up a batch of my guacamole. Alison hung out with us and we watched Lucky Number Sleven, which neither Alison or I had watched, much to Brenda's horror. The movie was good, entertaining, if a bit too taken with it's own wit, but I don't know if I've ever seen Josh Hartnett looking hotter! Good gods, he was completely SEXASS, especially when killing people with eye glasses and baseballs! *bites lip*
  
  And Brenda was right, I totally want Slevin/Wesley fic now! *grabby hands* Speaking of fic-wants, I also really want to read a crossover with John Winchester and Cross (and maybe even Mr. Goodkat) just talking about their sons, and fatherhood, and how they'd do anything for their boys. *sigh*

Ok. This took forever to write because it was not brief, despite the bullet points, and I ended up on T&iactute;a duty tonight and was therefore distracted. The baseball game is long over. (My D-backs won!) And I should probably be getting ready for bed so that I can be productive tomorrow and the rest of the week. Because next Tuesday I go back to L.A. for another "long weekend"! *laughs* I really will move there soon and then I can write about my long weekends back in Arizona. *g*

The highlights: X was fucking fantastic! It was fabulous to see hewet_ka_ptah! We had a blast!

I'm too lazy to write up a detailed post, especially as Deb has already brilliantly summed up our escapades. ( But I do have PICTURES! )

To recap: X still fucking rocks! Deb is made of awesome! We had a great time! And I am easily distracted by the pretty!

The rest of the pictures are here, if anyone's interested.

Now I'm off to make jambalaya! Mmmmm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, aproposofnothin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you had a fabulous day!!! I count myself blessed indeed to have gotten to know you and count you a friend. Here's to a year full of love and friendship, plenty of raucous laughter, wild success, and dreams becoming reality!!! *big birthday hugs*

The weekend was made of awesome! azewewish and _lisalisa_ were both in town for a weekend of spring training baseball. technosage joined us and we saw the Diamondbacks play the Cubs on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday we trekked out to Peoria to watch the Padres and the White Sox. The weather sunny and warm and perfect for baseball. The hotdogs were great as only hotdogs at a ballgame are. The beer was cold. The company was, of course, stellar!

After Saturday's game we came back to my house where some of my family joined us for Carne Asada and Margaritas (TM). The food was yummy and plentiful. Brenda's margaritas were also yummy and plentiful! The company was again stellar! We sat outside drinking and talking and having a great time until well into the night.

On Sunday we headed to The Farm at South Mountain for brunch before the game. I've got to remember how much I like this place. The food was great. Also, I'm firmly convinced that all Sundays should start with lots of coffee and really good Bloody Marys. *nods*

Between baseball, eating and drinking, all of which we did a lot of this weekend, we watched a good portion of season one of Brotherhood. Which, for the record, if you're not watching...well, why the hell aren't you watching??? This is really fucking good television. Seriously, the best acted, most complexly written, angst-filled brother relationship on t.v., no question. The show is full of fucked up, issue-ridden, layered and interesting characters. Like I said, good t.v. I was completely hooked after two episodes; I think we managed to get Lisa hooked on it too. I finished watching season one today and now I can't wait for the second season to come out on DVD. *is impatient*

So, yeah. Awesome weekend filled with baseball and good food and good t.v. and, best of all, really good friends. *smishes y'all* Anytime, chicas, mi casa es su casa, (despite what the sign on my wall says *g*).

( Today, unfortunately, was slightly less than awesome... )

Today is inherently a FANTASTIC day, because today is the day that poisontaster graced this world. And I know that my world is certainly a brighter, more intelligent, more compassionate, more thoughtful, more creative place because of Erin's presence in it.

Erin, you are truly one of my most favorite people. Your sharp mind, your relentless self-awareness, your compassion, your dry humor, your amazing talent have all, quite simply, made my world a better place. You are beautiful inside and out and I am blessed beyond measure to call you my friend. I hope your day is fabulous, and, mostly, I hope the year ahead is full of all the love, joy, and happiness that you so greatly deserve. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIN!!!!!

OMG. I'm so very hungover. Even more tragically, I'm hungover and unable to sleep. It's patently unfair to have to be conscious while my head feels as if it might explode. *groans*

But, before the hangover there were some incredibly good times had in Dallas! annkiri, two of her lovely friends, wendy, wrenlet, technosage and I had a fabulous time at The City Tavern last night. We got there around 9, after having had appetizers and pre-drinking drinks in the room while we got ourselves ready. There were two others, besides Steve, scheduled to play, and no one seemed to know in what order they'd be playing, so we went early to be safe.

The first group to play was kinda adorable in that they were sort of the ultimate nerd band. They weren't half bad musicians either, but their cute factor definitely came from the massive geek vibe they had going on. wendy was smitten and may just be planning to stalk them; from a discreet distance, of course. *g*

By the time the cute geek boys were done with their set, I was well on my way to pretty damn drunk. I can't be sure, but I suspect that I wasn't the only one. Also, I had a substantial eye fuck thing going on with Hot Guy from the next table, who kinda made me love him forever when he came over to tell me he thought I was, in his words, gorgeous. Yeah. I'm just that easy. Whatever.

So, Steve went on after the geek boys, and he was, as is to be expected, fucking fabulous. There's no way I'm going to remember his entire set list because, as already mentioned, there was some alcohol involved. But he opened with "Wasted Jaime" (is it just me, or would those lyrics make a hell of a lot more sense if you were stoned?), he also did "Hummingbird Billy," "If it Ain't Easy," "Piñata Novia," "You Belong With Me," "Dynamite," "Hotel Love," "The One that Got Away," and his cover of "Miss You" (which I kinda love). There were others, but, frankly, I'm surprised I remembered this much. I do remember, though, that he ROCKED and that we all had a fabulous time. Also, azewewish, hellos were delivered to which he replied, "awwwww, that was really nice." *g*

So, after Steve's set, wendy, wrenlet and I stuck around to hear the last guy, Alligator Dave, play. Which I'm really glad we did because he was fucking hilarious. But before I get to that, imagine my delight when Hot Guy with the ego-boosting compliments turns out to be the percussionist/fiddler/funny as hell side-kick. *g* So, this Alligator Dave person? Funniest. Damn. Thing. EVAR. Gods, I haven't laughed that hard in a really long damn time. Seriously. Go listen to the stuff on his MySpace. And then imagine it live, with both musicians and audience alike completely drunk. Add the worst, but most awesome, dancing, again, by both musicians and audience. And if you're not laughing...well then you're obviously not as drunk as we were.

After the hilarity, Steve came back on stage with Alligator Dave and Hot Guy and the nerdy drummer boy from earlier, and he did several more songs, something like an abbreviated version of Drunken Rockstar Karaoke. It was great! \o/

They didn't stop playing until well after 1:00 a.m. After which I chatted with Hot Guy. Who, incidentally, did give me his name, at least three times, and his myspace page, also numerous times, but which I was too damn drunk to remember. *facepalm* Then Wendy, Wrenlet, and I made our way out and back to the hotel for good-byes and hugs and plans to see each other next week at WinCon!!! (By the way, thank you both for partying like rockstars with me to the very end! I had a fabulous time!)

So, yes, hangover notwithstanding, Dallas definitely WINS!

Finally! It's been a damn long week, what with all the crazy-making and trip-planning and subsequent squeeing. I thought the weekend would never get here.

But, look! Here it is! \o/

I've got my work all nicely organized and ready to travel on Sunday. Because the official story is that this is still a working vacation. *wink wink* So, I'm playing along and taking plenty to keep me busy.

But now I'm ready to declare this week OVER and get on with the weekend!

Tonight's plan is to cowgirl up and get our country on! (*facepalm* Gods. I'm such a city girl that I can hardly even write that without giggling.) Or, um, maybe just have a few beers and listen to some good country music. (*nods* Yeah. That's better.) Chelsea (a friend from my prosecuting days in Prescott) and I are going to Graham Central Station for an all acoustic show featuring, among others, Jerrod Niemann. It should be a good time.

Tomorrow is spa day!!! There are manicures and pedicures to be had! Yay!!!

There is also packing to be done, which isn't nearly as much fun as spa time. But then. Then it'll be Sunday! And Allie and I will be headed to L.A. *flails wildly*

So, yes. This is what my weekend is looking like. What about yours?