Chris' Going Away Weekend of Epicness Day 2 (Night)

We call ourselves "The Geek Mob"

After the awesome day at the park, several of us came back to my place to get ready for a local French Restaurant called Le Chene. We of course go all out because it's Chris' last adventure with us for a while. So we all suit up and go all fancy. It was some good times because all my favorite people were there, Chris, Robert, Jes, Jen, Rupert, Aaron, Scott, Will and Olivia. After we were all pretty I took a bunch of photos and in particular one that is by far one of my favorites of the weekend. (above)

After we got dressed we headed over to the restaurant. Now this restaurant is expensive... $30 to $50 a meal. So we figured folks would be dressed nice and we wouldn't stick out.. well we were wrong. Everyone in the restaurant were in jeans and shirts (guess I should expect that being in a rural area) and yes we were the only ones in suits and dress' and got many a stares as we walked through the place. Even though I had made reservations it took another 20 minutes to seat us. Dallas and Brian joined us at the restaurant.

Once seated everyone looked over the menu and discussed what they were going to have. Alot of us decided to get something different and then share some of it with others so we could taste a bit of everything. Chris is always an adventurous eater, it's one of many things I admire about him. He got escargot and believe it or not I had one. Never in my life did I think I would eat a snail but if you get pass the though of eating a slug it was quite tasty in it's butter and garlic sauce. For dinner I went with something safe, a chicken and paste dish, as I knew everyone around me was going crazy. During the night I got to try rabbit (very tasty), frog legs (which of course Chris got) they were okay, a bit of a fishy taste. I tried Buffalo ribeye and various veggies. The food was pretty amazing and well worth the price. The night was perfect and we closed down the place.

After dinner we all headed back to my place to continue the party. We started with gifts for Chris.Jes and I wanted to get Chris some going away presents from the group. So she got him these awesome Star Wars bookends while I got him a Boba Fett plushie, Boba Fett t-shirt and a Jedi Academy robe (this is what I got at Disneyland when I went shopping a few blogs back). But the gift I was looking forward to giving him the most was this collage of pictures and thoughts from the group. I contacted the core group of friends and asked if they wanted to hand write some thoughts about their friendship with Chris and over the next few weeks I got all these as well as printing out a ton of picture and created this crafty poster filled with good times, adventures and love from the past year. When Chris opened that and took a moment to read everyone's comments and look at the pictures it hit me that he was leaving us. He hugged the picture frame and I was doing everything in my power not to cry.. and even though Chris isn't a crier, I could tell he appreciated the though and effort that went into that gift.

After the gift opening we all got more drinks and started to play the card game Asshole. But I wasn't really in the mood. The gift giving was tough for me. It made Chris' leaving that much more real and I fell into a kind of depression and couldn't get myself out of. I was hoping the alcohol would bring out happy Kenny but it just made Kenny even more sad. I felt bad because everyone knew something was up and kept asking me if I was okay and I hated myself for ruining what was such a fantastic day. By 1am we were all tired and several folks had left, Scott, Jen and Rupert. That left Chris, Robert, Jes, Dallas, Brian, Aaron, Olivia and Will to find a place to crash and call it a night.

This day went from fun to fantastic to sadness for me. Let's hope I can pull myself out of this funk for Sunday.

You can see more pictures HERE

Chris' Going Away Weekend of Epicness Day 2 (Day)

I was up early as I normally am because I'm just to excited for the day to start. I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast for everyone to enjoy. After breakfast we packed up the car and made our way down to Griffith Park Old Zoo section to claim our spot. We got there around 11ish and the place was dead, which was great for us. We found a large open area with several tables. We unloaded the cars and began the fun. First thing we did was explore the Monkey enclosure. This was part of the LA Zoo many, many years ago (hence the name Old Zoo). We didn't spend alot of time but enough to take some fun pictures. After that we played some crazy frisbee. I had purchased six of them and they were all flying everywhere.. it was kind of chaotic yet fun. Once we were done with frisbee Chris pulled out his "washer" game and we had a go at that. The object of the game is to get these large washer into various size holes. It was tons of fun. Next to arrive was my best bud Josh and his girlfriend Nicole. I don't get to see Josh as much as I would like so it's always fantastic to get to hang with him whenever we can.

Next we got the grill going and it would take a while for the coals to get hot enough so Chris found a large stick and we decided to play some stick ball. At this time my buddy Scott arrived and I had to run down and fetch him. He joined in on the Stickball fun while I started grilling some hotdogs. Soon as the first round of hotdogs were done Anne, Megan and Nicki showed up and they had burgers so I started to grill some of those as well. Everyone had some yummy BBQ before starting a new game.. this time it was bocce ball. I didn't get to play much of that since I was fetching folks who were lost. Dallas, Jen, Luis, Kat and Joe arrived next and joined in the fun.

Folks were playing washers, catch and various other games. We did have to say goodbye to Josh and Nicole. Josh is in a local play and needed to get back for rehearsals. We also nicknamed Scott "Hollywood" since he was on his phone quite a bit.

We then got a game of Monkey in the middle with the Frisbee. That was loads of fun and another nick name was born. Robert was known as "the dropper" for obvious reasons :). Kevin and Doug Rusley were the final guests to arrive and they joined in on the next game which was Freeze Tag. I haven't played Freeze Tag in over 30 years and man did it take it's toll on me.. and not just me on several of us. Poor Robert went from "the dropper" to "the Fallen" and injured himself quite a bit.. as well as Will who twisted his knee. I didn't injure myself other then being over weight and out of breath. But even with all the injuries it was alot of fun and made us all feel like kids again.

Once that was over we played some more washers and when 4:30 came around we started cleaning up. I did want one more picture of the group by the Monkey caves so we headed over there one last time to take some awesome pictures. And that phase of Chris' going away party came to an end. But the night is far from over.. next up.. suiting up.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Chris' Going Away Weekend of Epicness Day 1

Today begins what I hope to be one fantastic weekend of awesome. My best bud Chris is being relocated to Montana for three + years (he's in the Air Force). Though it's breaking my heart to see him go I'm not going to let him leave without throwing him a party to end all parties. It starts tonight and my guests started arrived early. First up was my other best bud Robert, he got to my place around 3pm and we started the party early with a shot. A few hours later we were hungry and so I contacted Chris, who was driving down, and asked where he was. He said he was about 20 minutes away from Santa Clarita. So we made plans to meet up for a late lunch/early dinner at Islands. It was pretty AWESOME hanging with two of my most favorite people in the world. Once dinner was over we headed back to my place and started to watch some TV. Brian soon arrived, followed by Olivia and Will. Jes, Rupert and Aaron finished off the group for the night. We played "celebrity" and had a blast. We chatted and drank a bit before finally going to bed in the wee hours. It was a great start to a fantastic weekend.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Happy Birthday Robert

Today is one of my best buds birthdays, Robert. He had to work but I made plans to take him out to dinner and then a surprise afterwards.

I started by going to Party City to get a bunch of balloons as I wanted to surprise him. Got the 12 balloons and 1 mylar balloon that said Happy Birthday. Soon as I get in my jeep one of the balloon pops, I try and secure them better so they won't hit anything. This means not rolling down the window on a hot day as the breeze would move them around. I proceed down to Robert's place, he lives a little over an hour away from me. On my way down I hear one pop, another pop and several more pops. By the time I made it to his house there were only 3 left plus the Mylar balloon which was already losing air. I was not a happy camper. I wanted to make this birthday awesome so I drove around Robert's apartment area looking for a balloon or flower shop to buy more. Found a place close by his house and in the middle of rush hour traffic made my way there. Parked got out and went up to the storefront and noticed that it was closed and being remodeled. So I got back in my jeep and back into traffic to locate another shop. This time I found a flower shop and it looked to be open.. so I find parking (which was difficult) and walk a few blocks to this shop and when I get there it's about 6:10pm and guess what they closed at 6pm. I went back to my jeep and tried to find another Party City and there was one only a mile away. While a mile in rush hour traffic takes forever but I finally get to where my GPS was taking me and it was in the middle of century city business district... and guess what.. no Party City. By now I'm super frustrated, I'm hot, my arm is killing me because I'm trying to hold the remaining unpopped balloons. I try one more flower show when I get a message from Robert letting me know he was home (he was running late because of a meeting). At that moment I said screw it. I would rather spend more time with him on his birthday then drive around trying to find a place to buy more balloons. So I made it back to his place in about 15 minutes and went up to his door, knocked and entered with my birthday gifts and my now 1/3rd bouquet of balloons. He was still surprise and seeing his smile made all my stress go away.

We sat down for a minute and he opened the two gifts I got for him. One was a gift card to Amazon as I know he wanted to buy several things and the other one was a personal gift. I noticed when I visited his place last week that he had no personal pictures on the wall. So I printed out some pixs from our previous parties and made a birthday collage. He really liked that and immediately made some room on his wall to hang it.

After the gifts I took him to Bossa Nova in West Hollywood where we had a great time. Chatted about all sorts of things and eat some very yummy foods.

Now for the surprise. I drove him to an unknown location.. at least for him. When the GPS said we were almost there he looked up and noticed a sign and he yelled out loud.. "You're taking me BOWLING!!!"  Come to find out that he loves bowling, he even owns his own pair of shoes and bowling ball. I hit it out of the park with this plan. I was so happy that he was excited to go bowling. I was worried for a while as I felt like it was building up to this big thing and when he found out he would be disappointed.. but it was completely the opposite.

We went inside and found out there was league play until 9:30pm, we had about an hour wait so we head to the bar for a drink and to chat some more. I love chatting with Robert, I always learn new and interesting things about him. At 9:30 we went and grabbed a lane and started to bowl. We played a total of three games. I won the first but was slaughtered in the second and third games. Around 10:30pm we called it and I drove him home and dropped him off.

Had such a FANTASTIC time, we ate some yummy food, played some pretty good bowling and enjoyed each other company. I think you can say this was a successful Birthday celebration. May have started out a bit crazy (with the balloon) but ended on such a high note and that makes me happy.

Happy 28th Birthday Buddy!!!

Bromances

I posed this question on twitter and facebook the other day "Can a gay man and a straight man have a bromance?" Now the majority of those who responded were "of course" it's just a platonic close friendship between two guys, it doesn't matter what their sexual orientation might be. But I did get some who said absolutely not, that a bromance refers to two "straight" men who are close friends. I even had one of my friends say it's not called a bromance but unrequited love (though I think he was joking) I have to ask those who don't think it's possible, do you think that all gay men want to have sex with all their straight male friends? If you do you're an idiot... I can appreciate how adorable and cute some of my male straight friends are (I do have many) but I know that they are straight. And no matter how much I would like them to be gay.. they are not.

I have formed some very close bonds with four straight friends of mine. I love each and everyone one of them. I think they are all extremely adorable and would be the luckiest guy in the world to have any of them as my partner.. but guess what they are straight. This doesn't keep me from telling them I love them, it doesn't keep me from having some of the best times of my life with them.

I don't understand why people equate love with sex. I love some of my close girl friends but I don't want to have sex with them. I love my close male friends and once again I don't want to have sex with them. And I know this will be a shocker but I love some of my close gay male friends.. and guess what.. I don't want to have sex with them either.

I feel like I'm getting off topic here.. but to me a Bromance is a deep connection between two males. They love each other, they love spending time with each other, they confide in each other, and just love being in ones company... that to me is a Bromance... and I'm so thankful for the ones I have.

A Simply AWESOME Day

Today is a jam packed day. I first headed to Disneyland to pick up some fun Star Wars gifts for my best bud Chris who is being relocated to Montana in a few weeks for 3 years :( It was strange as I've never gone to Disneyland just to shop. I parked my car in the Mickey and Friends parking lot, took the tram to Downtown Disney and made my way into the park. But instead of going on rides I headed to the Star Trade. I did consider going on Star Tours but I was in a time crunch and it was an hour wait. So I just went shopping. I knew I wanted to get him a Jedi Academy robe, but I also found this pretty awesome Boba Fett t-shirt as well as a cute little stuffed Boba Fett plushy.

After Disneyland I headed across the street to the hotel we stayed at this past weekend for Wondercon. My buddy Robert left some pictures and autographs in the room and I was hoping they had found them. Unfortunately they did not. We don't know if they just took them, threw them away or the person who was renting the room the day after took them... needless to say they are gone and I felt bad for Robert.

After the hotel I headed to family. Was going to have lunch with my pops and then visit with the niece and nephew. On my way there I texted Josh to see if he had some free time to visit since he lives out in the same area as my family. After a few texts we made plans to meet up after he got off work at 5pm. So I got to spend around 3 hours with my family, which is always great.

At 4:15 I said goodbye to them and headed north to visit Josh. Got to his job at 5 and waited about 5 minutes before he came out, spotted me and greeted me with one of his best hugs yet. It's amazing how one hug from someone you love can just make everything better (he has those kinds of hugs). We headed back to his place and chatted for a bit before his girlfriend Nicole came over to visit. The three of us hung out in his room and just visited. It was nice to see him. I don't get to see him as much as I would like and even though we only had an hour and a half to share we made the most of it. Around 6:30pm I headed to North Hollywood as I was having dinner with Will. I was to meet him as his place at 8pm. I got there around 7:45 and waited in my jeep until around 8:15 when he arrived. We walked over to a local restaurant called Firepit Pizza and Grille. They have the best chicken meatballs, which of course I had to have. Will and I had a great conversation and really spent a few hours just enjoying ones company. After dinner I headed back to his place as he wanted to show me some changes he made to his apartment. We then just sat and chatted on the couch until around 11pm when I realized that I was tried and still had an hour drive home. I got home around midnight and called it a night.

Jammed pack day of awesome!!! Great time with family and friends.

Happy To Be Alive!!!

I was heading to Walmart to pick up some photos that I had printed out. While driving there I was almost in an accident. The car just a few feet in front of me was going through a green light and out of no where a large truck ran his red light and t-boned the car right in front of me. It all happened extremely fast yet felt it was moving on slow mo. I manage to slam on my breaks before hitting both of them. No other cars were around. I got out, called 911, police came the folks in the other two cars seemed to be okay.. shaken up of course but okay. I stayed until the ambulance came to pick up the driver who got hit. It was a very scary moment. If I was going a bit faster or the truck was going a bit slower he could have nailed my driver side and since he was going so fast it would have crushed me. It's scary to think that you could be here one moment and then another your not. Things like this make me appreciate what I have and the people I surround myself with. Be thankful for all you have, tell those you love how you feel everyday. Make sure everyone around you know how much they mean to you because one day sooner or later you will be gone.

Wondercon Day 3

Sunday was upon us and Jes and I didn't have a wink of sleep (but for different reasons). Rupert was up early and off to find his car. Kimi and Robert were up as Robert had to take Kimi home (she lived near by). Jes and I cleaned up the hotel room as it was a mess after last night's party. Robert returned about a half hour later and Jes, Chris, Robert and I headed over to IHop for some breakfast. Aaron and Luis also joined for breakfast. After breakfast Robert had to head over to Disneyland to meet up with a friend while Luis and Aaron headed over to the con and Jes, Chris and I headed back to the hotel room. I was the only one who dressed up in costume today. As I got ready Chris and Jes started to load up the car, as we had to check out of the hotel by noon. We actually got done around 11am and checked out. We then walked to the convention center one last time. We walked the floor for a bit and I took a few photos. Around 1:30pm we were all tired and called it a day at Wondercon.

We had a great 3 days of cosplaying, getting pictures taken of us and hanging with good friends.

On our way back home Chris, Jes and I  grabbed some lunch at Chevy's in Burbank. Then we got home around 4pm and both Jes and Chris headed back up north and the fun weekend was over.