It feels like I have revealed too much about the rollercoaster of a human being I am. I haven't looked back, but I'm sure, every other week, I talk about how stressed out I am and how everything is falling apart. This week really took 52 DD to its limits. I was stretched so thin by my weekend, that I would not cook. There would be no pictures of food. But there was a date. And it was a fun one, with Michelle and Mike.
Erica and I have several times discussed shutting down the blog. Just cancelling the rest of our dates and having a quiet weekend, free of hosting duties. And Table Topics. Talks this week became serious, but we reconsidered. This is our thing. No rules to it. At minimum it just has to be a date, one of 52 in the calendar year. So we decided to take Michelle and Mike out for dinner.
Michelle and Mike said they'd be down for some pizza, so Erica and I suggested we drive up to The Rock. The one we typically go to is in Lynnwood, right by Erica's work, so we hopped in the car and drove up there together. Unfortunately, the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. We turned the car around and headed towards Northgate, and ended up at The Ram, a common dining experience for Erica and I when we can't decide what we really want.
At the Ram, I ordered my usual Thai Chicken salad, Erica had a Cobb Salad and Michelle and Mike split a veggie burger. The conversation was light and upbeat. They told us about how they met and what they were currently up to. They are both very pleasant people and very fun company.
After the meal, we came back to Tune Castle for a shot a Table Topics. We had some laughs and called it a night. After they left, I felt a little guilty I didn't go the whole nine yards and actually cook something. I definitely will attempt to stick to my guns for the final run of 14. And I will probably even invite Michelle and Mike over for a meal after the dust settles on our weekly events. Michelle has been a big supporter of my music and she's a really sweet person.
Part of the reason I considered my week so difficult is my job. Specifically, my schedule is now altered so that I can no longer record music. So, without any desire on my end to stop... I've kind of... quit music. At least temporarily. It's embarassing because I already have pre-orders for an album I was going to finish with studio time I had scheduled. Which is now cancelled. And now I'm just some loser that works at a sandwich shop.
The only way I can approach life now is half full. I do have Erica, Lola and our house. I need to get through these dates and my musical hiatus with my head up and stop being so dramatic about it. Eventually, I will be back in the studio. I just don't know when. And I feel at my lowest when I realize I've been taking my wife for granted and not worrying about her feelings, and how to make her happy. These posts have become far too internalized, less entertaining and unfocused on the dates. Next week, I will turn that around, when Susan and Sano will show up to a nice homecooked meal. Cheers.
To commit to doing something once a week will really segment your time. My days off are carefully placed in conjunction with the dinner parties and studio sessions. When we have a great date and the couple offers to have Erica and I over to their place, we're like "...sure! See you next year!" Because we already have plans until 2013! On the flip side, I have gotten to see tons of friends I really like that I don't see often. This week, Erica and I had the pleasure of hosting our friends Theo and Wakako.
Theo went to Roosevelt High School with me, and was part of the Evan (Week 10) and Danny (Week 11) circle of friends. When I moved to Colorado to go to college, Theo actually moved to Japan. He ended up meeting Wakako and dating her for five years, then marrying her and moving back to the United States. If I remember correctly, Wakako introduced Evan to Mariko (Week 10).
Although Theo was at our Wedding, I was on tour and missed their's. However, Erica and I have had to pleasure of hanging out with Theo and Wakako multiple times, including one 4th of July at their old Fremont apartment. I even think we ran into them on our date with Chad and Ellie (Week 18) that ended up at Danny's condo. We have socialized with them enough that Erica and I felt very comfortable about this date. We like their company.
Theo and Wakako pulled a "make whatever you like, we are easy" on us. So I did the unthinkable... I decided to make the most commonly requested meal: TACOS. For whatever reason, I had a bad hankering for fish tacos that night. So, for the first time on taco night, the meat selection came from the sea! I did a simple and effective recipe: Alaskan cod, marinated for an hour before being grilled, with sour cream and peach-pineapple salsa. I also fried up some squash, zucchini, and red onions for some veggies on the side. We had some baked french rolls and white wine to accompany the meal as well.
The fish tacos were delicious, and the key was the marinade. I took a pan and poured in some veggie oil, soy sauce, a chopped onion, two diced fresh jalapenos, some green onions, minced garlic, fresh lemon juice, cilantro and cayenne pepper. When I fried the fish in the skillet, I pulled it out of the mix, but added the non-liquid aspects of the mix into the fry. I heated up the small flour tortillas and then added the fish and fixings. Done deal. No appetizers, no dessert.
There was the home tour, the dinner, and that was it. It was quick and pleasant, but brief before the roommates invaded the scene. Theo and I went from talking about High School, to discussing Toby (Week 21) and I doing comedy, to Griff (Week 28)showing off some Hoarders scenes he had edited.
Aside from adding a Grade C level celebrity persona to the mix (editor of the show Hoarders, c'mon!), Griff has also contributed the most wonderful miracle to our family that Tune Castle has seen (other than Lola): the Relaxation Station. An octagon of inflatable fun for four, the Relaxation Station has floated on Green Lake many a time this summer, providing some of the best memories for our friends in the hour or so before self-deflating because of leakage.
The floats have made me think of the future. Although I often write about the past, about the history of who is visiting, or the present, how I am currently feeling... I now bring you the future! To those wondering what the followup to 52 DD will be, I can tell you now, next summer... will be... THE SUMMER OF 52 FLOATS.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Before next year, there is next week. Next week, we welcome one of the Earth's brightest shining stars... the unique spirit the people in Seattle, WA know as "Shada" or, as her ID card says, Michelle. Michelle is tons of fun and finally landed an awesome boyfriend, Mike, so it was time to call them up to the ranks of 52 DD. This will be a must read, trust me.
It was a week full of house guests, as my friends from Brookln Jonny October and PackFM came to town on tour and crashed at Tune Castle for three nights. We love our buddies, but at the end of their visit, everyone in the household was happy to have things back to normal. But Erica and I had our date scheduled, and thus, more guests were on their way. Could our shattered host attitudes be flipped around in time to put on a good dinner for Mike and Priya? The answer to that question, as proved on our 36th date, was up to them...
The dinner request was steaks, which makes it the second most requested food under tacos. With two minutes left before Mike and Priya arrived, I had all the food plated. I cut open my steak to check and to my horror, it was too pink in the middle. I started flipping out and cursing at Erica. My soul was broken. Not exclusively over my cooking, mainly over work and the busy week, but the was the last straw.
Then the doorbell rang. I snapped at her to answer it. At some point in my scramble to get all four steaks back onto the skillet and finish them up, I believe the phrase "this is the worst day of my life" was used. I used that at least once a week, no need for alarm. But with guests at the door, my crappy attitude had already chosen for me that I was not going to have fun. It was wrong.
Mike and Priya greeted us with a rap. A back and forth, trade off, thanks for having us over for dinner rap. This is real. This happened. It really switched my tone. It was so goofy and cute. I just couldn't drag my feet and mope around. Erica and I burst into applause and we sat down to eat our food.
The meal was, as mentioned, rare-cooked New York steak strips, with potato salad and stir fry veggies on the side, as well as a fresh melon medley. To accompany the food, we had a bottle of cabernet sauvignon. There was also a twelve-pack of Newcastle in the fridge. Dinner went by quick as we caught up on lost time.
I knew Mike from the local Seattle rap scene (shocker, right?). He has participated in various ways, releasing albums as a rapper, taking pictures of rappers, designing flyers for rappers and making music videos for rappers. A little over a year ago, he realized the authenticity of his talent with cameras, design and editing, and opened his own business called Mike Folden Productions. All of us who have know Mike since around 2006 and watched his progression in every field he works in are now super proud and impressed. He has truly became a professional.
We talked a lot about his transition into his business, our feelings about the local music scene and about Erica and I living with Mike's sometime collaborator Griff (Week 28). Mike hires Griff on occasionally for freelance work when he is overbooked or needs help. He expressed his deep respect for Griff and a desire to have him join his company as an employee.
For the first time on a date, we did the tour of the house post-dinner. It ended in the backyard and somehow I was commenting on Lola's bowel movement habits. Lola is a very particular lady. She will only poop in our backyard, specifically, behind a bush where she is hidden from our view. It has gotten to the point that Erica and I no longer carry plastic bags on walks, because Lola simply refuses to poop anywhere else. The best part of her peculiar mannerisms is the celebration dance. After emerging from the bush, Lola stomps her front paws on the ground several times, pauses and repeats the action, then jogs in a semi-circle sprint back to the porch. I once caught her in the act and posted it to YouTube.
An example of how fun a couple Mike and Priya are is the destination they chose to take the group picture at: in front of Lola's poop bush, squatting. They continued to be fun inside as well, attacking Table Topics with vibrant enthusiasm and adding more off the wall questions. The are really excellent guests. They both had positive attitudes and they both seemed excited to be there.
I was having so much fun that our allotted time passed way too quickly for me. I knew there was an expiration date on how long we would get to be in the Castle, because we planned the date based around the fact both Mike and I were going to attend Kublakai's Noisemaker Fest at Nectar Lounge that night. We chatted our way right up until the last possible moment before we would nearly miss Ian's (Week 33) set and it made me feel like Cinderella on the stairs at midnight. I wanted more Mike and Priya!
Instead of losing our glass slippers, we put on our dancing shoes and headed down to Fremont. Nectar had a sizable crowd when we arrived, and there were a lot of familiar faces from the rap scene, including two of my favorites, Oldominion vets Barfly and JFK. Mike graciously picked up our drink tab, and we hit the dance floor to enjoy the show and mingle with friends.
Kublakai went up and put on an inspiring performance. He has been sober over a year and it was the best I've seen him play in a long time. It was sharp and he didn't miss a step during his complex rhyme schemes. He seemed comfortable and it felt natural. It was great to see my former groupmate doing well.
Mike and Priya took off shortly after Ian's set ended. Erica and I stayed behind to hang out with Brianne and Aaron (Week 3) who came to see The Chicharones. And that was the end to a really fantastic date. They are definitely a couple Erica and I will go out of our way to see again. We might even have to couple battle rap them!
Next week, my buddy from high school Theo brings over his wife Wakako for dinner and drinks. All I know for sure is I'm cooking then I'm writing! Let's see what happens...
Our French Bulldog Lola has been a mainstay of the dates ever since she began her residency in Tune Castle. Though several children have been guests at our dinners to keep her company, not a single canine has made the trip. That is, until John and Lauren brought their adorable French-English Bulldog mix over on Week 35. This was definitely a date with bark.
I have know John since Sophomore year of high school at Roosevelt. I have made music with him in several different capacities since we met, namely in a punk band (The Duplos) and our rap crew. We even lived together in a party house for a small amount of time. Basically, we've been good buddies for nearly a decade and a half.
John said he wanted "something Mexican" to eat, because he and Lauren were not only bringing over their Bulldog Cola, but also a bottle of Tequila and a case of Pacifico. I opted to cook some traditional beef and bean burritos, as I hadn't done this before. I heated up some seasoned ground beef with a chopped onion, smeared refried beans on a large tortilla, added the beef on top, a cut of cheese, a dab of sour cream, then I rolled 'em and baked 'em. They didn't look like a "traditional" burrito, but they were damn tasty!
The recipe was for six, and that was lucky, because both roommates ended up joining the party, so I had some extra food to pass around. Aaron (Week 4)was in The Duplos with John and I. It was a matter of time before our old album was busted out. We sat there blasting our old archives for a hot minute until we realized there was much more interesting things to pay attention to. Namely, Cola and Lola.
Cola is 5 and Lola is 1 year 2 months. Thus, Cola is much more mature than our goofy daughter. And though the battle of the cuteness seemed promising, one party was not too interested in getting wild. Lola bounced around and did her trademark shoulder lean, attempting to entice play time. Cola was simply more interested in the new surrounds and dog toys.
After some minimal badgering by our spunky little pup, Cola gracefully engaged and was very gentle with Lola. We captured the bout on film and posted it to YouTube. It's pretty adorable. So are John and Lauren. They were awesome guests and Erica and I had a blast hanging out with them and Cola.
Next week, Erica and I are headed over to Kublakai's Noisemaker Fest at Nectar Lounge after steaks at our place with one of the event's sponsors, a professional photographer named Mike Folden, and his lovely lady Priya. Rumor has it yours truly will be hopping on stage to rock a few of The Let Go's old tracks. Until then, enjoy the sun and watch your step while you are outdoors!
