Still in California

First and foremost, I guess I should welcome back RyToy, but I won't....at least not until he gets up a few more posts. Don't get me wrong, I love an occasional update from the Toymeister, but I learned to stop getting my hopes up about them becoming more habitual. (RyToy, in case you missed what I just threw down, it indeed was the gauntlet.)
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Anyway, things are wrapping up for me out here in Cali, as preposterously impossible that is to believe. 5 weeks is a long time, but it's also a short time. Damn, that last sentence sucked. It was like something George Bush would say. I apologize.

So I just bought a plane ticket which will have me touching the tarmack at Logan around 11pm Christmas eve night. Talk about your dramatic movie moment! I think I will carry a large stuffed bear under my arm, with bow, because for some reason that just seems like what one is supposed to be carrying when getting off a plane on Christmas eve night. Oh, and I'll be running, too (I don't know why).
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While things have been mega busy here, I DID finally get time to go out & explore a bit. This past weekend I rented a car & drove down to San Fran to see DG & Junior, and possibly some of my Oakland peeps (time permitting). On the way, I stopped in a town called Novato and had lunch and some beer samples at a brewery called Moylan's.

I remembered trying their beer before somewhere and I remember really liking it. There are a TON of great breweries out near me (Marin, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, etc) but Moylan's was on the way to SF and I heard that the food was good.

The food was good. That's all I'm going to say.

At any rate, I got down to SF and to DG's new house that afternoon & we hit up a nice neighborhood pub for a pint. Later we met up with some of his buddies, where they have a nice garage band-style setup with a digitial recorder, so we jammed pretty solidly and laid down some sleek tracks. It was good to play some instruments again...each person could play each instrument (drums, keys, bass, guitar) to some degree so there was a lot of switching around & whatnot.

Afterward, DG & I hit up the famous Toronado, perhaps the most renowned beer bar on the left coast. It was cool. The draft list was strong, about 30-40 handles, and naturally was focused on local California beer. They had some stuff we get back east, and some stuff we don't, and plenty of stuff from the brewery I'm working at now. Also, it should be noted that the prices were awesome and totally unexpected. A place like that back in Boston would have charged a good 20-30% more, easily.

One thing that's different about San Fran is that none of the bars serve food. Back in Boston you pretty much HAVE to have a kitchen if you expect to have a successful pub. BUT: to their credit, SFers have logically placed kick-awesome food joints right next door to their bars. Next to the Toronado is a sausage that joint was so awesome I almost punched DG in the knockwurst.

We ended up back in the Mission, perhaps my favorite neighborhood in American in which to party (though probably not to live). We continued to get progressively more hammered, attracting an odd assortment of strangers who wanted to party with us. Maybe it was my hat, maybe it was DG's smart-ass mouth, maybe it was the fancy absynthe-pourer-thingy; I am not sure. There were crazy people everywhere. Junior showed up with some of his peeps and the night gets extremely blurry. Luckily there was a disposable camera in my hand and I am sure I clicked the button a few times. When I get home, get them developed and scanned, I'll post some up here.

On Sunday I had some time to drive over to Oakland and meet Brian & Smitty, my old bandmates, who are both working musicians in the Bay Area now. It was good catching up.
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So now it's Wednesday, I've finished another 12 hour double-brew day, and I'm still recovering from my hangover due to the brewery's Christmas party Monday night, which was off both the hook, cuff, and charts. It was pretty wild, actually. They have some very, um.....free-spirited girls working there. I am relaxing tonight while watching the Patrick Stewart version of "Christmas Carol." SCORE!

So until next time, Peace!

'Wrence