People who insist on using the word “everyday” as a noun instead of an adjective.  Please stop. All of you. Immediately.

Two weeks after getting laid off I finally had a chance to get out of town and relax for a bit, such opportunity happening to coincide with both Father’s Day and the celebration of my cousin’s wife’s birthday, so on Friday bailed on NYC to DC for the weekend.  Given that severance will, in fact, run out in a few months, and that I don’t have too many demands on my time these days, I decided to do the economical thing and hop the bus to DC rather than take a train or fly. I must say, having done the Chinatown bus thing on a few occasions, that BoltBus is far superior — the free wireless works fine, there are AC outlets at a number of the seats, both buses (on the trip down and the trip back) were way cleaner than any of the Chinatown buses I’d ever encountered, and apparently BoltBus doesn’t stop in Baltimore on its NY/DC route. I didn’t book either leg far enough in advance to score the $1 fares that they offer from time to time, but still… Not a bad way to travel if you’ve got the time.

The weekend was pretty chill. This was probably the first time I’d hit DC in a few years and actually spent all of my time hanging out with family and not trekking into the city to go out drinking. Monday aside I got a chance to run twice each day, which was good. Dad and new wife are good. Aunt and uncle are well, as is grandmother. Cousin and wife are also doing well, and their son’s become quite the talker. Nothing bad to report.

The trip back yesterday was a bit of a pain in the ass once we hit Lincoln Tunnel traffic, which took an hour and a half to plow through, making me a bit late for my scheduled cocktail engagement with a fellow departed colleague.  Had a few drinks before meeting up with a friend to hit the Nightlife Preservation Community launch party at M2.  I normally avoid that place like the plague, but the ever-gracious Steve Lewis got us right past the door, the drinks were free, and the lineup was pretty badassed… Martinez Brothers, Louie Vega, Q-Tip, Funkmaster Flex, Junior Vasquez, etc. I hadn’t caught the Martinez Brothers before but was pleasantly surprised to to hear them drop both “French Kiss” and “Night of the Jaguar”. Good stuff. Definitely had a few too many drinks, though, as my White Castle –> street taco –> Dunkin’ Donuts –> ice cream run on the way home evidenced.

Back to the gym…

Ouch. [New York Post via Bitter Lawyer]

Finally. [Brooklyn Paper via Free Williamsburg]

I finally had to head back to NYC from sunny SoCal on Monday afternoon, but suffice it to say I had an absolutely wonderful time in L.A. and San Diego. As chance would have it, one of my best friends from college, who now lives in DC, was in San Diego beginning on Saturday; another friend from school, who lives in NYC but whose family lives in San Diego, was also in town; a third friend from Boston was out visiting; a fourth was having a birthday party on Saturday… The posse was in full effect.

The trip got off to a rather inauspicious start when I showed up to the American ticket counter at JFK at around 9:30am to check my bag — a scant few minutes after checking the status of my flight — and finding that my direct to LAX had been unceremoniously canceled. Rather than sit seven hours at the airport and hope for the best on the 4:30pm, I had them stick me in a car service up to LGA and grab an 11:20am through DFW (one of my least favorite airports, not the least reason for which being that it’s near impossible to find much more than junk food in the terminal). It ended up working out, but seriously… No fun.

I’d never really spent much time in downtown Los Angeles to speak of, and, in fact, the last time I’d even passed through I got a distinctly ghetto impression of it. Admittedly, I’d flown out for a job interview from NC (on a flight that I believe was delayed that time, rather than outright canceled) a day after interviewing in NYC for the job I have now, arriving somewhere around midnight rather tired only to realize there’d been some sort of mix-up with the friend I’d planned on staying with and was, therefore,  sitting at LAX around 11:30 the night before the meeting with nowhere to stay. I ended up on some weird shuttle thing to civilization and landed a room not too far from the office I was supposed to head to in the morning, but only after driving up what felt like the total tailpipe of the city… Garbage in the streets, riff-raff and hooligans out on every street corner, everything looking rather run down. Not an area I wanted to be wandering with my garment bag late at night seeking accommodation.

Anyway, things seem to have changed quite a bit. The friend whose loft I stayed at near 6th and Main is, as chance would have it, a mere stone’s throw from a total of four other friends’ two respective lofts and a smattering of bars and restaurants that folks  have informed me is only increasing in size.  Based on some of the ones I saw and how crowded, it seemed like the influx of both residents and cool bars/restaurants/etc.  may have reached enough of a critical mass to tip the development scales, so to speak, and keep up the momentum for building things up around there. Sweet.

When we weren’t out and about in the neighborhood, though, I had the chance to see a some friends I hadn’t seen in a while; bum around Hollywood and Beverly Hills munching; hit the beach in Santa Monica; etc. Another friend was having a birthday party in Cardiff by the Sea on Saturday night, so we made the (three hours with traffic) drive down to San Diego that evening and, not having thought to try booking a room for the Saturday night over Memorial Day weekend until that afternoon — stayed at he spa /resort my buddy in town from DC had arranged a room at across the street from Mission Beach. Good times.

I’m glad to have gone back.  Despite having grown up in San Diego until I was around 12, I hadn’t actually been  in 18 years or so, and was mildly surprised to see a lot of things — signs, buildings — that I still felt like I recognized.  Sense memory, perhaps.  And certain features — physical landmarks and the like, distances between places I recalled — definitely seemed smaller and shorter than I’d remembered… A function of being, well, bigger and older now, I suppose.

We ended up dragging out our San Diego stint an extra night after a morning of imbibing on Sunday and deciding to rent a boat for the afternoon. I never thought I’d be on a boat.

But now? Back to work…

As of this coming Friday I’ll have been living in NYC for four years, and while  May is one of my favorite times to be in the city, I’m knocking off this year and heading to L.A. for a long weekend to see some friends, hit a pool party or two, and enjoy my first three consecutive vacation days since — no kidding — November of 2007.

Happy Memorial Day to all.

1.  Take a “nap” at 8:30pm on Friday with intent of getting up at 9:30pm to go out. “Wake” from fitful nap at 9:14pm or so and reset alarm for 10:30pm since nap had yet to be satisfying. Sleep until after midnight. Decide to stay in. On a Friday.

2. Wake up around 6:00am on Saturday. Whoa. Return missed text messages, phone calls, and BBMs  from Friday night / Saturday morning, which apparently did not stop until a bit after 5:00am.

3. Jog from apartment to Steinway & Broadway in Astoria, then to Rainey Park (who knew there was a Costco in Astoria?), then down Vernon under the Queensboro Bridge to Long Island City.

3. Eat breakfast. Mop apartment floor. Do some laundry. Go to drug store. Buy shorts. Replace living room window screen. (There are things I don’t necessarily do infrequently; however, in this case they were all done before noon.)

4. Walk from apartment through Greenpoint to Williamsburg. Have brunch (yes, breakfast again) at El Amacen at N. 7th and Driggs. (Recommended, BTW — tasty, reasonably priced food; good coffee; attractive, friendly staff; not too crowded; putting in a patio; apparently beer/wine and/or liquor are coming soon.)

5. Go home. Do more laundry. Polish shoes. Rent movie (”Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, which I’d not seen… and still haven’t seen entirely (see #8)).

6. Visit local coffee shop, The Grind, in its new location.

7. Take train to Flushing and wander around. Never done that. Walk past Queens Botanical Gardens. Hadn’t seen those. End up in Rego Park. Yup. Take train back.

8.  Start rented movie. Get sleepy. Stop halfway through. Decide to stay in. On a Saturday night. Fall asleep by 9:30pm or so.

9. Get up a bit after 5:00am. Whoa again. Eat breakfast. Return text messages, phone calls, and BBMs from Saturday night / Sunday morning,which apparently did not stop until a bit after 2:00am.

10. Jog from apartment across Queensboro Bridge to Central Park. Cool off for a minute. Jog from Central Park to Hudson River. Check out U.S.S. Intrepid. Looks small.

11. Buy Sunday NYT. Have breakfast at restaurant near apartment I’ve been meaning to check out. Quite tasty.

12. Head back to city. Buy summer-y shirts for work.

13. Stop by office. Call Mom.

14. Walk from midtown to meet friend on 34th Street. Walk to WV and have breakfast at Good. (Again, recommended.) (Yes, breakfast again).

15. Head home. Call sister.

16. See new “Star Trek” movie at theater a few blocks from home. Not impressed, but not unimpressed. Maybe you have to be more of a JJ Abrams / “ST’ fan.

17. Finish Sunday NYT in bed. Asleep by 10:45pm. On a Sunday.

So this morning I’m sifting through the “upcoming shows” email that I get from the Highline Ballroom, and as I’m archiving the message the last listing my eyes scroll across for a split second is one that I’m pretty sure reads “Air Sex [something or other]“. Having assumed at first that this was just another hipster band I wouldn’t be inclined to go check out, I’d decided to move on to the rest of my in-box, but it dawned on me that this could be — oh, god — a ridiculous spin on the whole “air guitar” phenomenon.

Turns out I’m right.

Initially I thought this may be the kind of sophomoric, College Humor-style gag that may in fact turn out to be mildly entertaining. Then I pondered the possibility for about two more seconds and realized that it probably wouldn’t be, and would likely come across an unappealing and boring mix of frat-retarded and rather pathetic.

It strikes me that this would have been way, way funnier before the universal availability of porn.