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one way to complete a task
Saturday, October 30 1999
The other day Eric the Web Developer convinced me to do some work for one of his after-hours clients, a Mr. B&rge. My workload during my "day job" wasn't too demanding at the time, and I figured I could find the hours do it. But immediately after I'd agreed, all manner of projects descended upon me and filled out my schedule to the point where I had to begin turning project leaders down. Then, to make matters worse, it turned out that the guy who I was to be working for was one of those obsessively demanding types given to calling four times a day. His nagging quickly filled what little I had of after-hours life with a gnawing pit-of-the stomach guilt. Meanwhile, I found it impossible to do any work on his site because I lacked proper access permissions. I felt like I was drowning.
Mr. B&rge had sent me something like four emails over the course of a day and I hadn't responded to any of them, nor had I returned any of his phone calls. Kim and even neighbor Lisa were talking about him as if he might be one of those unpleasant stalker types. Their impression wasn't far off the mark; he actually is a private investigator by trade. The other night I'd met him just before he went off to do an undercover insurance fraud investigation gig at In Cahoots. He'd had a backpack full of electronic equipment.
Today, though, Mr. B&rge finally got through to me. He could sort of sense that I was overwhelmed and wouldn't get to do his work. So he gave me an out and I took it. The moment the call was over, I felt as if a huge crushing weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I immediately celebrated with a bong hit. Bailing on a job is one way to make it go away, and in this case it was definitely the prudent thing to do.
Sophie took a protracted dump outside the 1 Hour Photo place, and though there were witnesses, I left it lie because the witnesses didn't linger. Lunch consisted of ghetto burritos from El Rodeo. The sun was so hot that we couldn't stay (and we couldn't go inside with Sophie), so we had to take the burritos back home to eat them.
In the late afternoon, Kim and Steph set off for work, costumed as their respective "little girls on a quest." When Kim returned from her seven hours of massage, she said that one of her clients had commented about the prospect of being massaged by a fishnet-wearing Dorothy, "I can't imagine it being any better than this."
Off to see the Wizard and Grandmother,
Dorothy, Little Red Riding Hood
and Toto the Big Bad Wolf.
Off to work at V!ctoria Rose, Kim and Steph. And Sophie too.
Actually, Sophie didn't get to go
and the Punch Buggy Blue was only used as a prop.
I put my quasi-Tin Man outfit back on, and then Kim, Steph and I headed down south on foot to another one of those Harmony 24 parties. Kim and I have decided that it's not that the people who hang out with Harmony 24 especially like the music; it seems they're there more for the other cool people who hang out with Harmony 24.
In contrast with the heat of the day, the night was uncomfortably cool. I joked that the feeling of cold was just a predictable side effect of "the drugs that we took." But somehow, when I thought about it this way, actually didn't feel quite as cold.
Those Harmony 24 kids might be cool, but they sure don't know how to throw a party that can last. As usual, the beer was all gone by the time we arrived. Kim and I left Steph there with EJ and headed to Newport Street to check out the scene.
Along the way, we passed many others, and nearly all of them were in costume.
After checking several different places, we ended up at the Sunshine Bar. I usually don't like the Sunshine bar, since its crowd is consistently the most Schteveish in Ocean Beach, drawn by the nauseating sports-bar vibe of the place. And as Kim pointed out, the Sunshine Bar has perpetual "last call" lighting, detracting significantly from the ambiance. But tonight it seemed the Sunshine Bar was definitely the place to be. Most of the customers were in costume and the place was packed. As we were arriving, we found a belligerent & uncostumed Giacomo out in front having words with someone who had called one of his friends a nigger.
Inside, we did the quick tour and came upon another Tin Man/Dorothy pair, but by this point I was wearing my abstract woodsman's hat as a provocative codpiece, an object that several drunken girls could not resist tweaking. We found Harmony 24-scenesters Alley and Darin dressed as Olive Oyle and the Grim Reaper respectively, so we chatted with them for awhile. As we were leaving, we found Darin out in front. As Kim was inviting him to come back to our place, he projectile-vomited all over his black cape. He was drunker than we'd thought.
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