should I go?

just got a party invite here in beijing:

The First "Never Have I Ever Party"

It's that time again.

February has come to find us immersing ouselves in black history and hallmark heartbreak. The Spring festival will take many of us far away. But we are still here. So come one and come all. A night of drinking and bad decisions awaits the willing.

Remember it's not the length of the month, it's how you use it.

whats been going on.

I have been freezing my ASS off. Its so cold here.

Other than that I have been mostly moving into my new place. Yesterday me and my roommate gordon hit hou-hi again so i could take some polaroids with my holgaroid. ( a polaroid back on my holga camera ). I got some really sweet B&W shots of chinese people ice skating and such they look all dreamy and antiqish. The holgaroid is sweet but unfortunately I only brought 10 packs of film. I have found a chinese replacement polaroid film called viva but the black and white is way fast... 3000iso fast. not sure what i can use it for maybe seedy bar portraits of my derelict friends. the color film is 125iso.... i am going to try the color film tomorrow. i will post the b&w shots as soon as i find a scanner.

back to gordon. I lost him yesterday. We split up around 3pm while i was taking pictures and we agreed to meet up in an hour. I didn't have a phone so gordon lent me his in case i got lost. I jokingly said if we don't find each other meet at Huxley's (best bar in universe! see last post) at 6pm. When I went to meet him around 4pm he was no where to be found so i got my cold ass in a cab went home and took my afternoon nap. Around 6pm my buddy tom rolled over to the casa see what was up for dinner... against my better judgement I told him i lost gordon. He decided we should form some kind of search party. I went to the store to buy some beers so we cold form a search party strategery.

I purchased 3 22oz beers and 1 liter of water all for 8 yuan ( a little more than a dollar )

life is good.

After an hour of strategerizing and Gordon finally showed up. apparently he thought i said to meet at the bar the ZOO ( also owned by Huxley's ) and decided to just go straight there after we split up at 3pm. He had been drinking jack & cokes for like 4 hours.

By that time gordon was famished and on the brink of death so we decided the best thing to nurse him back to health would be some peking duck. We hit this little spot by our casa. This spot is a little pricey but the duck is rad and they brew their own stout beer which is like 12 yuan for a giant glass stein. The 3 of us ordered and entire duck all the fixins and some kind of spicy garlic eggplant dish plus beers. the bill came to 134 yuan ( $17usd )

life is good.

So after 13 hours on a plane 4 beers and half a bottle of wine I arrive in beijing 5:30AM. I go through customs expecting to see the welcome wagon and my friend tom there with beers... no one is there. NICE. I call tom on my cell:
"tom"
slurred reply "tommy is that you?"
"who's this" I ask
"tom?"
"where is tom" I ask again.
"no this is gordon"
"gordon where is tom, i am at the airport"
"we were out drinking waiting for you"
"tell tom I am at the airport"
"ok" gordon says as he passes back out.

Around 6am my friends tom and wendy arrive with refreshing beverages in hand! I find out wendy is flying out to norcal in 5hours and everyone was out at all you can eat sushi and all you can drink beer until 2 hours before.

We get to the casa around 6:30 and nick and gordon are passed out on the couch with borat dvd menu loping on the tv at full volume. Nick wakes up and retreats to his bedroom while thomas makes bloody mary's and breakfast. 3 bloody marys later julia arrives then a short time later stella arrives and gordon wakes up and makes more bloody marys and breakfast for the new arrivals.

Tom took wendy to the airport while the rest of us nursed our bloody marys and watched "human traffic".

Tom arrives back and we start formulating a game plan while watching some snowboarding DVD i brought with me. The original plan was to hit the italian film festival but everyone feels movied out. So around 4 we cab it over to hou hi. hou hi is a touristy area with a lake surrounded by bars and cafes. Its cold this time of year and the lake is frozen over and there are people skating and sledding on the ice...wierd.

We hit hutong pizza for a light snack and a few rounds of tsing-taos. After the pizza we roll over to huxley's the best bar in beijing. We have a few refreshing whiskey and gingers and a few shots of absinthe. We then meet up with another friend patrick and his special friend savannah. We have a few more whiskey gingers formulate a plan to see an AC/DC cover band. I was far too exhausted after the 12 hour flight and a few too many absinthes so I head back to the casa around 11pm and call it an early night.

All in all a good first day.

Living the Dream!

On january 26th 2007 I am leaving my job at disney feature animation and moving to beijing to pursue my life long dream of becoming a professional man of leisure. I have no job and no plan. All I have is a couch in beijing to crash on and the $2600.00 I made selling everything I own. My current goal in life is to avoid working until my 35th birthday!