In interest of being up to date on the blog, I’m not reposting the photos I’d uploaded that were then eaten by WordPress on my iPhone.
I was very excited when I awoke on Wednesday morning – even though I slept in too late for a run, I didn’t feel like complete and utter crap. Huzzah! Laying low may have been detrimental to the blog, but I guess sometimes that can be good for one’s health (especially when one forgets she is not 23 anymore). I was also excited because Mary Ann and I had a date scheduled that evening to catch Broken Social Scene at The Warfield Theatre.
I was going straight from work, so I actually dressed up for once. Seriously, one of my favorite things about my move has been not having a dress code at work. I find I put more effort into my appearance when I’m not required to wear fucking business casual everyday. By the end of my time in Milwaukee, I was a walking ad for the Kohl’s clearance rack. When I lost my weight I didn’t really want to “reinvest” in a new fashionable wardrobe, so I just sort of stopped caring and rotated my black, brown, and gray slacks throughout the week with a variety of matching knits. No wonder I could never get a date. Anyway, of course the day I wear a dress and leggings, it DOWNPOURS on my bike ride in. Thank goodness for my raincoat, but my legs were quite chilly all morning.
You know what helps warm you up? A GIANT BOX OF SWISS CHOCOLATE. Luckily one appeared in our office today, thanks to a visit from one of our owners off a flight from Europe. It was wonderful also to meet someone from another area of our company and I also had a good meeting with my boss today. I can’t believe it’s been a month already. I honestly think I’m even more excited about the possibilities of my job with each day I go in. (Yes that sounds sappy, but it’s true). At this point in my life and my career, this position is really the “right fit” for me.
At lunch I took a trip over the market to grab tamales (green chicken and vegetarian), as well as gifts of locally-grown nuts for my Milwaukee hosts (you’re welcome Becky). I debated getting fresh medjool dates, but they wouldn’t have lasted the trip. Hopefully they’re still around next week for my own enjoyment.
I stayed a little late after work, and headed down with a co-worker to our office building’s weekly Wednesday Happy Hour before I had to meet MAB. I had noticed a tweet from our “building” earlier in the week about a Banksy mural being visible from the offices. We all went back up to our suite and sure enough, I’ve see this thing every day and never knew! Banksy-ogling actually ended up being totally fortuitous.
Running a few minutes late, I arrived at 6th & Mission during the midst of a huge traffic jam. Then I noticed all the emergency vehicles, and heard all the sirens, and had to avoid getting run over on my bike. Pulling up to Tu Lan to meet Mary Ann, I was a little shaken up by having to navigate that. All I’d seen was a puddle on the ground and a stretcher — didn’t seem like 900 vehicles needed to be tearing down the street. But then I found MAB. She looked totally dazed and asked me if I’d seen what had happened. I shrugged and then she described her experience of being in cab, hearing a commotion, she and the cabbie looking out the window and then seeing a naked man flailing around in the street, completely engulfed in flames. She’d assumed the clothes had burned off of him, but the next morning I woke up to an email from Becky (in Milwaukee) describing what REALLY happened.
So yeah. Of course, being of Cochran stock, I took the opportunity to lighten the mood by making the most inappropriate comment ever and casually asking “Did you Path that?” Yes, I am a horrible human being.
We moved on past the trauma and were able to enjoy quite a delicious (and ridiculously cheap) meal. If we weren’t going out after and had been able to box this up we’d have eaten for a week. Shrimp spring rolls, vegetarian fried rice, and egg pie with vegetable curry all arrived overflowing their platters. And the whole meal was undre $20. Highly recommend, just try and come on a day when there’s not a burning guy running out of the porn shop up the block.
At any rate, we did have to leave quite a bit of food, as we were saving room for dessert. MAB had suggested in the planning process that we hit up Farmer Brown again to try the strawberry shortcake. Alas, it wasn’t actually made ON the biscuits from heaven. It was still tasty, but not as divine as we’d imagined. I did enjoy a Tenderloin Shandy as well, which was recommended to me on Twitter last time I’d went.
We made it over to the Warfield in time to catch a bit of opener, Dominant Legs. (Looks like I snagged myself another local band for my 31 by 32 list). During the intermission, I took a bit of a glance around. I do have to say that the Pabst Theater group really does spoil Milwaukee. Musicians aren’t lying when they claim those are some of the most beautiful (and best acoustically) old theatres in the country. They are! Don’t take it for granted Milwaukee folks.
Broken Social Scene definitely did not disappoint, although their frontman was apparently suffering from a massive bronchial deal. I’m guessing this is what prevented it from being close to a “show of the year,” as my friend Ryan claimed 2010 in Milwaukee was (I missed it). They clearly loved SF though, so I’m excited to go to more “big” shows here and note the difference of love for the city.
Unfortunately the only three terrible audience members were sitting directly in front of us, some wasted, possibly high school, girls who talked the whole show and one of whom kept flipping her nasty hair over the seat and onto Mary Ann’s legs. Ew. Fortunately they left during the finale, which was the wall of sound of Meet Me in the Basement (which led into a fantastic non-exit encore, including an introspective cover of Modest Mouse’s The World at Large. So we wrapped our concert experience without being overly-annoyed.
During the show via the magic of Path, we made plans to meet up with Ken after for a drink. But the show ended late, and The Warfield isn’t in the best of areas, so Mary Ann trooped up to the Mission and we all met at Phoenix. Both of them are living the freelancer life right now, so once again, my bike almost turned into a pumpkin before I called it a night.
Brew to Bay 