Sail the Twin Seas - 29th Birthday 2014

I never blogged by about 29th birthday last year which is a waste since so much went into it.  I decided to do a joint celebration with James and it took us a month to figure out what we were going to do.  The theme was golden:

It's quite brilliant.  Twin Seas... like twinsies.  Gemini.  Wow.  Above is the facebook event banner that James made.  Bless the graphic designer.  James also found the venue:  The Custom Hotel near LAX.  It had a neglected swimming pool and great rates especially since we were splitting it.



Nautical themed party supplies are actually quite difficult to find, but bless the Toy District in DTLA.  I was able to get fish nets, cute canvas giveaway bags (I should have taken a picture!), sea shells, napkins, balloons and signs.  Also, guests were more than willing to dress like they're going sailing.



We match!  James took care of our outfits.



Joe and Mony even showed up.  I was really happy there were there.



We had five cabanas to ourselves and I was able to set up a photobooth.  The lighting was hard, but Jimmy was able to figure it out with the reflector.  I was actually pretty shocked that people made use of the pool!



Some folks asked me if they could buy me a drink from the pool bar, but I told them that we were giving away about 72 drink tickets which include beer, wine and cocktails since it was ALSO HAPPY HOUR!  So they could just get me a shrimp plate instead!  LOL.  We really got a great deal.  James and I split the following package:

Happy Hour Stationed Appetizers
 (2) Fried calamari steaks with mae ploy sweet chili sauce
 (2) Rock and roll shrimp with shredded cocunut and chili sauce
 (4) Parmesan fries

Hosted Wine, Beer and Sangria Bar (72 Prepaid Drink Tickets)

Stationed Appetizers
 (20) Artichoke, olives, sun dried tomato salad on crostinis
 (20) Roasted fingerling potatoes stuffed with apple and bacon
 (20) Vegatable spring rolls, yuzu soy dipping sauce
 (30) Marinated beef kebabs with yogurt garlic sauce

Yes!  We took care of our friends.




The space by the pool across from the cabanas also provided a cool place to hang out.












Photobooth collage.







At night the place transformed



We all gathered around the fire.  Cindy took this one.  This #hiddenLA venue was all ours!




James' cake is on the left was a Baby Cakes Vegan Chocolate.  My cake is on the right: Ube Red Ribbon Cake with a huge Sail Boat smashed into it.  It reflects our personality.




Being the type A that I am, I grabbed 4 people to present the birthday cakes to me and James and we had to act surprised.  I remember giving a really bad birthday speech.

This year, for my 30th, I'm trying to plan something equally fun.  But the pressure is on; not because I'm turning 30, but because I want to throw an equally awesome event!  Thinking of sticking with the boat theme... but actually being on the water. Hmm!

Goofing Around.

Just playing around with the selfie stick.  Ended up taking a lot of silly couply pictures.

Made some GIFs too.  Heeehee.

I had all this hair length back in March... I just didn't know how to style it and it was cut kinda funky and jimmy hates long hair.

But it was fun to play with.  Maybe I'll grow it out again.

Oh.  Did you know that Taco Bell serves Cinnabon Delights so hot that it melts candles?  Happy Birthday Andrew, your dessert is inedible.

So Goofy.

L'Invitation Au Voyage - Happy Birthday Jimmy!

I made reservations for Jimmy's birthday at Travel Town in Griffith Park.  It was $75 with $25 security deposit.  It was worth getting a designated table.  "What's the name of the birthday boy?"  They asked.  I guess the old train yard is reserved for birthday of younger children.

It was a sunny day and it was a great photo opportunity!



I got him two pies from Pie Hole!  I try to be unique with the birthday "cakes" since Jimmy hates cake.



We got all of our friends on the kiddie train that went around the park.  It was pretty fun!  I made a video:

We also take each other out to restauraunts that we've been meaning to try.  I surprised him by taking him to Night + Market Song and giving him Sex in the City box set.

Arts District and Little Tokyo

Every Umami burger location has their specialty.  The "Arts District" burger has a slab of pork belly with their manly burger which I found difficult to eat and not worth the price.  But I managed to get something unique by getting order the Hatch Burger - Poutine style.

This was perfect since I was watching my weight and didn't want to eat the empty calories that came with the bun.  Poutine style: cheese gravy and bed of thin fries.  It was pretty perfect and not regrettable at all!  The Umami Burger in the Arts District has little to no wait and a hidden backyard.

We stayed inside.  Andrew was caught enjoying his fry here.
The restaurant gave us chips at the end of the night to place into jars based on how much we enjoyed our meal.  We could be as honest as we wanted however... they were watching us place the chips into the jars.  How awkward.  Thankfully we had a great time so we didn't have to lie when we all placed the chip into the positive jar.  We noticed that the staff was really bro-y.  But that's cute.

The Arts District section next to Little Tokyo has a ... meat packing feel.  If you must compare it to New York.. there is grit, art, factories and tons of development.

Lots of "boutiques" popping up everywhere.

The Santa Fe One project is massive.  It's going to bring in a new population to this area which can either destroy or patronize it's charm.  It's an interesting view from 1st street.  You can see the roof of this giant building that looks to extend for miles.

While the class arcade closes down in the Little Tokyo mall.  82 barcade is the new hotspot featuring mixology drinks for $14 and arcade games.  I thought it was cool how they projected Street fighter on the walls above the bar.  Other people can see how much you suck if you're able to sneak a game in.

Jimmy was doing well at this pinball machine until i distracted him with my camera.  Sorry babe.

Back in Little Tokyo Plaza I noticed how late this gift store stayed open and how much work it was to bring in and out all of the merchandise every day.  I hope this place stays around for a while.

Happy Birthday Martin.  We were able to gather at Wolf and Crane which I love.  The energy is young and Asian American.  Drinks are good.  People are hip.

I had this venue as a possible spot for my birthday, but ruled it out when I started planning with James.  But I'm glad that I was able to celebrate something here and checked it off my list.

Twas a nice warm evening.

The Dark Horse Birthday

Charles' birthday was about to pass... without a celebration?  Not if I can help it.  After unnecessary brainstorming we came up with an Echo Park bar crawl starting at Gold's Room which serves an unheard of $4 beer + taco + tequila shot... you can imagine how this night was going to go.

"What's your favorite song right now Charles?"
"Dark Horse?"
"Perfect."

A theme was born.

Andrew's sunburn gave him a cute cartoon-like blush.  Oh there's Charles... already there.  We guerilla gay bar-ed that place with at least 10 gaysians surround by latinos and hipsters... and latino hipsters.  Some of our weho gaysians didn't feel as comfortable in the space.  Come on!  Open your mind!

We were stuck in line for our second and last destination at Short Stop.  I've had my birthday here and I loved it.  Charles and I ran to the liquor store and bought everyone small bottles of hard liquor to drink in line.  It was brilliant and fun.  The bouncer caught us and told us not to bring them in.  Fair enough.  LOL

Once inside we kept the cheap drinks pouring Echo Park style.  Some RnB music came on.  I made eye contact with some girls and started to grind while their boy mates looked at us awkwardly.  I whispered "Im gay" to reassure them and continued to blow air on their chests and sway tightly for a song and a half.   I love dancing sensually.

One of Charles' friends asked me to find him.  I turned around and saw him trip on the step in front of the bar and fell in front of security and we got kicked out.  This is where I channeled the strength of 1000 men to control my birthday buddy who is a RUNNER.  My forearm was seriously sore from restraining him.

Somehow I got him home using a Lyft after chilling on someone's front yard.  The driver was so nervous that he would puke.  The highlight was when I sat him in the hallway at the house and told him not to move while I let our friends in.  I then heard a tumble and crash and there he was - upside down on the bottom of the stairway.

I was so angry I cussed him out.  "I TOLD YOU NOT TO FUCKING MOVE!"  Our friends were in shock.  I was a bit buzzed too and sooooo angry.  We created barricades to keep Charles from leaving the living room and he finally fell asleep.  He woke up the next day with a scratch on his cheek from his SECOND crash down the stairs that night.

Ugh.  Happy Birthday messy boy.

October - Birthdays, Bicycling and Beards

October is always a hectic month since ALL of my friends decided to be born during this time.  Thankfully they were all creative and all had separate fun events which made this month pretty entertaining.

Erik's Birthday - Sushi Stop, UCB Comedy and some Bear

We spent the Friday night in Franklin Village enjoying a really cheap sushi dinner at Sushi Stop in a private back room.  Following this was an improv comedy show about Fucked Up families and scenes improv'd from random music from various iPods.  Went to the bar next door where the upstairs sitting area sat vacant waiting for us.  Ern is trying to sneak a blow on Erik's candle.


Irene's Birthday - Harry Potter Themed in the Park

I've known Irene since high school through Key Club and she was thrilled when I was able to attend her Harry Potter themed party in a park in Culver City.  She went ALL out setting up a legit game of Quidditch and breaking up the groups into houses using an electronic sorting hat.  There was a guy/girl combo who kicked my team's ass at Quidditch.  I was so out of breath but we managed to get a great picture.  I also slammed myself into JV trying to take another jumping picture - Ouch.  One of the games was put the 8 pictures of the Harry Potter characters in order by release/age.  We got Harry, so it was easy.  Hermione was impossible!  I also reused the costume for halloween.. how convenient!

Jlo and Brian's Birthday - Food Bank Volunteering 

Jlo and Brian went the giving back route and had their birthdays early in the morning at the LA food bank.  People usually mix of these volunteer opportunities with food kitchens where you serve food, but we were all tasked to put together care packages full of juices and cereal.

Jlo and Brian provided a wonderful Filipino breakfast to get the day going right!

Back breaking work!  And all about the assembly line!  The factory was huge with tons of volunteers and at the end they tell us how many meals we've provided.  It was pretty amazing.


Steve and Sam - Dim Sum and Shaved Ice

I tried to surprise Steve and Sam by lighting a candle in a piece of dim sum, but I almost burnt myself so we pretended.  After Dim Sum at King Hua and yummy shaved ice at Salju Desserts.  They have an amazing Vietnamese Iced Coffee shaved ice that I fell in love with.

Other Steve, Steve and Ed's Surprise

These video game nerds are united by some foreign language that I don't quite understand, but we had a nice green cake with some funny looking cartoon things coming out of it.  One of them was missing so they facetimed.  I played with the guinea pig.


Steve and Ed's Birthday - WeHo

Not very surprising.  WeHo is the simplest way to celebrate a gay birthday.  We danced and did the run way walk at Eleven Lounge.  Find the light and dance!

Sean's Birthday - Senor Fish

Sean celebrated his birthday at Senor Fish in Little Tokyo.  Mad Asian Americaness with #swag oozing from the bars.  Sean made these cute thank you cards with taxi numbers in case we all get out of control.  I was feeling the patio space... and Jimmy photobombed me and Andrew.

Ciclavia - Heart of LA

Downtown LA shuts down for CicLAvia.  It's definitely an adventure to ride bikes in a city dependent car culture.  It was particularly pretty to see the downtown skyline from the East LA.  I had left over kids sunglasses from Jimmy's birthday that I left at the information booth.  Those were snatched up SO quickly.  In the top left photo, you can see Erik learning how to mount a bike on a bus.  This is actually really useful.

Facial Hair

My boss was on vacation in Europe and he posted a picture of his long hair don't care beard on facebook.  I went ahead and printed that out and send him these pictures to show that we miss him.   I tried out facial hair in October - my coworker things I look rugged, but it's too sparse to have that true affect.... so here are more selfies with me and an animals.

Thanks October for being an eventful month.

May Birthdays - Attention Whores

I celebrated a lot during May.  Particularly the birth of many of my friends.  Though this won't compare to October where it feels like everyone was born, but May came close.

Planning ahead is the key and I was texting all the Gemini's so that we had our designated days and themes.

Kevyn's Surprise Birthday House Warming

I met a friend of Kevyn's.  She was excited to meet me to help her plan his birthday party, but she was 19 and had no idea what she was doing.  She wanted to celebrate at Bubba Gumps because they sang to you and she wanted to get him a Panda cake because.. that what she calls him.  And... she wanted to get him flowers because... she likes flowers?  But he's allergic. What to do?  Good thing his roommate interviened on facebook:

He will love wherever we go, BUT I know seafood is not his favorite. Maybe we should decorate and get popeyes for 2 pc Tuesdays...?! Haha Also, Kevyn is dying to have people over to our new place so that is an option. I'm off all day today and tomorrow please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Crisis averted.   He came to his home and we screamed SURPRISE and he ran away.  His favorite was out on the table: fried chicken and friends from different parts of his life were there.  Perfect.  We all squeezed in and participated in his pointing instagram pictures.

My Birthday on the Rooftop

What I liked about the birthday bonanza is that everyone planned something different.  My rooftop party was celebrated on a casual Thursday.  I asked folks to dress in black and white for a classy affair with overpriced drinks and amazing views.  This is to make up for my ridiculous Superhero party last year.  I was thrilled that my coworkers came from the west side to see DTLA in all it's glory.

James' Vino 'Stache Bash

James took class a bit further and rented out half of a Wine Bar for his mustache themed event.  I wrote about it before. Oh you fancy.  Jimmy and I were able to reuse our bay to breaker outfits.  James is already thinking about next year.  

David's BLACKOUT

David took classy twenty steps back and got table service at the Abbey the following day.  Two bottles of Grey Goose and one bottle of Absolut rang up to $1,900.  David almost jumped out the window when he got the bill.  He basically bought everyone 2.5 drinks and didn't ask anyone to chip in.  Messy messy night.  Everyone was trashed, but that was the goal.  We had fun with the go-go boys it was like watching beefy hairless monkey's swing upside on poles.  Though what they were swinging on looked like gas pipes and I was waiting for one of the pipes to break causing a huge stampede.  A gay, synchronized stampede that would be perfect for a high end fashion commercial.

I handed David water and watched him knock it out of my hand and onto people.  He also lost his cap that night and bought another.  He found it later in his laundry.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

Because I'm such an attention whore, I planned a second birthday party that was sort of a combined Gemini event.  6 Gemini's came out along with a lot of folks from our circle.  It was a fun overcast beach day at Will Rogers - the gay beach one mile north of Santa Monica.

Cindy pictures here.

Whew!

Neurotic Gemini

After my birthday was James' at a Wine Bar in WeHo.  His spectacular catering, decorations, gluten free cake and wine bar reservation all cost him $400 which is very very reasonable.  James was excited - this is the first year that his birthday didn't fall on Memorial Weekend.  People were actually in town to celebrate.  The result of this rare occasion - a birthday bonanza.

James came up to me and said, "do you feel extra anxious and stressed around your birthday?"  I nodded in agreement.  He continued, "and do you constantly think about crossing your T's and dotting your I's when you plan events."  I thought about how much happier I would be if I woke up early to get things done.  I thought about my multiple to-do lists.  I thought how I like things done a certain way and I can't understand why other people are not on the same wave length.  I thought about how I often get disappointed because of my expectations.  I hugged James and said, "I thought I was just being crazy."  But apparently it's a Gemini thing.

I never really look to astrology, but I think my neurotic thoughts and behaviors can be pinpointed to a specific constellation.  I hugged it out and I felt that we connected.  James ordered his own cake, hand selected the food to be catered and was his own designated driver that night.  He needed things done a specific way and only he is able to do it.  He checked everything off the list.

David is also celebrating his birthday today.  Like James he planned the whole deal and reserved a table at the Abbey.  He knows its gonna be a clusterfuck, but this is what he wants to do and nothing is going to stop him.  The gemini's mind is set.

I am similar.  For my birthday I wanted to celebrate at a speakeasy at La Descarga, I wanted everyone to sing to me as I blew out a candle on my favorite Ube Cake from Red Ribbon and I wanted to not have to deal with a messy dinner bill.  And I would have done it myself like James and David but I had one thing that they did not, a boyfriend with boyfriend duties.

Jimmy and I dressed the part with our bay to breaker outfits.

I'm sure Jimmy has more anxiety than I do during this time.  He could easily ask what I wanted and do it to a tee and I would have been very happy, but that wouldn't make him a very good boyfriend.

Jimmy recommended Perch because it was a more manageable venue with an impecable view. Jimmy took me to a restaurant that I've been talking about for months.  Jimmy got everyone to sing to me at midnight intimately in our PJs in our home followed by an intimate family dinner that evening.

Jimmy is helping me step away from my lists and realize that better things can be achieved and appreciated if you let other people surprise you.  And I'm thankful that I had one of the best birthday ever without needing to check anything off that list.

....though other lists were checked off in the process. LOL. #gemini