november report
I was in the state of Washington for the entire month of November.
Notable events: Early in the month, there was this massive dinner party on the last day of daylight saving time at Terra Plata that started at Bar Ferd'nand and included a waiting stop at Still and then made use of the extra hour at the Hideout. The next morning I was surprised that we weren't politely asked to leave at least one of those places due to rambunctiousness. I guess that since we ordered everything they were inclined to tolerate the high degree of zany?
In town: Various fundraisers like a party to convince people to become marrow donors for Amit Gupta (just an incredibly depressing story) and another one to get people to take off their pants and dance for Carinna's classroom (a laugh riot). That one had something about gambling and video games, though I did more of the former than the latter.
Several other celebratory / housewarmy sorts of parties as well as our office's very early holiday party. I'm thinking of adding "white elephant host" to my c.v.
Out of town: We also had a big urban family adventure to Orcas Island for Thanksgiving, taking over about twenty percent of West Beach Resort for the very long holiday weekend. When I learned that there was an option to go there by seaplane, I was very tempted. But then we realized that we'd need to buy extra seats for the turkey; so instead we filled every square inch of April's hybrid and Samantha risked life and limb by squeezing into the backseat food/luggage/cargo fort. Our tenacity for leaving early got us one of the last spots on the afternoon ferry, which allowed us a stunning sunset voyage past the spooky mystical wolf clouded islands. The trip featured a massive Thanksgiving feast, some aborted hikes, late night dock walking, plenty of lounging, and a hilarious dance party. We also made a trip over to Doe Bay for another "order everything" dinner that also functioned as a way of getting on the priority list for next year's Doe Bay Festival. On the way out, we quickly stuck our feet in the soaking tub and sat in the sauna in our winter clothes for a few minutes. I think that that scheme, which required us to rent a room that we didn't need for a night was equal parts us outsmarting the beardos and the beardos outsmarting us.
Music: A little bit of show photography for Feist and Wild Flag, which were both just really excellent shows. Wild Flag was one of the few shows that I can even remember needing to stick foam in my ears to protect myself from deafness and even then I left the show kind of earbuzzy. There was also a Ballard adventure to see Typhoon "just for fun" out of recent addiction to their 2011 EP. The funniest part of that show was how their double-redundancy paid off when a sullen trumpet player's horn stopped working, leaving him onstage just looking confused while the other dozen bandmates soldiered on through obvious road colds.
Movies: several failed attempts to cash in on SIFF screenings, plus the Rum Diaries (which was boring).
Books: I started reading 1Q84 at the Silent Reading Party at the Sorrento's fireside room and spent the whole month finishing it.