The Lab w/ Kat

So I wanted to write a bit about my time last night with Kat. I had an amazing time! Despite it being at least three years since we've actually even seen each other, she was super awesome and drove down from LA to OC to pick me up and hang out. She showed up at my front door and immediately I had to show her off to my family. My brother was engrossed by March Madness and was regrettably rude in my opinion, but my mother, upon meeting one of the fabled "ideal Filipino children" (she's a good catholic girl w/ a masters in biology) gushed over her and even gave me an extra $50 cash so that I might take Kat out to a nice restaurant. LOL

I hadn't any solid plans... we could have gone for some really good hakata ramen (shin sen!), or there was this awesome thai place I know of... I had wanted to go to the Artist Village in Santa Ana. If we had gone there, there would be the Memphis Cafe (a great bar), and across the way would be the live entertainment at the Gypsy Den (the larger and better one IMO). There would be tons of art galleries, live theater at Rude Guerilla (a small intimate theater company, who has in the past done some really provocative and unusual -in a good way- productions). I dunno, I was really stuck on the idea, but my mom was like, "Ah no! You cannot take her to some place like that! There are gang bangers! It is a bad neighborhood." Haha, she wanted us to go to somewhere safe, like Downtown Disney :P~~~~

Kat and I were very meh with the idea of buying overpriced drinks/food at the Disney resort, so the middle of the road option was The Lab, a sort of anti-mall near south cost plaza. The place is cool enough, but not as HUGE as the hype would lead you to believe. Living in SF you either develop excellent gaydar or a spot on BS-hype-dar (or both), and I've only developed the second of the two. All the people who shop the stores have this holier-than-thou pretentious "OMG I'M LIKE SO INDIE" aura about them, I usually stick to the Santa Ana place I mentioned. Anyway, the Lab has its own Gypsy Den and Memphis Cafe (the originals, I think), but those weren't really where I was aiming for. In the back there is a restaurant named Zipangu -- one of my all time favorite places for sushi. They also happen to have one of my favorite bar/lounges. ^^;  (It is actually place where I had my big 21st birthday bash). Kat and I made a girls night of it, first ordering some chocolaty drinks called "Orgasms" (LOL we  toasted/"orgasmed" together ...at the same time XD). We went through about 6-7 drinks each, trying out different drinks named after zodiac signs and others with named like "Blushing Geisha" and "Sayonara Sunrise." We tended to like creamy drinks with amaretto and banana liqueur in them, like the "Dirty Banana." I ordered sashimi, Kat got this monster of a sushi roll. We did oyster shooters (a first for Kat) and I ordered these tiny succulent lamb chops. So basically, it was a little bite of this and nibble of that... and mostly drinking, hahaha. We talked and talked about all sorts of stuffs and it was just SO NICE to be around another girl w/o an SO or any guys... and just letting it all hang out.  We spent a good portion of our time laughing.

It is funny that we met through my ex, Kevin. I mean, he liked the both of us for the same reasons... we're outgoing, nerdy females who're more than a little bit cute. ^_~ Being introduced (over a dinner in one of the dorm dining halls) was like:

G: "Wait... you like --insert anime series name--?!"
K: "Yeah...I ....I kind of cosplay. ^^;;"
G: "OMG! That's so cool!"
K: "And I heard you liked fencing?"
G: "Yeah, well... I take some classes here at UCSD."
K: "Neat! I'm on their team."
G: *Gasp* "NO WAY!"
K: "Well I'm not the best or anything, but our school beats all the other UCs"
G: "I'm not very good at fencing, but I like to body surf around. Have you ever been to ..."
K: "We should totally go!"
G: "Oh and I know this great place we can get great fish tacos!"
And somewhere along we had totally left out/left Kevin behind somewhere hahaha! Kat will always be super cool... and I will always "know this great place..." XP

So anyway, I officially drank more and was significantly less buzzed than Kat. Well, I mean, she kind got drunk haha. Eating always kills my buzz, but I was having a lot of fun anyway. At one point she knocked her purse from the table... and kind of looked at it for a bit. She was looking at it and I could tell the wheels were turning but she hadn't moved to pick it up so I said, "Uh... your purse dropped." Haha and she slowly picked it up and looked at me, kind of leery-eyed and said, "I noticed. I saw that. *pause* You were kind of quick on that one. *another pause* You aren't drunk at all are you?" She kind of swayed as she asked me, it was cute and reeeally funny. Ah, the perks of higher tolerances. (She's going to kill me later if she reads this in facebook.) But its ok, b/c I made a butt of myself mistaking a fancy "latrine" to be an art gallery, "Oooh interesting, "The Latrine Gallery." With a name like that, I wonder what kind of art they put in--- oh, it just... it's just toilets." >.>

All and all we racked up a $150 bill on mostly booze a few bites of food. Being a bit decadent for a night was totally worth it.

We walked over to the Gypsy Den and since they were no longer making coffee at that hour (we'd been in the lounge from 8 till past midnight 0.o) we got a slice of chocolate cake and shared it while talking for long time on the patio. While yes, I was waiting for Kat to sober up, more than anything I think I stuck around so long b/c I wasn't ready for the fun to end. We walked over to the fire pit/art instillation (which i think awesome b/c its warm but totally ugly >.>) and talked some more. We even got invited by the cute barista boy from Gypsy Den to join him at another gay bar across the street.

We explored the deserted grounds a bit, walked over to Memphis (which was extremely loud) and even found an odd art gallery made of a tranport/storage unit. >.> Eventually we were both sober, warmed by the fire and sleepy enough to realize it was time to head on home. All and all, a very good night.