Another Unofficial TB Meetup....In Pasadena

Finally...Saturday is here! I was excited to see Sudip (Cacerate) from South Korea who I met when I was there in April - he had asked me about getting some TBs together to hang and we delivered!  The LACC was present as we also sent off Joy and Rob as they leave on their exciting European cruise next week!  Recently (like 3 days ago), I convinced my friend, Silvina (Silverv), from high school to join TB and we have not seen each other since shortly after graduation (which we won't talk about how long ago that was though...LOL) and she was coming to the meet up too! *YEAH*  

Silvina and I were going to meet Jenn at Neomeze early so we could hold tables since they wouldn't take reservations (Jenn called and their mailbox was full.

..what the heck!?!?)  Anyways, traffic in Los Angeles being what it is....it took me almost 1 1/2 hours from Torrance to get to Pasadena.  There were several bad accidents along my trip up the freeway which didn't help! Going the other direction, a car lost control and spun out in the fast lane, taking out a multitude of cars in its path, smoke still rising from the tires spinning out as I passed.  I was thinking, whew..glad I am not on that side of the freeway.  Yeah, traffic karma got me! All of a sudden, there are cops swooshing by me and traffic comes to a complete stop. Two freakin city buses crashed into each other and they closed the lanes of traffic to deal with that.....OMG, you have to be kidding....right?!

All the while I am sitting there, I am texting Jenn with questions on where the venue is, where did she park, and most importantly, what is she wearing! LOL.

  I finally get up there and am somewhat cranky by this time (and thanks Michael (moon_over_michael) for letting me moan and groan all the way up).  HA HA HA.  I got parked and inside and whew...Joy, Rob, and Paul (loganbruin) were already there so Jenn wasn't alone!  Round of drinks (Shirly Temple w/extra cherries for Jen) and we ventured out to the patio area which was AWESOME. Perfect set up for our size group and we could still order food out there!  They wanted us to all order food if we sat inside at the restaurant part....as it stood, only Jen and I were ready to eat right then. 

Jen and I checked out the menu and were thrilled when we found out they had garlic fries.  We decided to brave the garlic breath together and screw whoever else complained! HA HA HA.

  She ordered the salmon sandwich and I ordered the chicken and brie sandwich.  Mine was excellent but wow....were those fries super garlicky! Oh well, Jen and I had each other! LOL. 

It was great to meet some new travbuddies - Sam (samurai06) from Irvine, Paul (loganbruin) from LA, Mark (koticphreak) from LA, Colt (burner1313) from uuuuuh, I forget where...Valencia?!?! And to see the "crew" - Alice (Alicegourmet), Joy (pvtjoy), Rob (robthetraveller), Jen (Jenn79), Sheila (Sheila35), and Tracey (Tre69). 

We stayed until fairly late and Silvina, Sudip, and I ended up talking to this awesome group of graphic artists and advertising people that were there.  They were not TB's but I think we've convinced Katie to join!  We sat and talked to them for quite a bit and they were all awesome.

  Silvina and I were getting tired around 1am so we decided to call it a night and ask for our checks.  They brought us our bill but nothing was itemized, only charged to our cards already.  I was a little concerned that 4 drinks and a sandwich was $80 so I politely asked her and she was rather offended that I needed an itemized receipt and asked me what was wrong. Rather than say hey I think you charged me too much, I just told her I needed an itemized copy for my business. LOL.  It worked but unfortunately, yeah, the bill was correct.  That was a little painful for one night out so I will be watching my spending the rest of this week!

While we were waiting for our checks, I decided to brave the bathroom one last time in case it was a long drive home.

  Yeah...well, that was quite the experience!  I snaked through the table to get inside and didn't even make it past our couches when some guy jumps in front of me, lifts his shirt and starts shaking his chest and belly at me.  I was rather stunned and just pushed him aside and walked in LOL.  Down the stairs there were two people in the hallway getting it on....literally. He was unzipped and her dress was up and yeah....I saw things I shouldn't have.  They were totally unfazed by people walking by either.....OMG.  That was a first for me!  I get in the bathroom and there is a lot of noise coming from the handicapped stall.  Long line of course (this place is a happening night spot and they have 2 stalls in the women's restroom. ..WTF?!?!).  The handicapped one never opens and after the three people ahead of me go, finally it's my turn! I come out to wash my hands as the occupants, yes occupants, of the handicapped stall emerge....uhhh, two rather large lesbians. They were fixing themselves, their hair, kinda putting themselves back in their tops, and off they went! OMG yet again!  I get outside and the lesbian couple are in the hallway (exactly where the couple having sex was) arguing about something.  I sneak by with what little space there was left to squeeze through since their butts and me combined took up over 3/4 of the space when they are standing one in front of the other....not being rude but it was a very small hallway alone, without having three people deep, especially those who have "junk in their trunk" so to speak! LOL  

Anyways, I get by finally and then I see Sheila rounding the corner.

.I just kinda give her a good luck look and as I turn to go up the stairs, I slip on beer from a broken beer bottle!  Eeeek.  Thank heaven I didn't fall as I would've been cut all over by the broken glass. Perhaps, not a good thing for the restaurant given my career in the civil litigation field! So, I get my shaky legs up the stairs and start to head out the door when I am jerked backwards....WTF, not Mr. Jiggles again lifting his shirt.  No, no this time I have an older man holding my arm going "Hey Baby! C'mere Baby""....among other things that transcend the PG13 ramblings of this blog.  I was not a happy camper needless to say and walked back to the bench and proceeded to share my 10 minutes of h*ll with Silvina and Sudip who looked at me like I had lost my mind.   No, this all really happened me on my mini trek to the bathroom.  Geez, had I known all that...I would've held it until I got home! LOL.

By this time, new bills had arrived, we signed and said our goodbyes and Silvina and I were out. Sudip had told me before he got to the meet up that he was probably going home early since he had a lot to do still before he left back to South Korea. Interestingly enough, he decided to hang out with the graphic / advertising people which I think was awesome!   Now, I should note that I thought Mark had left already but was apparently inside getting a drink.  When he came out, everyone was gone!  He texted me but I didn't get it until I got home that asked where did everyone go.

  Poor Mark! 

I got in the house and much to my surprise, my parents were both still awake and watching TV. I went to say goodnight to them and my Mom let out a bit of a shriek and covered her face, telling me to go to bed.  Huh, what did I do?!?! OMG, apparently my garlic odor was quite the stench and the entire living room had the lovely aroma of garlic.  I instantly thought of the Peanuts character that always had the dust cloud around him....perhaps that is me with the garlic!  Could've gone with the sweet potato fries but those had garlic on them too as I later found out!  Oh well.........sorry to everyone I talked to! LOL. 

It was now 2am and a few more texts with Mark and I fell asleep...literally in the middle of my last text to him! Guess I was really tired!  Oooopsie!  :-)