sometimes I can't escape. I used to be a nice guy. sometimes it feels like I have lost that distinction. it has been an interesting year. Year 29 kept it interesting. I think if I had to write a book about 2007, it would have to be called The Year of the Good Time Girl.
Yes. It certainly was.
Places I have been:
San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, San Diego, Tijuana, Denver, Vail, Tucson, Phoenix, Santa Rosa, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, Macau.
Music that has kept me company:
Loro by Pinback, Penelope by Pinback, Hands Away by Interpol, So This is Goodbye by Junior Boys, All Mixed Up by Red House Painters, Compliments by Bloc Party, Don't Lose Yourself by Laura Veirs, Monkey by Low, Harder Now That It's Over by Ryan Adams and The Death of Girl Number Two by Say Hi to Your Mom.
Things that changed:
2007 arrived in a freezing cold house in Sausalito with no furniture and no central heat and no ambient light sources. I think I thought I had it good then. It was such a sad story, it ended as many stories do, with someone telling me to go fuck myself. I was just trying to be a nice guy, but I guess that makes me an asshole. Can't win them all.
It was the year of pulling myself together, the dedication to my craft, the emphasis on doing me better. I quit saying yes to everyone and everything. I said no a lot.
Mornings were spent wandering around Alamo Square with a coffee in hand and the wind in my hair. Evenings were spent in the company of few. I drank alone. I quit drinking alone. People came in and people got left behind.
I made out with a cute boy with a prosthetic arm on a dance floor. I don't remember his name. I met the sharpie on a table top at Moon on the top floor of the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. I learned to salsa. I was a model. In Seattle I fell down on the sidewalk after one too many momma sized cocktails. In Vancouver I got hit in between the eyes with a peanut. In Laguna Beach I woke up to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. In Bangkok I got a foot massage at 3 in the morning, she poked a hole in my foot.
I moved to Hong Kong. I just realized that I will likely live here longer than I lived in San Francisco.
Friends were made, friends moved on, people came back into my life. People's lives changed. I think about them all a lot.
A great deal has been given to me and I need to learn how to give back. I think its one of those de ja vu things, or a dream that is trying to tell me something. Or will I ever stop thinkin about it.
I don't know, I doubt it. Baby you send me.
In just a few weeks it will be my 30th birthday. It truly is something I am looking forward to. I feel better, look better, act better, dance better and can sing better than I could at any other time in my life, and if that isn't what makes a good time girl, then I don't know what.
I guess sometimes good time girls don't always do the right things, but we do them right.
