Martha's Birthweekend

It was Martha's birthday this weekend, so there was lots planned. I had a great time overall, but there were a few snafus, for which I feel rather guilty. Oops.

We started out by going to Ladies' Night on Thursday, just the two of us for a bit until Annie joined us. It was a great night and I bumped into lots of random people I haven't seen in a bit, including my friend Taru. If Samarra remembers the bet from last Christmas at Geckos, he was the guy that answered that question. Anyway, it was fun - we started at Bricx, which I actually haven't done before for Ladies' Night but it was great - you can actually hear yourself think in there, so we got to chat before moving on for an hour of Loft madness. We went back to Martha's very early but then stayed up chatting till the late hours.

Which is why I now know that there was a point in the past year or so at which I lost the ability to only get two hours sleep and teach all the next day and have that be ok. I'm not sure when I passed that point, though I think it might have been around about the time that I skipped my own 30th birthday in order to stay in with a friend, rather than partying it up around Hongdae and Itaewon. Which isn't to say that my party girl days are over, just that I can't have them and only two hours of sleep during the week. However, it was well worth a day of exhaustion, though the bus ride home the next morning sucked and once I got home I could have slept for three hours or so, except that I am soooo bad at napping. I need to be sent back to kindergarten to get remedial lessons in napping. Friday night obviously was all about sleep, after an episode of CSI to wind down.

Saturday didn't go to plan. I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment that I anticipated being over by around 11ish, leaving me plenty of time to meet the gang at the race track around 2. However, I ended up getting two new stiches in my toe (who knew you shouldn't get stitches wet? no one told me and somehow it didn't occur to me until I noticed that they didn't seem to be very... effective, let's say), plus giving up some blood for further tests (seriously?!? what's left to test? I'm the most tested human alive, I think), and then a very unexpected, actual treatment. It's a bit pricey and time consuming and not necessarily even going to work, but for now I'm comfortable with this being the action plan to make me feel less shit as soon as possible. We'll see how it goes. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to make it to the race tracks for me, and everyone else had bailed as well. I felt really shitty about it - I could have for sure postponed the treatment had I known about the other bailers, but I didn't find out until too late. Martha and I met for coffee before dinner at Carne Station instead, but it always sucks when things don't work out to plan on your birthday.



Carne Station was its usual wonderfulness, the kind of wonderful that can only be produced by the mood conjured up by all you can eat and drink for $25. In fact, the Gangnam branch has an even better alcohol selection, though sadly no chocolate ice cream, so I couldn't make my favourite soju mudslide concoction. From there we went to norae bang, though I admit I tend to prefer my norae bang with the same old crew and I'd never sang with this group before. I like knowing good picks for group songs and what the list is like and all that silly stuff. I did get distracted by a rather long conversation on the phone as well. From there we went to Soho, where we drank some Pussy Licking Cowgirls (yum!) and danced a bit, but I was tucked up in my bed fairly early in the night, as Martha was staying with me and by 1 a.m. she was falling over with regularity. We both ended up with more than our fair share of mystery bruises, though I blame mine on her! Thank god I didn't join in the tequila shooting at Carne, is all I have to say.

Today was lovely. Martha and I were lazy and didn't do anything more than go to Indigo for breakfast and then we went over to meet Jenn for dinner, along with Alex, Adrian, Liz, and Lizzy on our way to.... Cirque du Soleil! I loved it! So cool. The fire spinners, the trapeze, the contortionists (soooo weird what they can do), and the clowns. It was great! Too bad you can't take your own pics, but I've stolen tons off the internet.

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth—it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it. Cirque du Soleil