Weekends!

Last weekend was Budget Rock, and I got to see some friends' bands play, which was really fun. Most of the weekend I spent prepping for my annual pumpkin carving party on Monday night. Erik and I made a bunch of really yummy foods, including my favorite bruschetta, roasted squash skewers with hand-pulled mozzarella (Erik pulled it just before the guests arrived), locally made salumi, spiced almonds, our favorite beet salad, and three knockout (if I do say so myself) desserts: chocolate-walnut cake, pluot gallette with rosewater whipped cream, and pear-almond tart. Everyone drank lots of Cava, and we carved some great pumpkins (that is my portrait of Seymour, above).



The rest of the week I worked on my costume: a s'more! My friend Jenn helped me sew the graham crackers and marshmallow, and it all looked great, but when I went out on Thursday night nobody could tell what I was supposed to be, so I opted to wear my old KFC bucket costume for the rest of the weekend. I'm going to try and get some good pictures of the s'more costume to post here.

Anyways, on Thursday night I went to a party hosted by Down at Lulu's in Oakland. A bunch of bands were playing, dressed up as other bands, and we had a lot of fun. Friday I was feeling a little under the weather so I opted to stay home and take it easy, which was good because on Saturday I went party-hopping in San Francisco and needed all the energy I could get!


I started out at a house party in the Mission with my friend Kelsey, and then I met up with Jessica and Aleks and we had drinks at the Uptown before heading to a warehouse party some RISD friends of mine were throwing down the street. After that, we met up with Jessica's friend Catherine, and my friend Elka, and the four of us went to an AMAZING party at Elka's friends' studio space. I don't know what the place normally looks like but they had set it up so that all the studios were like little storefronts, and there were huge trees and awesome hand-printed wallpaper... it was great. There were some bands playing and a bar so we stayed there for a while. Next we went to another party in the lower Haight in a big, beautiful house full of people who didn't live there or know anyone who did. It was surreal, and it was also 3:00am. Finally we ended up at Catherine's house, with a guy dressed in a banana suit that we met on the street, and Elka and I took a cab home and climbed into bed around 5:00am.

On Sunday I handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, and then went over to Jenn's house for a yummy dinner (she made a great squash and ricotta casserole) with her, Ajax, Lexi and Layla. The five of us went to a show at Thee Parkside in SF where a lot of the same bands we'd seen on Thursday were playing, and said hi to some friends, and then went back to Oakland to a dance party at the Era Bar. They were having a costume contest and I am sad to say that I lost to a very slutty Lady Gaga, but we had a great time dancing. After that, Lexi and I went on to the Hotsy Totsy Club for one more drink, and then splurged on fast food and donuts before crashing around 3:00am.

I'll tell you this: I'll be thirty in a little more than a month and life keeps getting more and more fun! Hope everyone else had as great a holiday weekend as I did.