Quite a Sunday Funday...

So two of my dear friends Terri and Erika and I all celebrate our birthday's right near each other.  We have celebrated our birthdays together quite often actually, the highlight of course being the ginormous Club J.E.T. (Jami, Erika, Terri...get it) red party some odd years ago.  We lovingly refer to ourselves as the Piscean Trifecta.

E lives up in LA, so getting the three of us together is always a bit of a challenge, but luckily the lovely Miss E had a hair appointment in Santa Ana yesterday and we all decided to meet up at Chapter One in downtown Santa Ana.  I'm not a huge fan of the food here, only because these gastropubs tend to have really funky foods and I can get a little picky when you are serving things I have no idea what they are.  But that's just me.  Otherwise the place is pretty cool!  They have an awesome Sunday Brunch deal where you can get unlimited champagne for $6 with a nifty little thingie holding 5 different types of juices.  When we arrived the wait was over an hour.  We almost peaced out, but 3 stools at the bar opened up and none of us were in any hurry so we snatched them up and decided to wait it out.  So glad we did!!

E got T and I each a beautiful fragrant bouquet of lavender, I bought our 1st round of drinks then T ended up covering the rest of the tab.  We chatted and caught up and I got the bartender to snap this shot:

As we sat at the bar we noticed the singer was catching our attention.  Often.  He was playing all sorts of covers, blues, rock, jazz etc and making up lyrics as we went.  He was also going around the restaurant to tables singing to people, including their names and/or situations into his songs and making everyone around laugh and smile and clap.  The guy was awesome!  We came to learn he calls himself Rabbi Blue and this man is legit! 

We got ourselves a table and during the break he came over and chatted with us a bit.  We of course told him we were celebrating our birthdays.  He found out T and E were singers.  He was absolutely charming.  He asked if we had any requests and I promptly said "The blues!"  He looked me and laughed.  "Really?  You a blues fan girl?"  Hells yes I told him.  We chatted a bit about the Doheny Blues Festival and he promised to impress me.  He then talked T into coming up later to sing Unforgettable with him.

We got our food.  I opted for the Duck Fat Fries since I did eat earlier with my gramma and wasn't in the mood for any of the other funky combos and we weren't shy with the wine and champagne.

Rabbi Blue started his last set and sure enough opened it with a shout out to Jami - the girl with the old soul and proceeded to shred a version of Thrill is Gone.  He came over to our table and blues'd it up!  I loved it!!!  T caught this shot that is a new fave:

When he finished up my cheeks were hurting from laughing and smiling so much and man could that boy play!!!  He then pulled T up and they sang a fabulous duet of Unforgettable.  I think the restaurant was surprised when T belted out the lyrics like a pro.  (There were some unfortunate gals attempting to sing earlier).

Of course it was an awesome show.  He continued on with the rest of his set, walking around the restaurant again, singing to people, even following one girl to the bathroom with her posse running after him snapping photos.  At one point we were grooving along and I realized I didn't see him.  Holy Hell the man was outside across the street!!!!!!  I was dying laughing.  We heard him perfectly inside!  The people he was messing with outside seemed to be good sports.  But he's pretty familiar in the area since he plays there every Sunday so I'm sure they knew.

He finished his set and chatted with us again before he packed up and left.  We tipped him well and took his biz cards.  He was truly a treat!  The man can play!!!!  It turned out to be such a fun entertaining afternoon into evening.  I of course had a great time with my girls and we were treated to a surprise of fantastic entertainment!

The waitress brought us a birthday dessert - a candle for each of us!

We promptly devoured it and then headed outside for a little walk around.  We snapped this last shot and chalk this up to a perfect Sunday afternoon!!!

Valentine's Day...

Today is Valentine’s Day.

I realized this morning while I was taking a shower (where most of my mind wandering happens FYI) that there are all kinds of ways people handle Valentine’s Day and I found myself chuckling in the shower.  What made me laugh even harder was when I saw these people (exactly as I suspected they would) post their thoughts on Facebook or come tell me in person or via text or email exactly what I talk about below.

So let's begin:

There are the bitter angry single women (some men, but mostly women) who hate Valentine’s Day and will spew off all kinds of Anti Valentine’s messages, fuck love, etc.  I admit – I was this person for a few years.  I found myself drowning in a bottle or two of wine, crying that no one loved me.  Not too many tho thank goodness, as I usually chose to turn my bitterness into a party or into humor but I did have my dark moments.  But I’m talking about these folks who post stuff like this:

There are the over the top couples who feel the need to post their love all over the place and have zillions of red and pink stuff delivered to each other at work so they can show off their love and they buy into all the Hallmark stuff and fawn over each other to the point where all those around them would like to feed them to the hippos.

There are the other couples, that are equally annoying in my opinion, that make it a show on how much they don’t celebrate Valetine’s Day and don’t buy into the commercialism and that Valentine’s Day celebrates the St. Valentine Slaughter and look how cool we are because we are so anti and political.  Shut the fuck up.  You’re just as bad as the fluffy folk.

 

There are the perfectly normal couples that may or may not buy each other flowers or give a simple gift or just acknowledge the fact that it’s a day to celebrate lovers and they do.  No show.  No nothing.  These people rock.  Luckily these are most of the couples I know.

There are the single gals (again some men but mostly gals) that accept their singledom with pride and throw parties and “Galentine’s” and celebrate with friends. I'm glad to say I used to usually go this route. 

Then of course there’s a huge part of the world that just looks at today as any other day.

Here is what I would like to say:

Who cares if it’s Valentine’s Day?  Don’t buy into the commercialism or do.  Buy flowers for someone or don’t.  Who cares.  Does it really affect you all that much?  Why not take it as a day to celebrate love.  Love for whom ever – your family, friends, significant other, cats, food, wine, the earth, just whatever you want!  Just celebrate love!  Yes of course we should celebrate love every day but let’s take Valentine’s as the official holiday day to say “Yay Love!”  I’ve had a great day so far.  I bought little Valentine’s that the kids usually buy to give out in school (remember that?!) and handed them out to co-workers.  Of course they were kitties and dogs.  I have received some great goodies from other co-workers as well! 

My dad and I went to lunch today and he said he thinks Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate the one you love – your significant other.  Although he did buy me a box of Reeses Pieces per my request for Valentines.  I got cards from my mom and my gramma.  I plan on spending tonight with one of my best girlfriends having dinner with her and her mom then watching Buffy reruns.  Celebrating our friendship.

I guess what I’m trying to say here, is don’t make such a big deal about it.  I think too many people but too much emphasis on the whole thing.  I’m on a really interesting journey now in life, dealing with things differently, seeing things in a new way, and best of all learning to really let go.  I just wanted to share because I did find my little list amusing and the few folks I’ve shared it with got a chuckle so there you have it.

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends!  However you my choose (or not) to celebrate it.  I choose to celebrate love.  Love is a beautiful thing.