BigToast Blog 3.0

August 10-16,2008

So work travel time again…and this time I got to go back to Mexico City. I don’t know what it is about that place. It was my second trip in a few years there and yes, it is crowded. (it is one of the most populated cities in the world)..yes it can be super dirty..yes there are dangerous parts of town…but I simply love this place!

People here I am going there and they kind of turn their noses up like “Oh, you don’t get to go to a fun place this time..” But they don’t get it. The Mexican people are sooo fucking nice. When you are at the office you can’t walk down the hall without stopping to greet everyone, whether you work with them or not. Men get a hug, women get the kiss on the cheek…I swear it takes half an hour to get through the halls to get anywhere!

I flew Alaska airlines business class. And maybe their other flights are good news..and the people were nice enough I suppose..but as I told Nami, the business class section was like coach with silverware. Not much to it..which is somewhat disappointing considering how much more you are paying for seats. But I digress.

I arrived at my hotel only to find that yours truly booked the wrong hotel. I would love to blame someone else for it but, ummm..no go. This particular hotel was about 14 miles away from the office I was going to be working at. At first I thought “well that’s not terrible,” but after talking to the concierge, I realized that it will take over an hour in traffic to go those 14 miles. Not good. Consequently I stayed there one night (and my client was nice enough to  pick me up at the hotel, but I couldnt make him drive that much each day due to my fuck up)…So I made a reservation site unseen at a closer hotel for the same price…which turned out to be fucking crazy awesome!

Eric’s Fucking Crazy Awesome Hotel

The new hotel was called Camino Real in the Polanco district and it kicked Unholy Mexican Ass! I mean look at that fountain thing up there! It’s cool right? And then when the fountain part dies down, it just turns into a giant wave machine!

The hotel has 6 restaurants, one of which is known for its tequila tastings (didn’t quite make it to that one this time)…and this Kick Ass Blue Lounge.

The cool thing about the Kick Ass Blue Lounge (Eric’s name…copyright pending) is that the section in the back is just this big ol pool of water filled with pebbles..then..on top of THAT is a big ol plexiglass floor with tables! Not a major engineering feat mind you..but is a pretty groovy effect. I had some reasonably great margaritas out there.

Anyway…reasonably priced…the rooms just smelled like lovely cedar, and if you got a room with a balcony, it was quiet as can be surrounded by trees. I mean come ON! Good news all around.

So it rained a lot each night. But during the Mexico City rainy season, the weather is nice enough to wait until the end of the day. How courteous! It only rains after 6pm!

Other highlights of my trip included:

• The client taking me out to a restaurant for drinks…seemed a bit, ummm..different….and then he told me it was the Mexican equivalent of “Hooters” but with Argentinian 21 year olds.
• Went to a Mexican wine tasting. I had no idea it was going to include a 2 1/2 hour lecture on the history of Mexican wines. Ummm…all in Spanish…which I don’t really know. It was super cool to be immersed in a local night out..but the 2 + hours lesson was ummmm….a bit much.
• Went to dinner one night and apparently at the table next to us was an actor from a local telenovela! Kinda cool..if only i knew who he was!

But thats all I got. Good trip. I love, love, love M.C.! Food is awesome…people are friendly…its sunny a lot…Now I just have to learn Spanish!!

Was super fun. You should go. Lotsa beers. Lotsa people. Good stuff! Again, you should go.

Went to Multnomah Falls today! Posting via new iPhone blog app. We shall see…

Okay…there are other things going on that I need to blog about. But chronology be damned I will get to those later.

Today is my mom’s birthday. She passed away a week before Christmas of last year. Just a little over 7 months ago. I honestly don’t know how I am supposed to handle this. Do I just deal and respond to a birthday with the same idle nonchalance that I did when she was alive? Am I allowed to make a big deal out of it since she isn’t around? Is it hopelessly selfish of me to get all misty and break down and cry at the drop of a hat because she isn’t here? Tell me what I am supposed to do. Let me know what is appropriate here and what is okay and I will do it. Tell me why I shouldn’t feel guilty about missing the hell out of her when, in the fucking supposedly important maelstrom of daily meetings, dishes, car washes, Mom and I would pass the cursory phone call and card on that one day a year. The one day when you should genuinely celebrate the other person. Celebrate that they are there! Celebrate that she helped bring you into this world!

But I didn’t. She didn’t. We didn’t.

“We’re just not big birthday people.”
That is what I would say to everyone. Maybe a card. More often than not, just a phone call. Sometimes there were trips to take, or the time difference would just prevent her/me from calling exactly ON the birthday. “Oh, one more day is no biggie. I’ll just call tomorrow. That’s just how Mom and I am. It’s okay.”

So now here I am..it’s her birthday…she is gone…and it is the biggest deal ever. I miss her. These past couple of weeks I have been so out of sorts. So depressed and I didn’t know why. Maybe subconsciously I saw this on the horizon. I don’t know. But now that it is here it makes me sad. Super Sad.

I sent a dozen roses to her grave site. I know they won’t last. I know it is ridiculous. At first I thought that a donation to a non-profit would be good. But I know Mom. She wants stuff. She likes to get stuff. She appreciates non-profits. But she wants stuff. So even in death I am trying to give her what she wants. Are roses the best flowers for a grave site? Hell no. But Mom wouldn’t want something stuffy. “Those kind of flowers are for dead people! Yuck!” I can almost hear her.

So I called yesterday and ordered flowers. They totally understood and asked what I wanted on the card. I was breaking up as I gave them all of our names, knowing that there really would be no one on the other end to read this card. It would just sit there. A one-sided “Happy Birthday” without a Mom to smile..to think about her kids..reflect on her family.  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

After I hung up, I had to leave the office for a while. It was not pretty.

Anyway, just heard from Teresa saying that she heard Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and got all misty thinking bout Mom. That was one of her fave songs believe it or not. She was a weirdo. She was silly…fun…and she was our Mom.

So happy birthday Mom. You ARE missed…and we all love you…you have no idea how much.

Haven’t posted in a while, and a lot has been going on. Wanted to at least keep a record of stuff to compensate for my feeble aging memory.

Palm Springs Vaca: June 25-29
Good news! Spent a week relaxing in the sun with Brandi, Dan, Rosie and Paul.

Fireworks! July 4
Tigard Fireworks…Oooh! Ahhh!

Concert @ the Gorge: July 11-13
Off to George, WA to see Elvis Costello and the Police. Beautiful venue! You really should go. Stayed the weekend with Rosie, Paul, Peter and Krista! Mucho fun.

Eddie Izzard Performance: July 14
Dinner @ Olea Restaurant in the Pearl (go there!) followed by an Eddie Izzard performance at the Schnitz with Paul and Rosie! Thank you for the tix Nami! It was awesome!

Rosie Birthday Gathering at the Beach!: July 19
Rosie celebrating her birthday with friends at Pacific City at the Coast! Beautiful venue and love helping celebrate! You rock Rosie!

That’s all I got. Will post more later

Okay..so Chris and Jess and I got a chance to hang out and go to an awesome/cheap dumpling place in Chinatown in Melbourne. During the convo I mentioned that I dug latin music. Consequently they said “OH, so you HAVE to go to the Black Cat Club!” Now these guys are not your big latin music fans. I mean, they dig good music, but basically they like a little diff type of music, so the fact that they would take me to a latin club speaks volumes about them! They rock!

So my last night there, I went out to dinner with Dean, the head of the dept. that I was working with. We had a phenomenal dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant. Very cool. Great conversation…good food…Dean is a stellar guy!

Then after, he dropped me off in this funky district where I met up with Chris and Jess. They took me to The Black Cat where an awesome latin band was playing. The club itself filled up with short-skirted, black dress wearing chicas and aussies who were there to dance! It was groovy. Then, bout at about ten, the band came on and they were stellar! Congas, horn section, turntables, scratching, rappin kinda stuff..Good news!

Then we had this couple come by and due to the loud music, we couldnt quite hear them…but it appeared they wanted our chairs. No problem…we had two extra they could take…But then, they just sat down at our table and put their stuff all over it. Ummm…helllo…? Personal space? Jess and Chris and I just looked at eachother. I thought it might be the norm for Aussie Clubbing…but both Chris and Jess said…ummm..no. Eventually they moved to the dancefloor, but still…kinda funky.

After a while we ditched and just went to a place for “coffee and cakes.”  (meaning brownies or cheesecake)….Also, apparently, for a fee, it is kinda the norm to ask for a scoop of ice cream in your coffee…How cool is that? We hung out…talked about aussie stuff (illegal to be a surrogate parent? what the hey?) and then took the tram back to the hotel.

All in all…a stellar last night there. I had to get up bout four hours later to catch my plane, but still. I dig going to Australia. I HAVE to take people there. I have friends and fam that would love it. Cannot wait to go back.

The Carlton Hotel 

So my friend Chris and his girlfriend Jess met up with me and took me out for pints and then dumplings in Chinatown! It was awesome. Cheap but tasty eats! There is a bottle shop/liquor store right nearby where you buy a bottle of wine and they let you bring it in and drink it with your meal. Apparently pretty common. So here we were eating tasty cheap eats, and drinking some pretty good wine out of white plastic cups! Too funny.

Then Chris and Jess said I had to go to the Carlton Hotel which is a bar in town. Apparently they dig it and said it was a worthwhile place to hang out. So we wander down the street and there is no sign, no nothing….just a bouncer/doorman in front of an open stairwell leading up from the street. Apparently, we had arrived.

We get the nod from the bouncer (who let US in, so apparently not too exclusive a club!) and wandered up. It was uber cool! The walls are flocked with red velvet everywhere! Funky lamps hang from the ceiling. And there are stuffed/taxidermied animals everywhere. When you first come in you are met by a full stuffed emu wearing pearls and earrings! Across the room is a giraffe wearing similar baubles. It was too funny. They were blaring out old time Bauhaus music and the Honey Beer was tasty! We hung out for a while while Chris (an Englishman) and his girlfriend Jess (a native of Melbourne) expounded on the differences between the English, Australians and Americans. Too funny. We stayed a while…had one pitcher too many…and stumbled home. It was quite the Australian experience….You should go!

So one of the groovy things I was able to do when I was down there is to see this exhibit on Video Games! I mean, how cool is that? An interactive exhibit at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on the history of video games called “Game On!”

  The exhibit had the history of video games with consoles, full standing arcade games, etc. that you could actually play. Huge line for Pong…they had old Commodore 64 games…old Nintendo…it was pretty hilarious. The demographic was interesting…video game nerds as well as 30-40 somethings that wanted to bring their kids to show them what “real” video games were like. Bout 125 diff video games you could play. Really kinda funny.

They also had a showing at the ACMI center of this coolio biography of Keith Haring! I looove Keith Haring and just got really lucky that it was showing! It was a sold out show and it was really cool and good news and all of that. If you have any interest at all, I would suggest checking it out. Interviews with tons of family, Yoko Ono, etc. It is inspirational.

The ACMI center is a pretty groovy place. Right on the water at a place called Federation Square. It is a huge square that has buildings for culture centers, etc. as well as bars and restaurants. Pretty modern and groovy.

So work was good. The people there are sooooo fucking nice. The clients are good news and although they are super super busy, they make you feel right at home. We like them.

The weekend I had there I felt like i HAD to do something touristy. I mean, I was here before but only for a few days and it was in the middle of the week so I really didn’t have much of an opportunity to do anything that fun.

One of the biggies to do as a tourist in Melbourne is to visit the Great Ocean Road. Melbourne is pretty much at the southern most tip of Australia, and the Great Ocean Road is a coastal drive that starts about an hour and a half outside of Melbourne. It is kind of the law that you HAVE to go! (i think they check it on your passport..”visit great ocean road? no? I’m sorry, you are going to have to go back…”)

So the thing is you drive bout an hour and a half and finally you get to it! THEN you start driving and realize it is about an hour on the great ocean road before you actually get to the ocean part..hmmm..okay..But then the ocean is fucking beautiful. I love the ocean anyway, so any chance I get to see it is money.

The GOR was actually created as a memorial of sorts after WW1.  Dunno bout the significance, but glad they made it. The waves were ginormous! Dunno bout undertow, etc. but would imagine it would be a surfer’s dream! Saw plenty of surf shops but no surfers…could be cause it is their winter right now. (their seasons are opposite of ours). The GOR just travels through various small towns…goes inland for a bit..then goes back out to the ocean. The thing is..the Great Ocean Road spends about as much of its time inland as it does on the actual ocean. Kinda weird, but if you know this ahead of time it helps. I just kept wondering what the sam hill was going on when it would just disappear into farmland. (plenty of cows…sheep..no wallabies or wombats..somewhat disappointing on that front.)

So you can drive and drive and check out various coastal locations and they are money. But if you are up for it, you can cruise all the way out to Port Campbell (bout 4hrs out). This is where the “12 Apostles” are. The 12 Apostles are rock formations that are out in the water outside of the coastal cliffs and they are fucking beautiful. Serious like. Apparently over time some of the 12 have crashed into the ocean and fallen due to the waves, etc. But it is still an amazing monument.

Took a bunch of pix…but it was getting late…I had been on the road bout 6 hrs and thought it was time to head back…Now the thing about the Great Ocean Road…is that since you are driving the coast…it doesn’t circle back…and you find yourself out in the middle of nowhere and you have to find your way back home. Hmmm..It is at that point that you realized just how far out you are and that you still gotta get back.

So it is nighttime at this point and I begin taking the small roads…that lead to the small highways..that lead back to the big highways that lead back to Melbourne. You are kinda tired…hungry…getting a scosh grumpy. And you realize you have bout 2-3hrs drive yet to go. Sheesh. So it is dark..and all of these signs are everywhere reminding you to “stay to the left!” Remember they drive funny over there. So the headlights are all coming at you from the wrong side of the road…it just gets odd.

OH! And you realize you are in the middle of fucking nowhere and you have a gazillion miles to go AND you are running out of gas. Hoping for a “petrol station” soon…you drive and drive and start to get just a bit nervous. Finally you find one…Whew! And are glad you have a credit card handy. Gas there is roughly $6.50/gallon. What that translates into is about $100 to fill up the Toyota Camry. Nice huh? What the hell?

Fast forward to fiiiiinally getting back to Melbourne. But now, it is Sat night…an Australian Rules Football game just getting out..the city is bustling..busy…it is dark…and you are saying “now how the hell do I get back to the hotel again?” Lets just say it wasnt pretty and there was a considerable amount of honking going on behind yours truly as he tried to “keep to the left” and navigate stoplights figuring out how the hell to make that right hand turn, etc.

Long story short (?) I got to the hotel…no harm no foul…both the rental car and myself made it without incident. Ordered room service…and relaxed. It was an awesome trip. Glad I went. You should really check it out too when you go.  Just remember that it may take some time.

Hey Kids! Eric just got back from 2 weeks (or so) in Melbourne, Australia! With work travel and stuff, this has to be one of my fave places to go. For a number of reasons actually. The city itself is fucking beautiful. I mean, not in an everything is shiny and new way, although there is a bit of that. The city has tons of music, culture, shiny shopping centers, etc. But it also has just cool funky neighborhoods. Plenty of hidden little bars, coffee shops, that kind of thing.

Cool places are not the easiest to find if you don’t know the area. I mean you find yourself in the middle of Prada/Louis Vitton land and you are looking for a cool place to hang out and there are none to be had. Then suddenly you take a wrong turn and find an alleyway just crammed full of pubs and cafes that you would never know existed. During the day they are desolate, so if you looked down an alleyway during the waking hours it would just seem desolate, but you check things out after sundown and it is just crammed full of people! (A friend Jess there said it is a lot like the movie “Dark City” where neighborhoods literally disappear during certain times of the day.

Anyway, had to go there for work. It is my 2nd time going out there and getting there is a considerable amount of work. You literally spend about 22 hrs just trying to get there.

PDX-SFO: 1.5 hrs
SFO to Sydney: 15 hrs
Sydney to Melbourne: 1.5 hrs
Total airtime: 18 hrs

Not to mention the whole “get to the airport a couple hours early…layovers with an hour or three here and there…and the 45 min drive from home to airport and airport to Melbourne hotel. Then you have multiple customs stops…airport security left and right at each stop etc. Consequently it is a bit of a hassle to try to get there. But once you do, it is wonderful. A great town. Of course everyone in Melbourne says Sydney is a hell-hole…and everyone in Sydney says that Melbourne is simply awful. So take THAT with a grain of salt.

More in a bit…but just wanted to say..if you get a chance to go to Australia, you really should take it. I mean, it is a fun place filled with cool people..cool places….and lots more…You won’t regret it.