Spring Break Day #7: The Lawyer, the Commodore, and the Pro-Wrestler

And they all sailed out to sea.  Ok, not really, except maybe the commodore, but they weren't in a tub anyway.

Today, I went into the City (that's SF for you non-yayers) to have lunch with one of my fav attorneys from City Hall that I worked with a lot last summer.  It was a nice lunch (very yummy veggie burgers) and great to catch-up.  I also got to stop in and say hi to my old supervisor and other attorneys with whom I worked.

After lunch, I headed out to Daly City to hang out with my uncle some more.  Several years ago my Aunt Cindy was supposed to be Commodore of their yacht club.  Sadly, she passed away before she had the chance to serve.  So, Uncle Stevie served as Commodore for her instead.  (He sent Daddy a card that was like a get-in-free-anytime card for any yacht club.  Daddy had no idea what to with it.)  During the past year, Uncle Stevie's live-in friend was the Commodore.  She passed away near the end of last year.  Now, Uncle Stevie's the Commodore again.

We spent the afternoon just chillin, catching up on family gossip.  He also made a yummy snack of tomatoes with basil and mozzarella cheese. :)  And I showed him how to email a file.  (He's still light years ahead of Daddy, who can't send an email at all unless he's hitting reply.)

I headed back to the East Bay on one of the longest BART rides I've taken, from almost one end of the line, to almost the other end.  By the time I got back into El Cerrito, the sun had completely set, so Mr. Trizzle picked me up from the BART station.  That was really nice of him.

Mr. Trizzle found something totally new and different to do in the evening.  We stopped at El Cerrito plaza for dinner (Chinese for him, not Chinese for me), and then headed into Oakland to a place called Parkway Speakeasy.  It's an old-schoolish movie theater with just two screens.  No rows of cramped-in folding seat , no $20 popcorn that you have to put your own butter on,  no getting lost trying to find the right screen. 

The concession stand is huge, and serves real food like sandwiches, salads and pizza.  And get this, the popcorn is regular popcorn, with real butter!  The seats inside are couches and comfy chairs  with little end tables next to them.  If you order food that needed to be cooked, the staff brings it to you and takes the giant letter they gave you at the concession stand.

Mr. Trizzle and I found a nice comfy couch and I curled up into a nice warm ball.  Once it seemed like almost everyone was in the theater, Mr. Trizzle went back out into the lobby to get concessions.  He came back with a metal bowl of popcorn and a bottle of white wine.  I felt like I should have been sewing instead of watching a movie!  We ate popcorn, sipped on wine, and watched the guys that run the theaters tell us about what's coming to the speakeasies.  Then the movie started, and that was pretty much the end of eating or drinking for me.

Mr. Trizzle has this thing about only going to see movies that have ranked really highly on Rotten Tomatoes.  Personally, I think this is a really stupid way to pick movies.  It doesn't matter what it is, if Rotten Tomatoes gives it like a 97%, he'll go.  Why should a bunch of critics know better about what kind of movies you like than you do?  Anyway, the movie was filmed partially in that hand-held home-video way that the Blair Witch Project was notorious for.  I was getting really bad headaches from not being able to focus on anything, and nauseous from all the jolting on screen.  I gave up on eating and eventually even on looking at the screen.

Besides not really being able to enjoy the movie because I couldn't physically watch about half of it, the plot was boring and depressing.  I don't like to waste my time filling myself with other people's bad emotions.  I have enough of my own.  If I'm going to spend two hours (or more) of my life in a fictional land, it better be happy or at least vampire funny (i.e. House of Yes). 

I was quite disappointed.  The movie sounded bizarre when Mr. Trizzle read the info, but I was willing to give it a shot.  After all, I wanted to see the speakeasy, but uck!  Ok, ok.  There were two good things about the movie:  The Music, it was a lot of 80s hair metal except for when younger strippers were on stage, then it was Stuntin Like My Daddy and other newer hip hop; and the fact that about half the movie takes place inside a strip club.

I may stop agreeing to movies Mr. Trizzle picks out because of their Rotten Tomatoes rating.  He did that once before with a DVD.  Michael Clayton.  NOT a feel good movie.  (But has sticking ability - I just found the actual title of the movie by googling a quote I remembered from it.)  Actually, maybe I can use this Rotten Tomato thing against him.  I just Rotten Tomatoed a slew of my favorite films and THE Pride and Prejudice, the one with Colin Firth, got 100%!  Boogie Nights and The Producers are also in his "will-view" range, possible Arsenic and Old Lace, too. Hee hee.