Janet!!!
I admit that when I was in high school, I wanted to one day be one of Janet Jackson’s backup dancers. She had the best videos with really cool choreography. Patty and I loved her and we watched videos from the Rhythm Nation album over and over again in 9th grade. In college, she came out with a couple more albums and I spent hours listening to one of her CDs while I studied. A few months ago when we heard that she was going to be on tour with her “Number Ones: Up Close and Personal” show, we bought tickets and last night was the big night.
We drove up early to have dinner at Firenze Osteria (belongs to Top Chef Fan Favorite, Fabio Viviani) that was just down the street from the venue. We had a really yummy dinner and the gnocchi are really good there. Then we parked and got to the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City around 8:30 and there wasn’t anyone opening for her, which made it a little weird since the tickets said “8:15” but Janet didn’t appear until 9:20. She just dedicated two songs to the audience and played the videos for us before coming on stage. She was dressed in a white tank and black pants and was sporting a new short haircut. The show was kept simple with 6 backup dancers, lights, and a band. She looked great at 44 years of age and danced and sang her heart out. Loved that she performed all her #1s with the signature choreography from her videos. They also showed a short slideshow of Janet and Michael as kids toward the end. It got me a little choked up. Patty and I had such a great time. The tickets were pricey but totally worth the experience.
On Thursday morning, Stephanie informed me that Mai was driving up for a 4-day weekend. So we rounded up the troops and had an impromptu HH at Marc 49. Mai stopped by the hospital during the last hour of work and then we all met up for some wine and cheese.
Afterward, Teresa, Steph, and I walked ourselves to the BART station. The best part of DST is having just enough daylight to safely stumble home. On our way, we stopped at Jack in the Box. I don’t remember the last time I had gone there but my chicken pita was tasty that night.
Jack had a great time gobbling up all the popcorn and playing the “air drums” along with the bunny in the movie. It’s a good thing he packed a juice box in his pocket cuz he ate A LOT of popcorn.
Afterward, we pretended to play some arcade games (playing with the wheel of the car game) and also took a little booth photo.
Jack did a great job through the whole movie and got a real kick out of riding the bus. I’d say we had a pretty successful “first date”. He also found the movies he’s gonna want to see next. Sweeeet.
It had been pretty warm in SF these past couple days so we all agreed to a bonfire on Saturday night. Dayantha and Krissy were coming for the weekend so we called up the Masayas and they came along too. We all met up with the Sokol-Juns and Darbys at Ocean Beach to find some crazy wind, crazy waves, and a lot of sand…everywhere. The Bangs didn’t make it since their little guy wasn’t cooperating and they were probably better off not braving the elements with him.
At the waterline, there was a collection of foam on the beach and the wind was so strong that it blew the foam into the air and across the sand. We had a spectacular sunset and plenty of light to get the fire started and the hamburgers cooked.
Unfortunately the wind was blowing sand onto everything and I ended up with sand in my beer, sand in my burger, and sand in all of our stuff. Just take a look at Michelle’s expression as she crunches on her sandy burger. We’ve been home for 24 hours and I’m still finding sand in my stuff. When I took a shower, I had sand in my ears.
Despite all that, we had a fun time. Jack did a good job entertaining himself and I got a few shots of him being cute as ever. Victor also taught him how to body-check Jes but Jack just ended up headbutting him in the leg.
I think he hurt himself more than anyone else.
Dog came along too and he got to dig in the sand and he barked at everything that walked by. At one point a strange man walked toward us from the darkness while Koa barked at him. Meanwhile, he said to us “Dimitri is gonna kill us all!” So, we kept Koa on the lookout for Dimitri the rest of the night.
We went to 
I snagged some pork satay from Sataysfied while Jes got empanadas from El Porteno. Victor got us beer and wine while Susie stood in line for Senor Sisig tacos. We also got to try the pork and chive dumplings from Happy Dumplings and masaman curry over tortillas from Zombie Curry. For a warm sunny day, it really sucked once the sun went down. It was as if the sun took off and opened the window wide open for the wind to blow you right off your chair. All the food we had was tasty and we’ll probably be back but I think we’ll have a better plan.
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