Introducing…another night.

Drinks for myself and many others: $200
Canon SD 300 digital camera: $267
Brand-fucking-new 1GB photo chip: $70
Last Saturday night in Central: Pricel—oh, wait. Not priceless. Actually, $537. About 4 thousand Hong Kong. And a big, giant, monster hangover. But no booting.

Shit. My travel insurance better cover that camera. First damn night out with that thing. At least I had fun – but there’s nothing like getting out of a cab in Wanchai, heading into a bar, and immediately realizing that your camera is long gone. I think it fell out of my pocket in the cab, though I may have left it on one of the tables at Red and someone nicked it. No matter, it doesn’t happen but every bunch of years anyway. What I found funniest about that moment of realization is that every time I go to Wanchai – EVERY TIME – I have no idea where I am. None. If someone asked me to take me back to the bars I’ve visited in Wanchai, I would just give them a blank stare. I’m such an automatic, systematic mess that my brain is on emergency fly-by-wire – you know, stay safe, watch for traffic, don’t fall down anywhere…

Oh, why did I make it home at 4 instead of 1, as I had so naïvely planned? Why did I doom myself to a Sunday of (yes, more) Stouffer’s pizza and other fridge raids, bad TV and near-constant wackular excursions in the land of the interweb? I think I broke my personal record on Sunday – would I call it my personal best? I don’t know. Didn’t feel very best. I mean…you know...not something I’m crowing about. By the time I felt normal – about 4pm – it was already time for a nap, having woken at 10am after going to sleep at 4.30 or so. Neat. Waiting for me on the coffee table when I woke was a warm, completely full San Miguel Big Boy that I had picked up on the way home. As if I needed that at either 4am or 10am. Well, stupid behavior begets stupid behavior begets…you know the drilly.

The recap will be boring. Not much happened other than lots and lots of drinks and photos and good conversation with lots of cool cats and breezys. We all met at Red Bar in the IFC for birthday celebrations for B and a friend of his named Pholita or something. B offered a rather pithy and spot-on observation early in the evening, which was that it’s so typical of us to be drinking in a bar, in a restaurant, in a gym (Pure Fitness), in a shopping mall. It’s true – that’s Hong Kong. That’s also Red. Which is where we were. Which is where my camera was last seen, dammit. I’m expensing some dinners this month fo sho. Damn, that camera was tight like a stereolabrat’s pantene poonani. No worries, the replacement will be here in mere days, and all the pain and regret of yet another overly rageified Saturday will fade into memory. You can BET I’m robbin’ a hipster for the nano now, though.

Sunset looks awesome at the moment, by the way. That one tower near my apartment that fades from purple to blue and then green, orange, yellow and red is lighting up, and the sky behind it is reddish pink, both beautiful and kind of scary looking. The combination of natural and artificial light, combined with the fact that the lights of the building match the sky every so often, makes this sunset a killer one.

So, the night. Typical. Lots and lots of reporters, Stellas, Jack Drys, Red Bull and Stolis, some white wine of one sort or another, some straight Jack later in the night (for some stupid, stupid reason) and the money just floated away. I remember breaking the HK1000 bill I keep in my wallet for a backup, although I don’t quite recall spending the 500 bill I got for change. So maybe that went off somewhere too.

You know what? This is actually a pretty boring and depressing post. Here’s what I did: I got totally shitfaced at Red, went to some bar in Central after that and continued my shitfacular behavior, went to Wanchai, patted my pockets and went back to Central, and went home. Had lots of fun, B’s friends are all cool and friendly people, his man T was extra-cool about the camera, and I totally spent – and lost – way too much money. That’s it. I’m done with that.

Chucky