hang out at The Hideout every Wednesday

I decided to discontinue office hours in the spirit of starting new things. Here’s the last email I sent:

Dear friends,

Hi.

Everything will change. Everything is changing. No more office hours! We’re moving on to bigger things and making bolder bets. We’ll see what 2007 creates. Reply to me (not to everyone) with appropriate checkboxes checked if you’re ready to double down.

We’ve been meeting at the Hideout on Wednesdays for approximately 1.333 years to solve personal problems, to learn the 6 universal answers to any and all possible questions (drink more, break up, move, quit, dress better, and consider getting a pet fox (which remind me of the top 3 goals on 43 Things when we first launched: be happly, live simply, & get laid… has ever a simpler life philosophy been made?)), and to create new extraordinary problems for ourselves. BAM.

When I first started, I said I wanted to do this every Wednesday for all time. But change is good, even with eternity, infinity, relativity, uncertainty, incomprehensibility, polar bears, and screaming. We adapt by changing, and we need to keep mixing things up or everything will settle to the bottom of the ocean and those fish with the glowing teeth will come and eat you. So that’s what I’m doing, and I want you to come along.

Despite the lack of office hours, there’s still plenty to do this coming couple weeks:

McLeod Residence stuff!

Our Press Release tells all!
http://blog.mcleodresidence.com/2006/12/press_release.html

Christmas dim sum and a movie?
It’s a yearly tradition of mine to have dim sum and watch a new movie on Christmas morning. Not sure if anyone’s in town and interested in this, but if you are let me know and we’ll figure things out.
[ ] I want dim sum and a movie from Santa

You’re invited to New Year’s Eve!
You’ll all be getting an invite soon, but I’m giving you a pre-invite invitation for now.
[ ] I will be coming to NYE

Summarize your year in 10 photos or less!
If you took pictures this year, please send me up to 10 pictures that you think summarize the big, small, crazy, and silly life you and your friends are living. More info here.
[ ] I will be sending you up to 10 photos

You’re invited to First Friday!
The gallery portion of McLeod Residence is opening to the public First Friday next month. That’s January 5th. Come at 5pm, drink with us, enjoy new and amazing art, artists, and friends.
[ ] I will be coming to the opening

Make your New Year’s resolutions!
Go to 43 Things and tag your goals “2007 Resolution” and it’ll get added to our tally for most popular resolutions (currently: read 50 books in 2007), and resolution soup on the homepage.
[ ] I have New Year’s resolutions

More things
You want to stay on this mailing list. I will continue to send updates, ideas, et cetera on no more than a weekly basis. But, if you moved to Madagascar and have a new pet elephant and don’t need to know how much I drank each week, this is the easiest out you’ll get… by not checking this box.
[ ] I want to stay forever and ever amen.

That’s all I’ve got. Except for the lyrics from a song:

[ ] We’ll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,
[ ] Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change,
[ ] We’ll give ourselves new names,
Identities erased,
The sun will hear the ground
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony
Everything will change
Everything will change
Everything will change

oOo oOo….

Buster

      [  ] FROM NOW ON OUR TROUBLES WILL BE MILES AWAY... MEOW
                     /
               _ |\_
               \` ..\
          __,.-" =__Y=
  jgs   ."        )
  _    /   ,    \/\_
 ((____|    )_-\ \_-`
 `-----'`-----` `--`

Last week was our 1-year anniversary of going to the Hideout every Wednesday. It was a mellow night but a good one. Serious players came out and experimented with the new drink we invented called the “Blue Scream”. It was Blue Caracao, Bourbon, and an olive, in a shot glass. The question that went along with it was, “When was the last time you believed in something?” You pondered this eternal question, drank it, ate the olive, and then screamed. It was magic. It was the magic touch. Touched by a Blue Scream.

The Hideout is great. I have a new experiment to try next week to kick off this next year of mutual-improvement and mutual-destruction.

Is this still happening?

Last night was one of my favorite office hours yet! Friends from out of town, representations from several different friend groups, and new friends all smashed together in the coolest Seattle bar. At various parts of the night I think plans were made to go to Burning Man (as proof that if we can do that and still have a good year, we are therefore impervious to all things), ride The Duck, go to the new Veil restaurant, have a friend (Bob was nominated) commit a crime that makes us all RICH while we hang out in the Alibi Room, roast a guinea pig, smash everyone together into a huge spinach tortilla, dip the whole bunch of us in salsa and light us on fire, get a two-headed fox encased in amber, go to Zig Zag Cafe with Angela (our favorite bartender) to witness who she believes is the best bartender in Seattle, and something else involving a team of happy dogs, I think.

This is one of my favorite things in life… this weekly meeting of friends without agenda… I could say more but I’m actually feeling a bit sentimental and may get teary-eyed. Yay. Happy New Year!

What a great bar this is…

Last night was the second of infinite Wednesdays that I’m going to hold office hours at the Hideout (or somewhere) and solve life’s riddles. I decided to wear my professor jacket this time!

I have to say, only two weeks into this, that I’m exceeding my own expectations for drunkenness at these events. The problem is that since it starts at 7 I don’t really have time to eat anything (though I can attest to the quality of their cheese and salami plate!). The waitress gave us the valuable tip about the Thai restaurant next door to the Hideout… I’ll definitely have to take advantage of that next week.

I was very happy that this week people were more open about their questions and problems, and I got a bit giddy about answering all of the questions… so giddy that the answer bill came to a little over $150 in the end. Oops! Though I probably won’t be able to provide so many answers in the following weeks, it was definitely worth it this once. In fact, it’s probably the best money spent in a long while. As they say, the best place to store surplus alcohol is in your friends’ bellies.

Here’s the email I sent out:

Subject: tonight + all other wednesdays until the end of time

Hi friends!

Starting tonight! tonight! tonight!, for no reason that I can come up with other than “fun”, I’m going to start hanging out at The Hideout (it’s a very cool bar/gallery on Boren and Madison) every Wednesday around 7 o’clock to whenever I feel like going home.

It’s sort of like I’m having office hours but without any wisdom to give. And it’s sort of like hanging out after school with nothing to do except we’re all insanely busy now. You should come by, and bring friends! The Hideout is a great place, and we should all be hanging out more, so it just makes sense… don’t you think?

I hear repetition is sometimes persuasive—
When: Every Wednesday from 7ish to 10ish, or whenever
Where: The Hideout
Why: no reason

When: Every Wednesday from 7ish to 10ish, or whenever
Where: The Hideout
Why: no reason

When: Every Wednesday from 7ish to 10ish, or whenever
Where: The Hideout
Why: no reason

The idea isn’t for everyone to make an appearance every week, but just to know that there is always something to do on a Wednesday if you want… also, the when, where, and why is subject to change at any time, so if you have a strong preference for other times/places/reasons, let me know.

Okay, I hope to see you there tonight or next week or the week after that et cetera maybe!

Erik

Incidentally, that night was the night that The Hideout was releasing their first little magazine. The magazine was a collection of drawings and words that had been left on little clipboards in the place during the last few months. It was pretty cool, and earlier on Greg (the owner dude) explained the process to the early arrivalees. He also produced a giant ray gun made out of a lamp, a pole, and some kind of antique triggering device.

A good showing was made, however, despite my stated willingness to help solve peoples’ problems and answer life’s riddles for them, only a handful of people took me up on it. Those who did, however, found themselves the lucky recipient of the panacea known as the Vodka Soda w/Lime.

It looks like this is going to continue next week as well, if not for all Wednesdays until the end of time. Until next week!