Where did my Thanksgiving weekend go? Part 3 (Late Saturday + Sunday)
0
After puppet making, we headed to Paper Source in Santana Row to get Kimi’s b-day present (it was her 30th bday), since she likes craft-y creative-y paper stuff. We weren’t going to make the 5:14PM train, so we took out time at the store. We chose a variety of rubber stamps and ink and put them in a simple box with a nice ribbon. We also got a gift card to the store. The lady working at the register happened to be one of the wedding coordinators we interviewed a while ago, which isn’t too surprising since she’s the one who told me about the store in the first place. After we got the present, we realized we weren’t going to make the 6:14PM train either, so we had a quick dinner at Tung Kee with my mother before getting on the 7:14PM train.
It was around 8:30ish when we got to SF. Rodney picked us up at the train station, and we hung out at his place until the 10PM party at Cantina (on the same block as Rodney’s apartment and place we were supposed to go to before) for Kimi’s big 3-0. Kelvin made sure to own me in a round of Settlers of Catan before heading out.
At Cantina, we couldn’t find Kimi by the bar, but we did find Clay who told us to look for her downstairs. Downstairs was apparently more of a lounge area, with a DJ in the corner and small, open rooms with large chairs/sofas for “lounging”. It was very dark, and we just about walked into somebody else’s birthday lounge area cuz it took a while realize we didn’t know anybody in the room. Down the hall tho, we did find Kimi with a Polaroid camera along with several of friends in a different lounge area. We gave her her present, which she seemed to like. Of course, as soon as she saw the Paper Source sticker she immediately pointed at me as being the one who suggested to store. (Yeah, it was me… I mean, Kelvin was originally gonna give her Omaha Steaks!) Kimi ran off to go meet and greet more of the 60-or-so other guests attending this thing.

So we sat there “lounging”, along with several other people we didn’t know. I think we were supposed to be drink and be social, but I suck at drinking and socializing, which makes the whole lounging thing not that entertaining. We went upstairs to the bar and ordered a round of drinks with Jordan, Kimi’s Cantina bartender of choice apparently. I asked for a variety things I’ve tried before and tolerated: Blue Hawaiian, SoCo Sour, etc. None of these things were available. They apparently don’t have Southern Comfort or Curaçao or any of the sweet liquors. What?? What the hell am I supposed to drink then? I asked for something sweet, so he said he’d come up with something for me. I saw him squeeze through all sorts of fruits in making my drink, and it looked yummy. I asked him what it was, and he said just made it up, listing off all the different fruit juices he used. All I remember is that it has ginger beer in it or something. It was pretty good.
We went back downstairs to “lounge” some more with our beverages. When we finished, we were still bored. We debated going off to get soju (Rodney opposed, because we were already in the right place to get inebriated as opposed to some weak sauce soju place) or go back to Rodney’s and play more Settlers of Catan. *sigh* We’re such nerds. Kelvin ran off somewhere at some point, so I was just talking to Rodney for a bit. Kelvin eventually came back talking about these awesome fruit shots he just had that he thought I’d like. So we went back upstairs by the bar to try these shots.
It took Kelvin a while to actually obtain these shots. There was a huge group at the bar, and Jordan had quite a queue of drinks on order. Jordan makes great drinks, and he puts a lot of care into his beverages. The problem with this is that he is a highly inefficient bartender. At some point, the bar somewhat cleared, and Rodney and I were able to sit at the bar. Kelvin asked again about his shots, and Jordan had either forgotten about it or was still working on his queue. He delegated the order to some other bartender, who promptly made our shots (which were slightly stronger than Jordan’s, according to Kelvin). He made too much, so we ended up with 5 shots instead of 3 (Kelvin and Rodney took the extra, of course). I practiced my shot drinking technique, which was pretty weak the first try. It took my like 5+ sips to drink the little thing, but it didn’t taste too bad, so I was okay to try another shot.
The second shot I did a lot better. I was able to take it all in, like… 2.5 gulps/sips? It’s something I definitely need to practice. The next round was Pisco Punches for everyone, and the Pisco Punch tasted okay as well (but that was probably because I just had two shots). I’m not one to act wasted, but I’m pretty sure I was drunk at this point as my walk to the bathroom to “break the seal” turned out to be quite a chore. Kelvin was acting like the tard he acts like when he’s drunk; Rodney I don’t think was drunk at all. Rodney ordered some Kahlua drink that I didn’t like too much, but I tolerated since my taste for alcohol was pretty much gone at this point.
So those were my five drinks: some made-up fruit drink, two made up fruit shots, Pisco Punch, and some Kahlua drink. Kelvin had the pretty much the same thing (his first drink was different), plus two additional fruit shots, I think. Rodney had same as me (again, first drink different), plus an additional shot, a beer, and some tequila recommended by one of Kimi’s friends, Peri, who had discussed with us the refinements of finer tequila.
And now, I present to you the many drunken faces of Kelvin Nishikawa (many of these stolen from Kimi’s Facebook):







When we left Cantina and got back to Rodney’s place, it was almost 2AM. After Kelvin took a shower, I took one as well, and I returned to the studio to find Kelvin passed out on the floor and Rodney passed out on his desk. Rodney had offered up the bed for me and Kelvin, but there weren’t any sheets on it yet. I was really tired, so I didn’t want to deal with making the bed. Instead, I took up the floor space between the desk and the bed. I was cold, but thankfully, the comforter was within arm’s reach on the bed from where I was laying on the ground. I’m guessing it’s a nice comforter, as it made my sleep on the floor quite comfortable.


Sometime during the night, Rodney apparently got up from the desk to make the bed. Instead of making the bed, he passed out on the bed. Kelvin got up some time after that. He was confused, as Rodney was sleeping on the unsheeted bed, while I was sleeping on the floor with a comforter. He joined me at my spot on the floor and got underneath the comforter.
Around 5 or 6AMish, I was feeling terrible. Very nauseous. I hate throwing up, so I was trying really hard to keep it back. I was moaning a lot, disturbing Kelvin and Rodney from their sleep. Kelvin said if I need to throw up, I should go throw up. Upon him saying this, I quickly ran to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit into the toilet. First gag, I recognized the brownish stuff as the Kahlua drink Rodney got me. Next two gags, yellowish liquid that was once Pisco Punch. I don’t know what the fourth gag yielded. Needless to say, I was feeling like shit. I gave my mouth a good rinse and went back to the bedroom, where Rodney had finished making the bed and Kelvin was already sleeping in it. Feeling better from the purging, I drank a bunch of water and went to bed.
Later in the morning, Kimi gave Kelvin a couple calls about getting brunch/lunch. We were obviously too hungover to go. In fact, around the time of her second call (10-11AMish?), I was feeling just like I was 5 hours ago. More nausea and moaning. Then I ran to the bathroom to vomit again. Another four acts of vomiting, tho half of them was mostly dry. The first one barfed up all the water I just drank, and based on the pink color, I’m guessing the 3rd one yielded what was left of those shots I had. I’m not really sure. Based on my barfing, I’m guessing my limit was at the 2nd shot. The Pisco Punch and Kahlua drink were probably totally unnecessary. Anyways, I think that’s enough drinking for me for quite a while. I don’t think I’ve ever barfed this much from drinking. (I’ve had worse… mainly that Thursday night in downtown SJ when Kelvin was too busy puking to let me into his apartment so I had to stay at Rodney’s hotel room. The quantity was less that time, but the quality was…uh… grosser. Couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth all day. AND I had to go to work! I ended up not getting to work until after lunch. Yeah, don’t mix your alcohol types, boys and girls.)
We got up in the afternoon to go get dim sum. I bought a bunch extra cuz my mom wanted some. We caught the 4PM train, and my mom picked us up from the train stop. We made a stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics so I could get more stuff while their Thanksgiving sale was still on. We then had dinner at Pot Sticker King (again) across the street, and then I finally got home, where I was able to get a couple hours of nothing in before the weekend was over. Phew. How naive of me to think I could have gotten some work done on Sunday.
New thing I learned today: Pisco is a brandy mostly consumed in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. There is a debate between Peru and Chile, both whom consider Pisco a national beverage, as to who can officially call their pisco “pisco”. Pisco gets its name from the Peruvian port city.
After puppet making, we headed to Paper Source in Santana Row to get Kimi’s b-day present (it was her 30th bday), since she likes craft-y creative-y paper stuff. We weren’t going to make the 5:14PM train, so we took out time at the store. We chose a variety of rubber stamps and ink and put them in a simple box with a nice ribbon. We also got a gift card to the store. The lady working at the register happened to be one of the wedding coordinators we interviewed a while ago, which isn’t too surprising since she’s the one who told me about the store in the first place. After we got the present, we realized we weren’t going to make the 6:14PM train either, so we had a quick dinner at Tung Kee with my mother before getting on the 7:14PM train.
It was around 8:30ish when we got to SF. Rodney picked us up at the train station, and we hung out at his place until the 10PM party at Cantina (on the same block as Rodney’s apartment and place we were supposed to go to before) for Kimi’s big 3-0. Kelvin made sure to own me in a round of Settlers of Catan before heading out.
At Cantina, we couldn’t find Kimi by the bar, but we did find Clay who told us to look for her downstairs. Downstairs was apparently more of a lounge area, with a DJ in the corner and small, open rooms with large chairs/sofas for “lounging”. It was very dark, and we just about walked into somebody else’s birthday lounge area cuz it took a while realize we didn’t know anybody in the room. Down the hall tho, we did find Kimi with a Polaroid camera along with several of friends in a different lounge area. We gave her her present, which she seemed to like. Of course, as soon as she saw the Paper Source sticker she immediately pointed at me as being the one who suggested to store. (Yeah, it was me… I mean, Kelvin was originally gonna give her Omaha Steaks!) Kimi ran off to go meet and greet more of the 60-or-so other guests attending this thing.
So we sat there “lounging”, along with several other people we didn’t know. I think we were supposed to be drink and be social, but I suck at drinking and socializing, which makes the whole lounging thing not that entertaining. We went upstairs to the bar and ordered a round of drinks with Jordan, Kimi’s Cantina bartender of choice apparently. I asked for a variety things I’ve tried before and tolerated: Blue Hawaiian, SoCo Sour, etc. None of these things were available. They apparently don’t have Southern Comfort or Curaçao or any of the sweet liquors. What?? What the hell am I supposed to drink then? I asked for something sweet, so he said he’d come up with something for me. I saw him squeeze through all sorts of fruits in making my drink, and it looked yummy. I asked him what it was, and he said just made it up, listing off all the different fruit juices he used. All I remember is that it has ginger beer in it or something. It was pretty good.
We went back downstairs to “lounge” some more with our beverages. When we finished, we were still bored. We debated going off to get soju (Rodney opposed, because we were already in the right place to get inebriated as opposed to some weak sauce soju place) or go back to Rodney’s and play more Settlers of Catan. *sigh* We’re such nerds. Kelvin ran off somewhere at some point, so I was just talking to Rodney for a bit. Kelvin eventually came back talking about these awesome fruit shots he just had that he thought I’d like. So we went back upstairs by the bar to try these shots.
It took Kelvin a while to actually obtain these shots. There was a huge group at the bar, and Jordan had quite a queue of drinks on order. Jordan makes great drinks, and he puts a lot of care into his beverages. The problem with this is that he is a highly inefficient bartender. At some point, the bar somewhat cleared, and Rodney and I were able to sit at the bar. Kelvin asked again about his shots, and Jordan had either forgotten about it or was still working on his queue. He delegated the order to some other bartender, who promptly made our shots (which were slightly stronger than Jordan’s, according to Kelvin). He made too much, so we ended up with 5 shots instead of 3 (Kelvin and Rodney took the extra, of course). I practiced my shot drinking technique, which was pretty weak the first try. It took my like 5+ sips to drink the little thing, but it didn’t taste too bad, so I was okay to try another shot.
The second shot I did a lot better. I was able to take it all in, like… 2.5 gulps/sips? It’s something I definitely need to practice. The next round was Pisco Punches for everyone, and the Pisco Punch tasted okay as well (but that was probably because I just had two shots). I’m not one to act wasted, but I’m pretty sure I was drunk at this point as my walk to the bathroom to “break the seal” turned out to be quite a chore. Kelvin was acting like the tard he acts like when he’s drunk; Rodney I don’t think was drunk at all. Rodney ordered some Kahlua drink that I didn’t like too much, but I tolerated since my taste for alcohol was pretty much gone at this point.
So those were my five drinks: some made-up fruit drink, two made up fruit shots, Pisco Punch, and some Kahlua drink. Kelvin had the pretty much the same thing (his first drink was different), plus two additional fruit shots, I think. Rodney had same as me (again, first drink different), plus an additional shot, a beer, and some tequila recommended by one of Kimi’s friends, Peri, who had discussed with us the refinements of finer tequila.
And now, I present to you the many drunken faces of Kelvin Nishikawa (many of these stolen from Kimi’s Facebook):




When we left Cantina and got back to Rodney’s place, it was almost 2AM. After Kelvin took a shower, I took one as well, and I returned to the studio to find Kelvin passed out on the floor and Rodney passed out on his desk. Rodney had offered up the bed for me and Kelvin, but there weren’t any sheets on it yet. I was really tired, so I didn’t want to deal with making the bed. Instead, I took up the floor space between the desk and the bed. I was cold, but thankfully, the comforter was within arm’s reach on the bed from where I was laying on the ground. I’m guessing it’s a nice comforter, as it made my sleep on the floor quite comfortable.
Sometime during the night, Rodney apparently got up from the desk to make the bed. Instead of making the bed, he passed out on the bed. Kelvin got up some time after that. He was confused, as Rodney was sleeping on the unsheeted bed, while I was sleeping on the floor with a comforter. He joined me at my spot on the floor and got underneath the comforter.
Around 5 or 6AMish, I was feeling terrible. Very nauseous. I hate throwing up, so I was trying really hard to keep it back. I was moaning a lot, disturbing Kelvin and Rodney from their sleep. Kelvin said if I need to throw up, I should go throw up. Upon him saying this, I quickly ran to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit into the toilet. First gag, I recognized the brownish stuff as the Kahlua drink Rodney got me. Next two gags, yellowish liquid that was once Pisco Punch. I don’t know what the fourth gag yielded. Needless to say, I was feeling like shit. I gave my mouth a good rinse and went back to the bedroom, where Rodney had finished making the bed and Kelvin was already sleeping in it. Feeling better from the purging, I drank a bunch of water and went to bed.
Later in the morning, Kimi gave Kelvin a couple calls about getting brunch/lunch. We were obviously too hungover to go. In fact, around the time of her second call (10-11AMish?), I was feeling just like I was 5 hours ago. More nausea and moaning. Then I ran to the bathroom to vomit again. Another four acts of vomiting, tho half of them was mostly dry. The first one barfed up all the water I just drank, and based on the pink color, I’m guessing the 3rd one yielded what was left of those shots I had. I’m not really sure. Based on my barfing, I’m guessing my limit was at the 2nd shot. The Pisco Punch and Kahlua drink were probably totally unnecessary. Anyways, I think that’s enough drinking for me for quite a while. I don’t think I’ve ever barfed this much from drinking. (I’ve had worse… mainly that Thursday night in downtown SJ when Kelvin was too busy puking to let me into his apartment so I had to stay at Rodney’s hotel room. The quantity was less that time, but the quality was…uh… grosser. Couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth all day. AND I had to go to work! I ended up not getting to work until after lunch. Yeah, don’t mix your alcohol types, boys and girls.)
We got up in the afternoon to go get dim sum. I bought a bunch extra cuz my mom wanted some. We caught the 4PM train, and my mom picked us up from the train stop. We made a stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics so I could get more stuff while their Thanksgiving sale was still on. We then had dinner at Pot Sticker King (again) across the street, and then I finally got home, where I was able to get a couple hours of nothing in before the weekend was over. Phew. How naive of me to think I could have gotten some work done on Sunday.
New thing I learned today: Pisco is a brandy mostly consumed in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. There is a debate between Peru and Chile, both whom consider Pisco a national beverage, as to who can officially call their pisco “pisco”. Pisco gets its name from the Peruvian port city.








