This last week or so has been—as usual—filled with craziness, happiness, stress, and adventure.

Let’s start with one of the stranger moments.

The scene:  I’m walking from my car to one of my favorite weekly swing dance events (The 9:20 Special in San Francisco).  Suddenly, an attractive woman I don’t recognize is driving down the street yelling something at me.

HER:  “Hey… hey!  Could you help me out?”
ME:  [understandably a bit startled].  “Um, what’s up?”
HER:  “I can’t parallel park.  Could you get in and help me?”
ME: “Um.....”
HER:  “Or maybe you could just get in and park it for me?”

It’s already nearly 10pm, I’m tired, and I have several thoughts weakly bouncing around in my head:
- She’s cute.
- She’s driving a stick.  I haven’t driven a stick in a while.
- I suck at parallel parking, too.
- My parents told me to never get in the car with strangers.

ME:  “Uh… tell you what… I saw a parking spot around the corner.  You drive, I’ll jog alongside and guide you into the spot.”
HER:  “Are you sure you don’t just want to park it for me?”
ME:  “Yep.  Here, follow me!”

I jogged, she followed, and—miraculously—somehow with my help and her (indeed bad) parallel parking skills, she managed to park her car.  Then, when she got out, a big d’uh-bomb crashed onto my thick skull and I realized… hey, that’s the really fine dancer I met (and danced with) last Saturday!  She just assumed that I’d remember her, and I probably should have, too.  Oops!

Thankfully, though, despite my bad memory, I was rewarded with two great dances with her later in the evening.  If only she parked as well as she danced…

* * *

Also recently…

• I attended a full day Lindy Hop workshop with Peter and Caitlin followed by a dance that evening. 
• I enjoyed a gorgeous sunny afternoon at Crissy Field with friends to celebrate a bunch of our birthdays together.  Met cool new people, including fellow musicians, teachers, even exchange students from France who made a fine souffle (they said it was “sleek” and we were quite confused for a while until we figured out they meant it was made with leeks.  Ah!)
• I visited buddies at Plaxo for their HipCal acquisition party and had a neat chat with the well-traveled founder of the increasingly popular cheap-calling site jajah.
• I had my birthday jam at The 9:20 Special (mentioned above); see my previous entry about my birthday jams
• On a very packed Friday, I had the pleasure of a laid-back lunch with colleagues at The Straits Cafe in Palo Alto.  I’d rate the appetizers outstanding, the drink (Mango Lemonade) a bit sweet but generally good, and the entrees good to very-good.  Service was also quite nice.
• A few hours later, I saw The Da Vinci Code movie.  [my review]
• Then I raced back to the city (okay, San Francisco—we call it “the city") to meet my “E” friend Cori.  Effervescent, engaging, entertaining, and ever-so-stunning. .  Ah, this deserves some more commentary...

Well, when Cori graciously offered to pay for dinner, I declined.  Instead, I made her promise that when she’s famous, she’ll give me two tickets to her movie premiere, Broadway show, etc.

This was not a merely-friendly or joking request on my part.  I think Cori will be famous, and I have some good family history of such intuition to back me up.

Back in grad school, I had a pen pal, and both she and I were convinced she’d make it big one day.  Jen Bender went on to serve as the Producer for the hilarious and poignant Tony Award-winning musical, Avenue Q.

A couple of years later, I met another Jen, who has gone on to slowly but steadily climb up in the world of showbiz.

And many years earlier, my dad was the favorite science teacher of an aspiring actress.  Grateful for my dad’s thoughtful teaching, she once gushed, “Mr. Lasnik, if I ever make it big, I’m going to send you to the Galapagos Islands!” Heather Graham, if you or your agents are reading this, you can get in touch with my family here .

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