Fording Fiestas

There recently was another of those rare experiences that warrants being reported to you as is, without any regard for finding the universal or timeless in it. I imagine it may just be in there anyway, but for once, being topical and unique might be to the story's benefit. Now, there were two separate parties to get to. I decided to do my best to make both events. I observed from the invitation of the original event that it was schedule to go on until two in the morning. Now, I know full well that the scheduled end of the party is in play as much as is its beginning. No one shows up for a while after the start, and the effective end depends entirely on how the party is going. Still, this was my plan.My account of the night shall be presented in two parts. Today, the first part of the night.

To begin with, I had for some time been looking forward to a particular birthday party, and I had been led to believe that the birthday girl very much wanted me to be there. It looked to be an almost entirely ideal evening. I say 'almost' because this party compelled prospective attendees to assemble a costume. It is to the planner's credit that there were three themes to choose from. The day before this party, another birthday outing was brought to my attention, and it was one which I could not refuse.

I took the subway to get to the first event- tacos with the birthday boy whose event had been made known to me the previous night. I got off half an hour before I was to be there, and my thinking was that I would hit an ATM and then go over there. I couldn't find the one that was supposed to be on the way, and so I thought I would get to another, but walked right into my friend before that could happen. It probably wouldn't have- it took an awfully long time to get through a particular intersection while on foot. There are a lot of those in LA.

The restaurant proclaimed with its very name that it had the best fish tacos in Ensenada. Were they the best in LA? I would have to call them the best I've had. Tasty and modestly priced, they were. I loaded mine up with lettuce, guacamole, sour cream and a mango salsa. My friend the birthday boy saw how much of the last I was putting on, and expressed earnest alarm. He told me of his fiance having a calamitous encounter with that establishment's hot salsa, and I got worried. I scraped off some, and added extra sour cream to counter the power of what remained. I needn't have worried. I believe the problem salsa was in fact one of the restaurant's other offerings.

After the full group had assembled and eaten tacos, plans were made to walk to the theater. I still needed to hit a bank. I expressed that, and there was momentary uncertainty about its prospects. Ultimately, it was agreed that I walk over to get cash from a bank a few blocks in the opposite direction from the bank, then backtrack to meet the rest of the party at the theater. This I did, and found my comrades with minimal difficulty in the long and winding line outside the theater.

It was so long and winding because tickets for 'Iron Man 2' were not entirely easy to come by on the first weekend. We paid the heroic friend who had secured tickets in advance, and talked a little while outside the theater. It was then that we gained entrance to the building. Our tickets were taken by an unusually soft and puffy Iron Man (or maybe a costumed stand-in posing as the fictional character Iron Man). We talked a while longer while inside the theater. I was glad for the opportunity, because there were a number of people in our group who I knew a bit but not well, and had long wanted to rectify that.

The movie was good, but there's something funny about an audience of fervent fans on opening night of such a movie. They're very expressive and demonstrative of their feelings regarding all manner of things they perceive from the trailers and feature film. One of my seatmates and I were rather amused by the many things that precipitated clapping and exclamations. As I said, "The filmmakers aren't here! They sent the film print and stayed home!"

Tomorrow, what happened after the movie!