Left to Fry: The Day I Woke Up Puking After Celebrating Sean's Birthday

Sean gets here at around 3:00pm yesterday and unfortunately Meredith is busy with guests, so our first stop of the evening won't be Meredith's warm apartment after all. Oh well. We split a Downtown Brown before heading out into Sacramento to celebrate Sean's birthday. Our change of plans puts us at the bar in De Vere's, where I order my new favorite 1554 and pick up the tab on Sean's Stella. The weather cleared up after an overcast morning and it feels good to be outside.

We wander by the State Capitol and through the K Street Plaza, making our next stop for happy hour specials at Chops, a fancy-shmancy place full of businessmen and women in suits drinking dark beer and martinis with their smartphones and shiny wrist-watches.

Next we look into Pizza Rock, a new restaurant with a mock semi-truck jutting out of the wall over the bar, which is fully occupied. Rather than grab a table, we decide to try the next bar, the Dive Bar, which is also new and might be the second-coolest place in Sacramento. The high ceiling is lined with glass chandeliers, the walls feature flat-screen televisions, guests are bathed in red ambient lightning, and it would be a sin not to mention the giant fish-tank above the bar. We sat on couches and drank large glasses of beer while people watching and discussing Sean's wishes for his 24th year.

Next we're at Spin Burger getting food and drinking more. Cait's there, the cute bartender who served us last time Sean came to town. I have an additional glass of wine, pay the tab, and then we're back in my room smoking a joint. Not long afterward, I'm throwing up in the bathroom and I come back to the bedroom and pass out on my bed for three hours.

At 11:00pm, Sean wakes me up and our night continues in a haze as we wander the streets of Sacramento. We're out simply to be out, a little stoned, a little drunk, with no intention other than to take a few puffs of grass on the Capitol Lawn. We don't get that far.

At some point past 1 a.m. we're smoking in the backyard and then I've taken to the bedroom floor to curl up next to Holmes and we're falling asleep to a DVD of Pablo Francisco stand-up.

This morning I woke up puking. But since there was nothing in my stomach, it was mostly saliva and yellow mucus and a lot of dry heaving. Gross stuff. Not sure what the problem was. Sean guessed that it was the wine from Spin Burger, which was served from a keg behind the bar and isn't listed on the menu. But Cait was so cute... I couldn't say no when she asked me if I wanted any.

After all that was done with--went back and forth from bedroom to bathroom about six times--it was just past 11:00 and time for our ritual trip to Chipotle. I didn't order anything. Didn't want to risk it. So we sat in the sun and people-watched from the patio. Nothing quite as impressive as watching a busy city intersection, all the people and cars following rules, obeying laws, playing out their lives on this mundane Thursday morning. We stayed for almost an hour before going back to smoke a joint before Sean left.

Then we ended up sitting on the window-sill, watching the Capitol and 17th intersection of state workers and people carrying yellow Grocery Outlet grocery bags. More people watching. Attempts to get people to notice us. Points if they said hello. We watched people puzzle over the price of parking. We saw people leaving for lunch, coming back with brown paper bags and white coffee cups. People on their cellphone headsets. People talking to themselves in their car. While Creedence Clearwater Revival played from the speaker between us, we goggled over the beautiful women who happened down 17th in our direction.

It felt like we sat out there forever. Sean eventually left for home.

Jessica didn't text me until around 11:00pm, saying she was just getting home and tired and that we should reschedule. Better that text than nothing, and I'm more relieved than anything, since it's already late and I'm staying up past my bedtime just to write this anyway. I couldn't help but notice how excited I was to tell Sean about her.

Spent the afternoon writing, editing, making LOST plans with Katie, vacuuming, grabbing a mocha at Old Soul, playing the Mass Effect 2 demo, rearranging some furniture, taking a nap, reading the new Esquire on the Nook, listening to the new Cake and Decemberists albums and an episode of Radio Lab and no, I didn't do my laundry like I said I would.