Werner Heisenberg Might Have Been Here

Speaking of books, I've always been a little bit creeped out by the concept of used book stores. On Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena there's a used book store called Cliff's Books. I have a hard time going in there, and I'm not completely sure why. The store is a seemingly endless maze of bookshelves, stacked high to the ceiling with used books. It's not the used books themselves that creep me out. It's the atmosphere of the place. I feel as if I'll get lost somewhere in that maze and end up getting attacked by some stranger. I mean, really...countless numbers of things could happen. I could be murdered and have my body stashed behind some stack of Louis L'Amour titles, only to be discovered years later. Or I could be lured by some strange old man into a creepy black van out in the parking lot with promises of being able to play with his puppy. And inside that creepy black van, all manner of unspeakable crimes will be committed against me.

However, I've decided that I must venture into Cliff's Books soon. You see, I am searching for an original copy of the book Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. By original copy, I mean one without Brad Pitt or Edward Norton on the cover. I have long refused to purchase books that, after they have been adapted to movie form, end up with pictures of the film's stars plastered all over the cover. To this day I am upset that my well-worn copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has a picture of Jack Nicholson staring back at me. I actually like the latest cover design for that book and am contemplating buying it. I guess that, then, I'd just throw my Jack Nicholson-ed copy away.

But, I digress. If anybody reading this happens to come across a copy of Fight Club that does not prominently feature Brad Pitt, please let me know. Or, even better, buy it for me and I'll reimburse you. I'm really eager to read that book but staunchly refuse to read one with the movie cover.

This past weekend was a pretty busy one. On Friday evening, Shane Ross called me and invited me to go with him to this party in Pasadena. We met at Ryan's house and, after playing a few rounds of Halo, Ryan, Shane, Commie Seth and I all headed out for this party. (Rumor has it that Nathan Lundblad was at this same party earlier in the evening, but we haven't yet confirmed that.) We showed up and discovered that the party was fresh out of beer. Since we were essentially crashing the party, Shane and I volunteered to go on a beer run, in order to justify our presence there.

While we were away, Ryan and Commie Seth decided that they were not having fun and decided to ditch us. We returned, beer in hand, to discover that they were gone and we were now faced with a room full of people we didn't know. (For the record, Shane had one friend there, which is how we came to be there in the first place.) Anyway, I sat there staring at the table while Shane discussed astrophysics with all the other Caltech people. At one point, some Bulgarian guy thought it would be amusing to quiz me on my limited knowledge of physics. I think I impressed him by correctly describing Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

At any rate, I eventually managed to convince Shane that we would be better off being not at this party, so we left and called Ryan to find out his whereabouts. As it turns out, he and Commie Seth had headed over to this bar in Hollywood called "We Can't Even Wait Fifteen Damn Minutes For Our Friends To Return From a Beer Run Before Deciding to Ditch Them." It's on the corner of Sunset and Hillhurst.

Shane and I stopped by the bar, but the line to get in was too long, so we opted for this quaint little pub I used to frequent almost every Thursday night when I worked night shift at the Shoah Foundation. It's called The Cat and Fiddle, at the corner of Sunset and Seward. It's a great little place. And best of all, while we were leaving, we got to witness some fat guy and some little guy getting into a fight on Seward.

At that point, we were kind of hungry so we headed over to Canter's, a 24 hour deli on Fairfax. There was all manner of odd looking people there at 2:30 in the morning, including this guy dressed in drag who wasn't fooling anybody, no matter how effeminite he tried to act. There was also this really loud Jewish guy wearing a Howard Stern button and a really cute girl wearing a pink shirt.

We returned to Pasadena at about 4:00 in the morning and let ourselves into Ryan's house. We played a few games of Halo, then I decided to head home. Not surprisingly, I had a parking ticket on my car, as I was in violation of Pasadena's No Overnight Parking Law that they undoubtedly adopted from the Third Reich.

I fell asleep at about 6:00 am, only to be awoken a mere six hours later by a phone call from Shane. He, John Lin and I were heading down to our friend Truong Vo's wedding at Calvary Chapel in Huntington Beach. The wedding started at 2:00, so we had to leave by about 1:00. The wedding ceremony was relatively small...there were only about seventy people there. The reception, however, was another story. In Asian traditions, as I found out, the feast is more important than the ceremony itself. Also, since most of Truong's relatives and in-laws are Buddhists, I imagine they saw no reason to go to a Christian ceremony.

Anyway...the reception was, indeed, a bountiful feast. There were probably about 275 people there, and we were served a ten course meal, consisting of such things as Peking Duck, Lobster, Shark Fin Soup, Shrimp, and a wide variety of weird things of which I had no clue as to what they were. Some things were stringy, some were gooey and some were an odd combination of both. Brave soul that I am, I tried some of everything. I've always prided myself on my willingness to try new things, no matter how disgusting they might appear to be. Like that time I was visiting with the Maharaja in India and we were served bugs and chilled monkey brain.

So, that's all for today. Remember to keep your eyes peeled for a Brad Pitt-free copy of Fight Club.