Like any good, smelly, ratty mole, I’ve been digging up through the earth and poking my head out to see if spring really has fallen upon us. Last week I returned to the temple that is Guandii after a too-long hiatus to send off my brother as he heads back to the U.S. for grad school. At first, while sitting down and letting the all too familiar nectar of whiskey and green tea wash down my throat, things simply felt off. It was weird sitting there awash in slick commercial beats and the club’s familiar maroon hues; I felt old and out of place. I itched to go back home, sprawl on the sofa and wile away my near middle-age minutes doing something completely droll and unmemorable. I was convinced that those long ago days of nearly living at Guandii were irretrievable, and I had finally reached the point where I was teetering at the end of a reckless and destructive lifestyle that I had no business prolonging.

Can still party at Guandii
Some of us still have it

Then, as it always does, the whiskey hit, the Pussy Cat Dolls came on, and I find myself rhythmically contorting my limbs like a giant tube worm caught in an abyssal current at the bottom of the Atlantic. And I have to admit, it felt good to re-enter that world again, even though now it’s completely swamped by younger and shinier versions of the crews with whom I used to frequent the Temple a couple of years ago when we all first got here.

Crystal and the Panda
Never figured out why Crystal always hated me posting great pictures of her on my blog

This past weekend, I decided to give it another whirl, and after chillin’ at Henry’s Brew Pub (fantastic beers, by the way) for a couple of hours, we headed over to The Spot for Crystal and Jasmine’s birthday celebration. Both the birthday girls looked as glamorous ever, and being the charming and confident creatures that they are, it was no surprise that The Spot was a gigantic, throbbing sausage fest. One week prior I had found myself in a sea of freshly minted undergraduates looking to negotiate with their swirling hormones at Guandii, and now I was in a throng of men much older who were trying to do the same thing. Needless to say, I went home and played with my computer like the weary, Shanghai veteran that I am.

Happy Birthday Crystal!

(Check out more photos from my Flickr by clicking the pictures below)

Birthday Party at The Spot
Making an appearance at The Spot for Crystal and Jasmine’s birthday