Overheard

A brief intermission, as I'm readying my final Northwest journey post, on the fun "dinerant" I visited on my last morning in Portland. I have, of course, been breakfasting in the meantime, and TFO season has started, which means my weekends are full of zaniness and late nights.
For those of you not in the know, TFO is Sacramento's own Trash Film Orgy, a summer Midnight Movie festival that traditionally runs for six weeks, showing awesomely schlocky cult movies at midnight on Saturday, complete with lobby games, stage shows, and prizes. To kick off the season, last Saturday they organized Sacramento's Zombie Walk (an event they are credited with founding!). I appeared on Good Day Sacramento as a zombie, and then worked security during the walk and show. The TFO crew is a group of insanely talented people, full of love for each other and the event, and it's always a pleasure to be a part of it. This weekend supplied Sacramento's Inaugural Mermaid Parade, which I took part in as a tentacled creature with some very good friends. Keeping the nautical theme going, TFO presented Humanoids From The Deep, and the stage show was the musical "The Lusty Rampage Of The Raperfish." I played the titular character, which involved wearing blue tights and an enormous foam fish costume, complete with some fully functioning... equipment. Needless to say, after stalking around splay-legged on stage carrying a man-sized sexually aggressive fish on my back all night, I'm a little sore and tired this morning.
I tumbled down to Tower this morning to slake my hunger. Despite the fact I haven't gone regularly in months (and those times I have, of late, I haven't seen many faces I recognize) the hostess one of the servers recognized me and came up to say hello, a testament to the awesome service! As I was in line to make my reservation, I heard a couple behind me. The girl was advising the guy to never, ever get the Seasonal French Toast. As readers of this blog, and anyone who's ever been the Tower know, this is terrible, bass-ackwards advice. "They put this terrible 'fruit compost' stuff on it," she said, "it's all sticky, and soggy..." Fortunately, the guy could read and therefor could tell the difference between "compost" and "compote," and seemed unswayed by his ladyfriend's misguided advice.

I ordered a chai, in honor of being in the homestretch of reading Ian McDonald's River of Gods, a massive, sprawling, Mievillian novel set in India in 2047. It was a little difficult to get into, but has definitely proven worth it. It follows nine very disparate characters through a mystery that involves Gods and Artificial Intelligence. Having finished it between enacting and writing this post, I'm currently undergoing that mild grief that only finishing a 500+ page good book can bring.

I ordered the Sicilian Scramble, the day's special. It included Italian sausage, and was topped with fresh basil and some excellently crisp shredded parmesan. I was also treated to my neighboring table's amusing story of the woman's attempt to deal with her six-year-old stepdaughter, who has apparently recently discovered the joys of self-pleasure, and is apparently rather enthusiastic in pursuing them.
Unrelated; Tower has also recently expanded their waiting area, and this was my first chance to explore it. They've sacrificed some of their garden to create a pathway with copious seating, included some of their fantastic driftwood benches. There's enough foliage to maintain the "Secret Jungle" allusion, but it helps with the crowds that tend to clog the sidewalk on weekend mornings. All in all, a damn good way to start a day of recouping!