celebrating life, date night + sushi!

immma go super dramatic here and proclaim last saturday night to be one of the best nights ever. one i know i will never willingly forget. one i will hold close to my heart. one with good people, good food and bad lighting. a night spent honoring our friend danny, aka danny mulvaney, danny mo! and dmv. i called him danny. cancer took danny away from us too soon. but he will always remain a MVP in our crew. it's been just a few weeks since his passing. we are all still a bit raw about. processing the loss at our own speed. disbelief has started to shape its way into a new reality: a world without danny's physical presence in it.

the evening began serendipitously weeks ago when our friend richard decided, before danny's passing, that he wanted to spend his birthday in LA. his wife reached out to me for suggestions. she wanted something fun, but chill and could accommodate about ten guests for dinner. i immediately thought of sake house miro. because its divey and they serve sushi. richard loves anything divey and sushi. so this was a match made in richard heaven. eek, no pun intended. also worth mentioning, sake house is where josh had his bachelor party. richard and danny were both groomsmen in my wedding, so they were both there that night... and it was the last place the three of them hung out. shortly after solidifying the plans we got word that danny was gone.

we didn't cancel the dinner plan, though i was kind of worried it would be too nostalgic and too soon. but it was perfect. there was a dj spinning and i swear danny made the playlist just for us. it was pure magic. i had no tears that night. just joy. thank you danny for that. please continue to talk to us though dope beats, ok?

anyway, i'm going off on a tangent. some of you may not have a clue what i am going on about. just know this night meant everything. and here's what it all looked like. in bad lighting.  

josh + i waiting for our uber. i always attempt to get a few photos of us before we head out and not take any on our actual date. but a lot of times i forget and am bummed about that later. i remembered this time though and am so glad because i love this snap of us. 

i asked josh to take a cool photo of me walking up to the restaurant. instead he made me do whatever it is i am doing here.

so can we just talk for a minute about my dear friend marnee? she is a goddness. no, a mermaid. ok mermaid goddess. she is also the a mother of twin girls, which basically makes her a mother of dragons, too, right? also, i felt like she was eating that damn soup all night.

that damn soup. 

happy birthday richard! he's going to kill me for sharing this photo and yapping about his birthday. he wanted zero mention of it. he still ate the ice cream the waitress brought out after i told her anway. what? you can't let free dessert pass you by people. and sushi ice cream is the BEST.

one of many toasts to danny! some of you may know that danny was a big fan of sushi and he really knew his sake. a sushi dinner with danny promised to be like no other. and at every dinner he would also ask for an extra sake cup to pour a glass for his mom in heaven. it was an honor for us to do the same for him.  

we ended the night dancing. because a night like this outta end with dancing. 

the following day we attended danny's celebration of life memorial. it was held at a theatre in pasadena, and if you knew him you'd get how perfect that was. it was an 11AM showing. popcorn was served, of course. we heard stories, saw photos, shared stories, shared photos. we exchanged laughs + tears. smiles + hugs. it was HEAVY and i cried. A LOT.

i miss my friend. i miss his voice. i miss his knowledge of everything i admired. i miss his everything. he was that great you guys. when death comes it makes everyone pause. you start to realize what's important and what really isn't. so on the bright side, this has been a liberating time albeit meshed in with being incredibly f'ing sad. though i think the whole thing would have been a lot harder had we not celebrated our friend the night before, over good food, with good people, in bad lighting.

cheers to you danny. you are and will always be 100% in our hearts.

xoxo,

sony