I headed into this weekend with an amazingly great bottle of wine, a splurge, enjoyed with my mom and a friend, on the roof of my apartment, before teaching mah jong for four hours in Caffe Trieste. My friend Lauren goes, “We are the local color.” Draining, but it’s great training friends so I can get a good game going.
Woke up early and took Mom out to a walk around Aquatic Park and Russian Hill- searching for the goats that have since done their job and left. We ran into the Alcatraz Swim, which was really inspiring. Then a big dim sum conflagration, testing on Lychee Garden, which is dangerously close to my house. Total for 7 people: 56$. Said goodbye to the Mom, and a movie (Little Miss Sunshine), and a really long walk from Van Ness to the tip of the Presidio, and back again. Home again, home again, tippity tip. I’m not sure what this “list of ships” presentation of my weekend is meant to achieve. Why question it, though?
Went to Ritual with some friends and ended up talking to a fellow at our table, just because… he was at our table. It wasvthe most un-sceney and fun time I’ve been there, which could be because Burning Man had sucked all the pretentious posers out of that place. It was strangely fun in the way that it’s something I never do. Next morning, walked through Chinatown looking for new jade earrings and didn’t really have a lot of energy to head into every shop, what with the large masses of tourists clogging up Grant St. Bought a cheap mah jong set to use “out” (instead of the expensive one I have “in”). Met friends at Zeitgeist, played SMS-tag with a friend in town, and managed to drink only 1 beer at Zeiti. Rebecca beat the pants off me in MJ and it’s only her 2nd time playing, grrr.
Had a little meltdown because … because, not sure what it was, something about how I’m on the South side of town and couldn’t go home to get a layer on, and didn’t have anything to do with myself for an hour while everyone else got layered at their houses. I was Day and Night Barbie in a world of Day Barbies and it pissed me off, essentially. Carted myself off to be alone, at the new Caffe Trieste next to Flax. Interesting how a shady corner can somehow redeem itself. Had an odd conversation with a woman I will recount here.
She says, with no prelude: “I’m going to be back in a moment. My friend Ira is coming, and I told her I’m sitting in the back. So can you watch my stuff? And tell her that I’m going to be right back. I have to go to the bathroom.”
She’s saying this sitting next to me, though I just met her in the bathroom. Well, we didn’t meet, she just yelled at me as I walked in “I’ll be out in a moment!” I thought that was odd at the time since there were… 2 stalls. But considerate! Crazy considerate lady.
Anyways, she comes back and gets her stuff, and talks to me again:
“Thanks, …”
“No problem.”
“She didn’t come here because she called me when I was in the bathroom and she’s going to be late, so I’m going to stand outside and wait for her. Thanks for watching my…”
“No problem.”
“…stuff, I’m going to go get a glass of water.”
From that, I went to the Ethiopian place, Sawa, and got a big hot tea. Friends joined, and we ate two huge masa platters. NY friend came by and we squished in her taxi then went to Boom Boom room, where I heard some really great jazz. An Egyptian guy who looked like John Cusack was the lead, on drums, and friend of a friend played all kinds of keyboard, notably the organ. I love the organ. It was really good funk/jazz/acidjazz combination music, and unfortunately they won’t play again as head guy is leaving the country. My quip of the night: Friend leans over to tell me the main guy is going back to school in Egypt, to which I reply, “For what? A Hottie MD?” Ah, sometimes we never get past the 13 year-old humor level, and that’s OK.
Got a tall glass of something dropped on my leg and spilled on my bag, by an apologetic but ineffectual guy. He should have gotten some napkins, instead he left it to me. Then, he flirts. Ugh.
Day three of weekend: drive across town for yoga, to find out that the instructor flaked. Instead, sit around cafes with friend and catch up. Head home, go for a run along Aquatic and Fort Mason and thoroughly enjoy the beautiful weather. Then, all I really wanted to do this entire weekend was to sleep and work on my movie haikus. I finally got to spend some time this evening doing that, ah.
I think this is the first three day weekend I have spent continuously at home, without leaving the city perimeter.
This is such the classic blog post! I have freed myself from insights, and I’m back to just writing about my boring life! Yay!