Last night, we went to the new bar on the Embarcadero, the Waterbar, to drink a toast to T’s birthday and then we walked over to the Slanted Door. We were with a friend who was in the country coincidentally at the same time we were in San Francisco, so it was a nice treat for T’s birthday. He made the comment at one point in describing himself as saying “it’s all love and guilt”…
Today I woke up from a drug induced sleep – I took a quarter of an Ativan last night so that I could actually sleep – it worked. The sun is out and we are staying at a hotel on the Embarcadero and so we walked over to the Ferry Building and had a delicious cup of coffee and an almond croissant from Acme. It’s T’s birthday! I’m off to work but tonight we’ll head…
Got to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn as my Russian friend likes to say and there was a plane change and suddenly they had 47 seats less on the new flight and we were stranded with about 47 older women with red hats. We were put on a later plane but by this time I had been up since 3:30 am and so I felt like I had completed a full day and…
During the day I try to compartmentalize death, adoption, work, me, T – and then I get in bed at night and toss and turn and close my eyes to see monsters appearing out of the walls with lots of talking going on – rolling around with my mother the weighty-est subject on my mind, I slice through work and then proceed to adoption and I trespass over relationships that include T and everyone else…
After finally getting to San Francisco, we were turning into the Marina and I spotted Kev – Jesus, Kev – of all people – we pulled over and jumped out of the car and greeted each other. He’s divorcing his wife after 25 years! We then made our way to the hotel right on the Embarcadero and T’s friend calls her and blows the surprise for her birthday but who cares – the surprise which…
We walked around the square in Healdsburg this morning and then headed to Golden Haven Spa in Calistoga for a mudbath. Slinking into hot mud has its own rewards – you think, should I be doing this? and then you are doing doing it and it feels so weird but good and Jimmy is telling you the mud is great about extracting the toxins from your body but T and I have our old underwear…
When I first moved to San Francisco, there was an article that appeared in the SF Chronicle where the writer outlined his perfect day in the wine country. It began by appearing in Healdsburg at 9AM and eating a sticky bun at the Downtown bakery and then beginning the visits to the wineries that he had outlined. I forget now exactly which ones, but I know that it incorporated Sonoma and Napa wineries. Yesterday, we…
I lived for 16 years in San Francisco, going to the symphony, the museums, the liquor store, the grocery store, the cafes – the same places for years and rarely, very rarely running into anyone I knew. I moved back to New Orleans and no one was a stranger. In San Francisco, the cashier at Coit Liquors where I had bought wine and liquor for years always asked for my driver’s license, in New Orleans,…
Having spent many a cold summer in San Francisco, fall was always the most welcome season – there were the Blue Angels during Fleet Week to introduce that it was indeed fall, as there was hardly any trees changing leaf color and it would warm all of a sudden because Indian Summer always comes to the Bay Area in October. Driving around the Embarcadero yesterday you’d never know this country was, had been, is in…
I met a man the other day who I have been speaking to for many years by phone but have never seen in person. We were at a bustling bar in New York and I was sipping a glass of champagne and we were just chit chatting the way people do who have been talking about a subject for a long time but hardly ever talking about the things that matter most to a person.…