I go through social cycles; sometimes I am a complete hermit, while other times I am a social butterfly. I've been in hermit phase for several months -- I had an intense six-week butterfly period in January and February, then a four-month hermit period in Iowa, followed by another six-week butterfly period in July and August and a hermit phase from the end of the Olympics until now.
I hadn't realized until now, but it appears that my hermit:butterfly ratio is 4:1. I'd already committed to myself that I would be social from the beginning of December to sometime in early January, at which point I'll start working on the second book. So if you want to take advantage of my willingness to hang out, call me! Just make sure you're calling my California number, since it turns out that several people still have my Iowa cellphone and think that I hate them because I never got their messages.
Anyway, my butterfly status was why I didn't blog last night. I had a great day at work, despite meetings until five p.m. I went to the kitchen to get a drink and ran across Terry, Joy, and Natasha doing crafts in one of the conference rooms, using supplies left behind by Laura (the former director who would force me to craft with her). I ended up staying with them until ~7:30, although I didn't successfully make any cards. Then, as I was finally getting into the city, Adit called and asked if I wanted to see a movie.
We settled on "Milk," the movie about gay-rights activist and San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, who was assassinated by another SF supervisor in 1978. The show we decided to see wasn't until 10:30, so we had dinner at the crepes place a couple of blocks from my building. The movie itself was good, but in retrospect we should have chosen something shorter and more light-hearted; I cried at the end, giving vent to my well-suppressed emotions, but given that the movie was over two hours long, I didn't get home until almost one a.m., which was unfortunate. I'm glad I saw it, though; I don't know much about San Francisco's history, even though I've lived in the area for nine years, and it was cool to see footage of streets and neighborhoods that I'm familiar with. And Sean Penn is a great actor, despite my general disagreement with his politics, so I give it a thumbs up (although perhaps not as enthusiastic a thumbs up as the person who told me to see it, since that might raise your expectations too high). It's very of-the-moment; Milk fought against a California proposition that would have forced the state to fire all homosexual teachers, and won his fight, but given the controversy over Prop 8 this year, the parallels to the current situation are obvious.
History is strange, and what is even stranger is how very quickly society has changed over the past few decades. Milk was assassinated thirty years ago, at a time when cops could still raid gay bars and beat patrons without any recriminations. The civil rights movement is still well within living memory. Major events like World War II, the Depression, the Teapot Dome Scandal (okay, not major, just checking to see if you're still paying attention), and even the Civil War are really not that far removed from us. For my optimistic side, this is all great, and I think we will continue to see progress in my lifetime. My pessimistic side says that we could just as easily revert. Either way, the next few decades will be an amazing experience -- and if all else fails, I can move home and eat eggs.
Moving on -- I had brunch today with Heather, Lauren (aka Subz), and Nathan. We were supposed to meet at 10; when I called Heather at 10:20 to see where she as, she flipped because she thought that today was Friday. Clearly the readjustment from China has not been perfect. Anyway, brunch was delicious, and it was good to catch up. I don't see Lauren enough because we're not on the same team, and while I'd seen Heather on a VC earlier in the week, it was the first time I'd seen her in person since I went back to Iowa. After brunch, we did some desultory shopping in her neighborhood. I saw a cute little yellow teapot, perfect for one person, and intended to buy it -- but Heather bought it for me as a Christmas present, which is great since I now feel compelled to have her and Salim over for dinner. Given that I haven't cooked anything substantive for anyone since the Olympics, that will be nice.
I spent a couple more hours at her apartment, hanging out with both her and Salim, which was a riot as usual. Salim is v. excited for his character in a future romance novel; I have plans to use him as Salim the Moor, a fearsome sidekick for the Marquess of Folkestone in the book that I plan to write third or fourth. Heather suggested that he have a pet tiger, which amuses me, but I'll have to avoid the pitfalls of having the hero seem like he's taking himself too seriously. With a sidekick like Salim the Moor, though, I doubt that will be an issue.
When I finally vacated their apartment, I drove to the glorious south bay to get an oil change and a car wash. I know there must be places for that in the city, but I like the places I always went to in Palo Alto. Then, I picked up Terry, and we had a lovely dinner before I decided that I was too tired to see another movie. We parted ways, I came home, and browsed the internet in an effort to force myself to stay awake until ten o'clock.
Now that I have succeeded, I should go to bed. I have a lot to accomplish tomorrow -- I want to change my bedding (fun task -- H/S told me about a bedding store downtown that custom-makes down comforters and duvet covers, then forbade me from seeking it out given my known addiction to bedding), thoroughly clean my apartment, do laundry, and run downtown (not for bedding!) to do a bit of Christmas shopping. But the desire to be a butterfly is running strong, so we'll see what happens. Goodnight!
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