I'm too obliterated to blog effectively; I decided to let go for a night and accept the consequences in the morning, and the result is that I had several glasses of wine and a couple of the high-falutin' cocktails that San Francisco is known for (I think it was called Sunshine Swizzle? whatever it was, it had vodka plus grapefruit juice plus some other liquor I have never heard of).
Today was generally better than expected; because I was working out of the city, I slept until after nine, and then got ready quickly so that I could do some work in the morning. I continued to work while having lunch at Duboce Park Cafe, and then returned my laptop, phone, and other persona effects to my apartment so that I could take my visa application to the agency responsible for Indian visas. Their website was quite specific about not allowing cell phones, bags of any kind (other than a 'small ladies pouch'), or other materials, and so I took my application + passport in a ziploc bag, and had my wallet as my only other item. It turns out that they don't have a metal detector and no one checked to see if I had a phone, but better safe than sorry. They seemed to think my proof of residence was just fine (in fact, they seemed willing to accept the handwritten change-of-address on the back of my driver's license, but said it was good that I had the DMV record just in case), and so I was in and out in ten minutes. Barring disaster, I should have the visa on Monday, which is v. good news!
After my dinner tonight, I'm realizing how much I am missing India -- from a lay perspective, it may appear that I have an Indian fetish given the percentage of my best friends who are Indian, but while the fetishization may be questionable, there is no doubt that I have a fascination with the place that a lifetime will not cure. It has been two years since my last trip to India, and I am very much looking forward to going back -- and to showing my dad a place that has meant so much to me in the past few years. As I was saying to Adit, the amount of people you see on one block in Hyderabad is equal to the amount of people you see in an entire day in San Francisco -- there is no way to compare the two, and both of them are so dissimilar from where I grew up that it's a wonder that I haven't lost my mind from all the differences. So it will be great to see Hyderabad again, and to go shopping for saris for Adit and Priyanka's wedding in Delhi, and to see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri with my dad, and to experience all the other things that I love about India. It's truly a place that I could continue to go back to for the rest of my life; while there are dozens of other countries supposedly at the top of my to-do list, India will always be there regardless of how much I see.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day working, and then spent a quality hour with my manuscript before Adit, Priyanka, and two of their houseguests returned from Sonoma. Priyanka, Neer and I drank wine while Molly took a nap and Adit picked up Eric from the airport; then, the six of us had dinner at Mission Park Cafe, where I had rabbit for the first time. It was v. accessible rabbit, in the form of rabbit pot pie, and so it tasted a lot like chicken even if there seemed to be some humor in serving rabbit with a bunch of roasted carrots. It's funny that I've tried and loved eel before ever eating rabbit, but there is no accounting for the traumas in my parents' childhoods that led to the banning of foods like rabbit and lamb in my household.
Since dinner started at ten p.m., it was necessary to drop Eric off after dinner so that he could sleep before his residency interviews tomorrow. We dropped him off (as well as Molly, who was v. sleepy), and then Adit, Priyanka, Neer and I went to the bar down the street, where we drank pretentious cocktails while discussing "Cadillac plans" and other issues related to the health care debate. And now, it's almost three a.m., I'm well past sober, and it's time for bed. I'm going to use this weekend to write excessively (after I recover from the inevitable hangover) -- wish me luck!
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