I'm fully reimmersed in my life in the city of sin, as evidenced by the fact that I just did a shot of fernet (the official shot of San Francisco - and also, I am too old for both shots and fernet, and especially for shots of fernet). Today wasn't nearly the productive day that I dreamed of, but I also expected that - I always have some downtime after conferences, and today was lovely despite the lack of productivity.
I spent the morning making some attempts at adulthood - I made coffee, ate a granola bar, and sat down to my computer by nine, which was good enough. And I even did some stuff. But I had to stop at 10:15 to shower, and then I took a lyft to Lyft - my friend Gyre now works for Lyft (in the corporate offices, not as a driver), and he and I met for lunch. Lyft feels very much like Google did 10+ years ago, which made me a little nostalgic...but not nostalgic enough to abandon my life of story-telling and yoga-pants-wearing.
Anyway, lunch with Gyre was great, and we had a lot to catch up on, but he seems really happy there. After we were done, I walked to the mall, which gave me some much-needed time on my feet after a week of conference time. I returned a bag I'd purchased before, and I intended to buy some paper/pen stuff, but my favorite stationery store in San Francisco is now closed, which was a real bummer. So I stopped at the Container Store, and I stopped at Crate and Barrel, and then I took the bus home like a peasant.
But I'm not totally a peasant...when I got home, I ordered $100 worth of books on the history of British gardening, since Lucretia is into horticulture and I thought books about English country gardens might give me some good ideas. I also talked to Terry, and I also did some other work, and I also took a nap, and I also followed the RNC on twitter and despaired about the state of the party and the death of all of my former ideals in the face of fearmongering and chaos and incoherent attempts at 'policy'.
sssanyway. I eventually abandoned twitter and put on a dress and heels and walked to Octavia, which in this case is a restaurant on Octavia Street and not a character in one of my books (although Octavia is also a character). Chandlord and I had made plans ages ago to take Julie and Brian (who is also known as Deano) out for a fancy dinner to celebrate their wedding (which happened last fall, but which neither of us could go to), and our fancy dinner happened tonight. We made a serious dent in the menu - we ordered almost everything, and everything was almost equally delicious. We started with the burrata (which I always love) and the 'deviled egg' (soft boiled egg with lots of spices, which is yum), and then we had a whole bunch of dishes (some stuff I couldn't eat, including pasta, and then a bunch of crudo, grilled calamari, and an incredibly wonderfully smoky corn chowder with potatoes), and then we had entrees (salmon for Julie and Brian, some mushroom delight for Chandlord, and a complexly delicious chicken confit for me), and then we split dessert (rocky road Eton mess, which was delish, and a strawberry float with strawberry soda that was a surprise standout).
Of course, despite the fanciness of our meal, we were still totally ridiculous, and I had to spend some time searching my phone for inappropriate photos of me and Julie's friends at my 2006 Olympics party (#rideordie, Torino!). Also, we were sitting directly next to a bona fide celebrity (Kate Walsh, who was in Grey's Anatomy) - I thought she looked familiar when I sat down, but I hadn't placed her. Chandlord figured out who it was and texted me and Julie, and then told Julie to check her phone - but when Julie opened her phone, the first thing she said was "Who is Kate Walsh?", which made us not at all subtle. Oops. But c'est la vie - and she talked to us about dessert at the end, so it could have been worse. But it seemed appropriate to celebrate Julie's wedding with that level of ridiculousness + alcohol + a lot of talk about Sean Connery.
Then, unexpectedly, we took a lyft to Julie and Brian's local bar (the Buccaneer), where the bartender made me something with Malibu rum, and we all took fernet shots (except Chandlord, who left early). But now that I'm home, I need to sleep; I have a writing date and dinner plans tomorrow, and I want to get other stuff done before I drive south. Goodnight!
I spent the morning making some attempts at adulthood - I made coffee, ate a granola bar, and sat down to my computer by nine, which was good enough. And I even did some stuff. But I had to stop at 10:15 to shower, and then I took a lyft to Lyft - my friend Gyre now works for Lyft (in the corporate offices, not as a driver), and he and I met for lunch. Lyft feels very much like Google did 10+ years ago, which made me a little nostalgic...but not nostalgic enough to abandon my life of story-telling and yoga-pants-wearing.
Anyway, lunch with Gyre was great, and we had a lot to catch up on, but he seems really happy there. After we were done, I walked to the mall, which gave me some much-needed time on my feet after a week of conference time. I returned a bag I'd purchased before, and I intended to buy some paper/pen stuff, but my favorite stationery store in San Francisco is now closed, which was a real bummer. So I stopped at the Container Store, and I stopped at Crate and Barrel, and then I took the bus home like a peasant.
But I'm not totally a peasant...when I got home, I ordered $100 worth of books on the history of British gardening, since Lucretia is into horticulture and I thought books about English country gardens might give me some good ideas. I also talked to Terry, and I also did some other work, and I also took a nap, and I also followed the RNC on twitter and despaired about the state of the party and the death of all of my former ideals in the face of fearmongering and chaos and incoherent attempts at 'policy'.
sssanyway. I eventually abandoned twitter and put on a dress and heels and walked to Octavia, which in this case is a restaurant on Octavia Street and not a character in one of my books (although Octavia is also a character). Chandlord and I had made plans ages ago to take Julie and Brian (who is also known as Deano) out for a fancy dinner to celebrate their wedding (which happened last fall, but which neither of us could go to), and our fancy dinner happened tonight. We made a serious dent in the menu - we ordered almost everything, and everything was almost equally delicious. We started with the burrata (which I always love) and the 'deviled egg' (soft boiled egg with lots of spices, which is yum), and then we had a whole bunch of dishes (some stuff I couldn't eat, including pasta, and then a bunch of crudo, grilled calamari, and an incredibly wonderfully smoky corn chowder with potatoes), and then we had entrees (salmon for Julie and Brian, some mushroom delight for Chandlord, and a complexly delicious chicken confit for me), and then we split dessert (rocky road Eton mess, which was delish, and a strawberry float with strawberry soda that was a surprise standout).
Of course, despite the fanciness of our meal, we were still totally ridiculous, and I had to spend some time searching my phone for inappropriate photos of me and Julie's friends at my 2006 Olympics party (#rideordie, Torino!). Also, we were sitting directly next to a bona fide celebrity (Kate Walsh, who was in Grey's Anatomy) - I thought she looked familiar when I sat down, but I hadn't placed her. Chandlord figured out who it was and texted me and Julie, and then told Julie to check her phone - but when Julie opened her phone, the first thing she said was "Who is Kate Walsh?", which made us not at all subtle. Oops. But c'est la vie - and she talked to us about dessert at the end, so it could have been worse. But it seemed appropriate to celebrate Julie's wedding with that level of ridiculousness + alcohol + a lot of talk about Sean Connery.
Then, unexpectedly, we took a lyft to Julie and Brian's local bar (the Buccaneer), where the bartender made me something with Malibu rum, and we all took fernet shots (except Chandlord, who left early). But now that I'm home, I need to sleep; I have a writing date and dinner plans tomorrow, and I want to get other stuff done before I drive south. Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment