I had an excellent day in the city of sin, thanks for asking. I woke up this morning at 6:00, determined to continue to be on midwestern time. I was able to go downstairs and write while fueling myself with complimentary coffee for a couple of hours, which was great. Then I showered, dried my hair, and took a long walk over the Presidio for my daytime plans. The walk was really lovely and I didn't run into any coyotes, which was a good thing since I'm ill prepared to see coyotes when there is not also a shotgun in grabbing distance. But if I had had a shotgun, I probably would have gotten banned from the Presidio, which would have deeply impacted my future self. So all's well that ends well, I guess.
My plan today was rather unusual for my trips to San Francisco. I met up with Ritu and her family, as well as Chandlord, for a delightful brunch at the Mexican restaurant in the presidio. I took all of the bites of my food, which were huevos benedictos - an excellent gluten-free twist on eggs benedict. However, the fact that I took all the bites didn't seem to get the same acclaim as if children take all of their bites - although it's hard to tell because Ritu's kids definitely did not take all of their bites, so I didn't see what kind of celebration might ensue if they had actually eaten their meals.
Anyway we had a very delightful brunch and then we walked over to the main park area where all the red chairs are, which is one of my favorite spots in the city. We managed to secure a couple of chairs despite fierce competition, and we also grabbed various ice creams from one of the food trucks that was set up nearby. The weather was gorgeous and it was a delight just to be outside hanging out and watching the kids have a good time (while getting very sticky from their ice cream).
At some point I decided that I really needed a break and that I also wanted to keep writing,and so I grabbed an Uber and came back to my hotel while Ritu and her family continued on with their adventures. However, I had agreed to meet them for dinner so I found them again at 4:30 at Fiorella in Noe. This plan included Adit and Priyanka and their kids, as well as Claude, which meant that we were already a large group. Then Jeevyboi and his girlfriend showed up, which made for quite the party. Luckily it was 4:30 p.m., which is early even for the early bird crowd, and so there was no issue with us taking up a gigantic table and ordering all the various things on the menu.
We had a very delightful conversation, despite the usual interruptions from the children, and then we all ended up walking a few blocks down the street to grab ice cream. I, however, did not grab ice cream because the fact that I had dinner after already being full from brunch meant that I knew that I was going to be way too full for the second dinner that I had planned tonight.
So I parted ways from the group just in time to waymo over to my dinner with Shedletsky. We had booked this with the intent of including Christina, but she had had to stay home at the last minute due to child care duties. However, Shedletsky and I had a great time - we split a bottle of wine, and I just had a handful of bites of my pork, which I expected givem how full my stomach is. Luckily he did not yell at me because he is not in parent mode, and I wasn't forced to take more bites, but it's too bad I was so full because that pork chop was excellent.
Anyway we caught up on life, went deep on AI, and talked about various novels that we've read in the past few years, all of which did a lot of good for my soul. I'm intentionally trying to see people on this trip that I don't usually get to see, which has been nice so far, and so we will see how this trend continues over the next week.
But now I really need to go to sleep if I'm going to get up in the morning and do anything before work - goodnight!
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