Resurrection

Every night I stay up a little bit later.  I used to get tired around 2 am, now its 2 minutes of 4 am, and I feel wide awake.  Its finally raining, I just paused and noticed it.  It has been a dry winter, though I think they call it winter only out of convention.  Its more like a few months of bearable weather, with a chance of rain.  

A few weeks ago I got back in touch with Alex, whom I used to play CS with late at night when I lived on Fell and Fillmore St. in San Francisco.  We would play for hours, wearing our headsets and keeping up a steady banter while we went about the business of fantasy violence and struggle, part of a strange and invisible subculture that I won't try to explain.

I'm living somewhere else now, he is too, and after a year of this and that we have begun to get together again.  We are playing a new game now, with new names and new rules, but underneath it is the same.  Mostly young men, sitting alone in quiet houses late at night, looking through that glowing screen at a little world made just for them.  And as I sit alone in my quiet house, awake when all others are sleeping, I am grateful for the company.

Quote of the Day

"...your inability to imagine true love manifesting between two members of the same sex almost classifies you as retarded in my mind. It’s not even a moral issue."

Our neighbor.

Go(ing to) Fish

Today, the plan is to get in touch and hopefully meet with my old boss Jen who I will be working for again.  When I lived here last time, I got a job at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in Saint Helena.  Cindy’s is one of three restaurants owned (with the help of investors) by Cindy Pawlcyn, somewhat of a celebrity chef in northern California.  Cindy’s was behind Main St. in downtown St. Helena, across the road from the railroad tracks on Railroad Avenue.  It is in a two story white building with many windows and several dining rooms.  At one point it was a hotel for railroad travelers.  One of the little stories that we servers would feed our customers to add depth to their experience at the restaurant was that the fig tree that reaches over the patio where they were eating was at least 150 years old.  This is especially exciting to hear when it is fig season and we can tell them that the figs on the plate once dangled above their table like the uni-ball Jim once claimed to Val that I was born with (or without if you prefer).

Go Fish, the restaurant that my old boss currently manages is an aesthetic opposite of Cindy’s.  It is a large single story building on the outskirts of town, clearly more modern and more purpose built as a restaurant.  It has a cavernous main dining hall, divided by a large hanging artwork in the center of the irregularly shaped room.  Skylights dot the high ceilings and modern pendant lighting dangles over the tables and the angular zinc bar where you can order stellar sushi (or shoo-see as a little boy once called it to Colleen and I) and cocktails with some promise.

I was offered a position as a manager in training, or MIT for you DASAC people.  I would be paid an hourly wage as opposed to making tips, and this would likely often mean less dollars per day, but the chance to get a foot in the door at a successful and well managed company seems well worth it.  Optimally, I would get a chance to have a few nights as the barman at Cindy’s, should any openings arise.  

Brunch at the H&O!

We ran into a bunch of nice friends at the ho for brunch.

Quote of the Day:

Erin: "I put that up so we could snuggle."

Adam: ""I put it down because I hate you."

(said in the theater, regarding the armrest, after Erin chose to
occupy the very same seat Adam wanted.)

How about a state that offers citizenship but not residence.

How about a state that offers citizenship but not residence.

Imagine a globalized city, with actual physical resources, an economy, citizens, institutions, and cultures already in place.  Now suppose that the citizens of that soverign city extended citizenship to every person on this planet, sharing all rights, laws and economies they enjoy with all.  Every child, from central Wyoming to Tokyo, would guaranteed access to the laws and economy of this city.  In the city, they would have to right to a fair trial.  No matter where they lived, they would be guaranteed the right to participate in the markets of that city.  What would not be guaranteed, however, would be the right to physically occupy space in the city.  Though the freedoms offered could be described as non-corporal, their implications (access to a fair and balanced legal system, access to globe spanning markets and access to the entire world’s culture) could safeguard, elevate, and set free the souls of all people. 

There are complications and downsides.  This will be for next time, naturally.

Its been a few days...

Heather and Colleen left for San Francisco Monday afternoon, after toast and coffee on The Lanai, culminating a weekend of cooking, eating, and a little bit of Singstar.

After the reunion brunch, the three Kings and one Derrig went to Sunshine Market to provision for what would become an epic culinary adventure.  An incomplete list must include: local smoked trout and grilled corn filled ravioli with a sage and butter sauce, build your own turkey Reubens, an heirloom tomato and blue cheese tart, 2 kinds of ice cream (Saffron/Rose and Apricot/Raspberry), grilled flatbread with hummus, grilled eggplant and corn...     

Heather was amazing in the kitchen.  I knew it was going to be fun when I asked her if 8 eggs were enough and she gave this, "Hell no." kind of response.  We ended up using nearly 3 dozen over the 2 nights she and Colleen were here together.  I've been aware of Heather's food savantery from the times years ago that she and Colleen would come to my Mom's and my house to make christmas cookies; I remember her making ganache (which I looked at as a dark (he he) art at the time) for some chocolate cookies she was working on without batting an eyelash.  Over the course of the weekend, she would get up off the couch and say something like: "I'm going to just throw together this souffle." 

I've not needed a dinner much larger than cheese and crackers since the weekend.  

Heather is here!

The plan was that she was going to blast down here from Mendocino
early this morning but as things turned out she didn't make it until
about noon, which turned out to be perfect because I was not feeling
the get up early and make breakfast vibe. Instead Deb and I went to
Calistoga and bought a flat of organic strawberries and some amazing
smoked trout from the farmers market. By the time she got here the
pancake batter was half made and we all sat down to a nice late
breakfast.

A Dream

I just woke up from a dream in which I was watching a broadcast of President Bush make another tired and hollow claim about defending the world from evil and Terror. It was on television and was being presented by a famous news anchor, Dan Rather I think. Along with the anchor there was a thin vaguely Asian man with white hair and odd teeth. He had the air of a sign language interpreter about him, but he was speaking and as I listened I realized he was speaking a soft, stylized English.

After the president's speech, the anchor and the white haired man stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the people in the television studio with their arms around each other. The speech had just ended and in the wake of the twisted logic and doublespeak of our leader, these two men did something extraordinary. They began to sing.

It was a variation of our national anthem but instead of a poem about "That glorious fight," they sang instead of a fragile hope that we might deliver our selves from the grasp of fascism and empire coming from our own leaders and take back our freedom and good name in a time of madness and evil.

I found myself sitting next to my mother in front of the television and when the new words of anthem came up on the screen, karaoke style, we sang along.

Porta Potty, Zeitgeist

North Beach Lunch

The Cuz' and I have wandered down to San Francisco for a little big city outing. After a late lunch at Caffe Delucchi in North Beach the plan is to walk up to the Coit Tower and take in the sights of this hilly little town. Colleen was here once before with her sister, Cousin Heather.

In a few hours we are going to meet up with my good friend Ryan from my Zazie days.

Okay, the little side salads are here so it's time to go.

The things you see in real life

So I was on the way to see WALL-E in Napa with Deb and Colleen when we spotted this highly alarmed goat standing in a cage in the back of a truck. She was bleating (or is that what sheep do?) up a storm and was wide eyed and clearly not psyched about the mode of transport, nor I imagine being in the middle of a busy intersection far from her home.

I doubt she was going to see a flick.

Its an active lifestyle, it's not for everyone.

Day Old Quote of the Day: Two for One Sale!

Colleen: "If I ever meet someone from Cheyenne, I'm going to say, "Nice! I had the worst taco of my life in your town.""

Rachel: "People with Morton's Toe are better in bed than other people.  Its like, don't be repulsed by me, I give good head."

A Longer Leg

We made it from Lexington Nebraska to Logan Utah on Wednesday, leaving behind the perfect flatness of central Nebraska for Wyoming’s rolling brown hills and strangely huddled Black Angus Cattle, most of whom (like us) seemed to prefer to huddle tightly together rather than spread apart upon the vast landscape.  

As we left this land of ranches, mines and oil wells behind and climbed almost imperceptibly over the mountains I was surprised and pleased to see that the wind farms that Deb and I first saw a year ago on our way back to Massachusetts have grown much larger and in one instance we saw rows of partially assembled units, sections of their cylindrical towers lying on the ground.

It was about an hour and a half drive up from Salt Lake City, winding between orange and brown cliffs looming over either side of the road, studded with solitary conifers and swiss cheese-like rounded mini caves that I imagined were inhabited by coyotes and wierdos.

Progress:

72 miles from Utah.

Progress

Mile 386 I-80 west, Wyoming.

Nebraska Stench Inspires

Me: "Ohh, that stinks!"

Colleen: "Yeah, its pretty hellish."
(pause)
"That wasn't us, unless you know how to fart tar eggs."

Recorded near mile 376 on I-80 west.