Hanging out with Brianna
Not to seem negligent, but there was one other big event this weekend that I wanted to write about besides our dinner at Quince. On Saturday, my good friend from college, Brianna (btblue), was in San Francisco for a conference. So Christian and I went into the city and met up with her and another CMU friend, Matt, and his wife Michelle. Thanks to her new job, Brianna's become a total jetsetter, sippin' martinis and staying in chic hotels. Actually, she's still the Brianna I knew before, except that she no longer makes a pitiful grad student salary. Needless to say, I'm jealous, but hopefully within a year Christian and I will also be making 3 times (or more) our current salaries. Brianna had a funny occurrence happen to her on the plane to SF. She's still riding the sense of pride in having gotten her PhD in May, so she's been changing her title in several places from Ms. to Dr. One of those places was her boarding pass for the plane. When they announced in the middle of her flight that they had a medical emergency and "Is there a doctor on the plane?", Brianna got worried that they might look at the roster and come to her for help. I think she'd have to explain herself like all us soon-to-be PhDs would: "Sorry, but my doctorate has no practical application in the real world." Ah, the unexpected perils of flaunting your PhD!
So the five of us met up at Brianna's hotel in the afternoon and then we went to the Mission for a late lunch at a Mexican rosticeria that seemed to specialize in Oaxacan dishes (they actually had real queso fresco). I got a "somethingsomethingCochinilla pibil", which was long-cooked pork made red by annato seed. Quite tasty. Then we walked over to Modern Times bookstore, where Christian's cousin Vanessa was participating in a craft fair to help fundraise for the independent bookstore, which has been struggling against Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the other giants, and now was having harder times with the economic downturn. We talked for a while and bought a couple neat crafts, including another artist's print of an old-time photograph of lesbians in chains. That was a gift for pirate_artist. We walked around the city some more and then we went for some pie and coffee at Mission Pie, which had expanded since the last time Christian and I had been there. Unfortunately they had an unsatisfying selection of pie flavors that day, but at least their coffee was good. All in all, I was really happy with the whole day because practically everything we did gave us plenty of time to talk to each other and catch up, which was very necessary considering how infrequently we see each other. At least I'll (hopefully) see Brianna in DC this January, so we'll have more time to catch up. Good times with good friends.
So the five of us met up at Brianna's hotel in the afternoon and then we went to the Mission for a late lunch at a Mexican rosticeria that seemed to specialize in Oaxacan dishes (they actually had real queso fresco). I got a "somethingsomethingCochinilla pibil", which was long-cooked pork made red by annato seed. Quite tasty. Then we walked over to Modern Times bookstore, where Christian's cousin Vanessa was participating in a craft fair to help fundraise for the independent bookstore, which has been struggling against Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the other giants, and now was having harder times with the economic downturn. We talked for a while and bought a couple neat crafts, including another artist's print of an old-time photograph of lesbians in chains. That was a gift for pirate_artist. We walked around the city some more and then we went for some pie and coffee at Mission Pie, which had expanded since the last time Christian and I had been there. Unfortunately they had an unsatisfying selection of pie flavors that day, but at least their coffee was good. All in all, I was really happy with the whole day because practically everything we did gave us plenty of time to talk to each other and catch up, which was very necessary considering how infrequently we see each other. At least I'll (hopefully) see Brianna in DC this January, so we'll have more time to catch up. Good times with good friends.