They Don't Have Independence Day in England
My Saturday plans were to include a sly Netflix gambit of watching a movie and returning it the same day, but the last pick-up was at 2:30, and my mail did not arrive in time! So instead I went to the comic book store and dropped off postcards for the SF Olympians Festival and geeked out about Justice League. Then I visited Jess and Colin and met baby Kai! He's so tiny! Like a baby! And he's growing an eggplant out of his bellybutton or something, I don't know. Well, I do know. It's his umbilical cord. But it's weird. I held him close to me and mocked his little ears. In media exchange news, I dropped off Buffy S4 and took four movies in return.
Then it was time for my long-awaited Resident Evil marathon! One DVD courtesy of Netflix, one movie courtesy of the Internet, and one DVD courtesy of the library.
I celebrated the Fourth of July by watching an American Movie Classic: Predator. What did our forefathers want? To get to da choppah!! When did they want it? NOW!!!
A few days ago, I was forced to upgrade to new AIM because they claimed my beloved AIM 5.9 was going away, and I hate almost everything about it, but because it automatically displays away messages in the Buddy List, I saw that jules_anna was in "San Fran," so we made lunch plans for Sunday. Years ago, I had passed on her résumé to Rob, and she had gotten to intern at the Veronica Mars writers' office. I had barely known her then, but we'd kept in touch, and now we would finally meet!
I picked her up at BART, and we went to Bakesale Betty for lunch. They tossed in a free strawberry shortcake, which would have been awesome if we weren't planning on getting ice cream afterward. She acknowledged the greatness of the famed fried chicken sandwich. We walked over to Tara's Organic Ice Cream, where she got white pepper chocolate chip and Earl Grey and I got pistachio (which I wasn't actually a huge fan of, but I'd already had white pepper chocolate chip and none of the other flavors suited my fancy). I bought her ice cream because I buy out-of-towners local dessert, but she thought she should be buying me ice cream. "I was thinking about that yesterday," I said. "Aren't I, like, responsible for your entire career?" She was glad to see I was so humble. She promised that she would thank me in some sort of acceptance speech that was broadcast on television. We walked up and down Telegraph chatting as we ate our ice cream. She had decided I should do a science blog explaining scientific concepts in terms of pop culture, notably television shows.
Afterward, we still had time to kill, so we went back to my apartment. I suggested we call Rob and tell him we had finally met, but then she wisely noted that he might be having family time on the Fourth, so we nixed that plan. She looked over my DVDs to pick something to watch. She had somehow managed to have never heard of The Guild, so we watched the first season, and she loved it. I dropped her off at BART. Six years of knowing each other and only three hours of time together!
We had perfect timing, as my drop-off coincided with Kai's pick-up of me and Stuart as we zipped over to Danville for Xanadu's July 4th BBQ. We were early, which meant we got to devour the delicious bruschetta Xanadu's neighbor brought over and dig into the strawberry shortcake I had brought. Many people I did not know arrived, but one person I did know, Megan, a fellow Theban (and Olympian). There were several people Xanadu knew through theatre and one guy she knew through serving him coffee regularly. There was a lot of theatre talk, and although joining the Bay Area theatre community has certainly improved my social life, I feel rather inferior among the crowd. I'm a theatre person, but I'm not a Theatre Person. I haven't seen a million shows, and I don't have a lot of opinions on Arthur Miller or whatever. The conversation did turn to television at one point, though, and then I was in my element.
I took my turn swinging at the piñata (miss, miss, HIT!), and then Xanadu decapitated it from the string, and the dogs had at it. Time to dig in! Followed by more conversation. When it got dark enough, Xanadu led us to a spot to view fireworks, goofily waving an American flag. The spot we found didn't really give us the best view of the fireworks in San Ramon, but we had a fun time all the same. We started singing songs and generally being silly. Then came the trek back. We passed the frogs again. The frogs were loud.
Back at the house, I began to crash. I had been having too much fun, and I had to come down. People played Beer Pong, and I lounged on a comfy lawn recliner. And then a pit bull terrier tried to eat my face. Twice. And he scratched my arm. So that certainly didn't help my mood. I didn't want to say anything, though, and I listened to my theatre friends converse for a while until it was time for us to catch the BART back. Since Megan was going that way, she took Stuart and me. She also provided me with an alcohol swab for my scratch so it wouldn't get infected, which was nice.
Stuart and I waited on the platform for the penultimate train with one other couple. And then Stuart realized he knew said couple. The woman was a former co-worker. Oh, Bay Area! They caught up. I was tired. We were all tired. On the train, we all took our own seats, forming a square by the doors. Stuart was going into the city, but the rest of us got off at Macarthur. The couple lived in Emeryville. We exited the station, and I felt rude not saying goodbye or whatever, but I was tired and they didn't know me anyway.
I instinctually wanted to offer them a ride, but then I realized they were adults and surely had a car in the lot. Except they weren't following me. I turned around to see them walking alongside the station. Were they going to walk home? No, wait, that's where the-oh shit, they were going to take a fucking cab. Oh, hell no, not while I was around. I ran back, hoping I had remembered the woman's name. I shouted it and asked if they wanted a ride. They had just been about to get in a taxi, and now that cab driver totally hates my guts. They thanked me, as they'd had a couple weird experiences with cabs before. They lived in the complete opposite direction of me, but it was only a few minutes of my time, and they were very grateful. Plus, they complimented my car. That brought my mood back up again.
Today was basically spent watching Justice League, reading The Fifth Elephant, and watching three movies: Gamer, Daybreakers, and The Orphanage. There were potential evening plans that did not materialize, which was okay.
In other news, I discovered that another fellow Theban, Cat-whom, by the by, I had also seen 7 out of the 10 days since meeting her-grew up in Ann Arbor and was there the entire time I was. Moreover, she had lived three blocks away from me. Maybe we had gone to the same concerts, parties, plays. Who knows?
Then it was time for my long-awaited Resident Evil marathon! One DVD courtesy of Netflix, one movie courtesy of the Internet, and one DVD courtesy of the library.
I celebrated the Fourth of July by watching an American Movie Classic: Predator. What did our forefathers want? To get to da choppah!! When did they want it? NOW!!!
A few days ago, I was forced to upgrade to new AIM because they claimed my beloved AIM 5.9 was going away, and I hate almost everything about it, but because it automatically displays away messages in the Buddy List, I saw that jules_anna was in "San Fran," so we made lunch plans for Sunday. Years ago, I had passed on her résumé to Rob, and she had gotten to intern at the Veronica Mars writers' office. I had barely known her then, but we'd kept in touch, and now we would finally meet!
I picked her up at BART, and we went to Bakesale Betty for lunch. They tossed in a free strawberry shortcake, which would have been awesome if we weren't planning on getting ice cream afterward. She acknowledged the greatness of the famed fried chicken sandwich. We walked over to Tara's Organic Ice Cream, where she got white pepper chocolate chip and Earl Grey and I got pistachio (which I wasn't actually a huge fan of, but I'd already had white pepper chocolate chip and none of the other flavors suited my fancy). I bought her ice cream because I buy out-of-towners local dessert, but she thought she should be buying me ice cream. "I was thinking about that yesterday," I said. "Aren't I, like, responsible for your entire career?" She was glad to see I was so humble. She promised that she would thank me in some sort of acceptance speech that was broadcast on television. We walked up and down Telegraph chatting as we ate our ice cream. She had decided I should do a science blog explaining scientific concepts in terms of pop culture, notably television shows.
Afterward, we still had time to kill, so we went back to my apartment. I suggested we call Rob and tell him we had finally met, but then she wisely noted that he might be having family time on the Fourth, so we nixed that plan. She looked over my DVDs to pick something to watch. She had somehow managed to have never heard of The Guild, so we watched the first season, and she loved it. I dropped her off at BART. Six years of knowing each other and only three hours of time together!
We had perfect timing, as my drop-off coincided with Kai's pick-up of me and Stuart as we zipped over to Danville for Xanadu's July 4th BBQ. We were early, which meant we got to devour the delicious bruschetta Xanadu's neighbor brought over and dig into the strawberry shortcake I had brought. Many people I did not know arrived, but one person I did know, Megan, a fellow Theban (and Olympian). There were several people Xanadu knew through theatre and one guy she knew through serving him coffee regularly. There was a lot of theatre talk, and although joining the Bay Area theatre community has certainly improved my social life, I feel rather inferior among the crowd. I'm a theatre person, but I'm not a Theatre Person. I haven't seen a million shows, and I don't have a lot of opinions on Arthur Miller or whatever. The conversation did turn to television at one point, though, and then I was in my element.
I took my turn swinging at the piñata (miss, miss, HIT!), and then Xanadu decapitated it from the string, and the dogs had at it. Time to dig in! Followed by more conversation. When it got dark enough, Xanadu led us to a spot to view fireworks, goofily waving an American flag. The spot we found didn't really give us the best view of the fireworks in San Ramon, but we had a fun time all the same. We started singing songs and generally being silly. Then came the trek back. We passed the frogs again. The frogs were loud.
Back at the house, I began to crash. I had been having too much fun, and I had to come down. People played Beer Pong, and I lounged on a comfy lawn recliner. And then a pit bull terrier tried to eat my face. Twice. And he scratched my arm. So that certainly didn't help my mood. I didn't want to say anything, though, and I listened to my theatre friends converse for a while until it was time for us to catch the BART back. Since Megan was going that way, she took Stuart and me. She also provided me with an alcohol swab for my scratch so it wouldn't get infected, which was nice.
Stuart and I waited on the platform for the penultimate train with one other couple. And then Stuart realized he knew said couple. The woman was a former co-worker. Oh, Bay Area! They caught up. I was tired. We were all tired. On the train, we all took our own seats, forming a square by the doors. Stuart was going into the city, but the rest of us got off at Macarthur. The couple lived in Emeryville. We exited the station, and I felt rude not saying goodbye or whatever, but I was tired and they didn't know me anyway.
I instinctually wanted to offer them a ride, but then I realized they were adults and surely had a car in the lot. Except they weren't following me. I turned around to see them walking alongside the station. Were they going to walk home? No, wait, that's where the-oh shit, they were going to take a fucking cab. Oh, hell no, not while I was around. I ran back, hoping I had remembered the woman's name. I shouted it and asked if they wanted a ride. They had just been about to get in a taxi, and now that cab driver totally hates my guts. They thanked me, as they'd had a couple weird experiences with cabs before. They lived in the complete opposite direction of me, but it was only a few minutes of my time, and they were very grateful. Plus, they complimented my car. That brought my mood back up again.
Today was basically spent watching Justice League, reading The Fifth Elephant, and watching three movies: Gamer, Daybreakers, and The Orphanage. There were potential evening plans that did not materialize, which was okay.
In other news, I discovered that another fellow Theban, Cat-whom, by the by, I had also seen 7 out of the 10 days since meeting her-grew up in Ann Arbor and was there the entire time I was. Moreover, she had lived three blocks away from me. Maybe we had gone to the same concerts, parties, plays. Who knows?