[travel] [bayarea] San Francisco incoming!
May is over!
I went to Chicago and it was a wonderful 48 hours. Great food. Awesome architecture - I enjoyed just walking around, going through Millennium Park, enjoying the Bean and the other art installations there, and walking along the Magnificent Mile, gawking at buildings. I also got in a key hour at the Art Institute, where I saw "American Gothic," Caillebotte, numerous O'Keeffes, several Renoirs (the AI has just a fantastic Impressionist collection) - it was a short but jam-packed hour. starofpersia let me stay with her in Albany Park. It was great seeing her again, and I got in just in time to go to her birthday party. OMG so fun. Theme: the year 3030. Amazing costumes. I love that she has friends who get totally into a theme costume birthday party. (And make cupcakes frosted to look like vulvas.) I spent an afternoon hanging out with hukuma and fanlain (as well as Alice and Bob, though they didn't talk much). We checked out the surgical science museum on starofpersia's recommendation, and we had only an hour before closing to enjoy the various murals and exhibits, all of which seem aimed at making you appreciate how great it is to live at this point in the history of medicine. I mean, one day we'll look back on things like modern dentistry and chemotherapy with the same horror that we now regard leeches and trepanation, but damn. The Public Image Limited concert was terrific; John Lydon was in a great mood, aided by the bottle of bourbon onstage that he kept swigging from. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear, finishing off the encore with the whole audience singing along to "Rise." I had this moment where I realized I was surrounded by hundreds of white people. That was unusual. Lydon was the only original band member up there, as near as I could tell (no Jah Wobble!), but they really put on a good show. And then I came home for four days.
The following weekend I went to DC and accompanied cipherpunk to fireba11's wedding, which was beautiful. They looked so happy. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, at a beautiful location in Virginia with these amazing views of the mountains, with a dinner to die for. I danced. Ate cupcakes (I see a theme emerging). Saw thewronghands, met/re-met a bunch of great people. Stayed with a law school friend whom I saw for a total of about one hour, after spending Friday night at Piratz tavern in Silver Spring. He was out when I got back from the wedding and I was too bushed to go join him. And then I had to leave early Sunday morning in order to go to a shooting range in Virginia, where I had the pleasure of experiencing an MP5. And then it was back to PR again. I also got to see briancanfly twice, at Piratz and at brunch at Scion in Dupont Circle, which I recommend to you locals. This was my last time seeing him as a single man - him, that is, not me - before his wedding in July, which will bring me to Rhode Island for the first time in life. So that was whirlwind trip #2.
This coming weekend is yet another whirlwind wedding trip. I'll be in San Francisco this coming Saturday and Sunday. My sister is flying in from Phoenix and all five of us, parents and kids, will be in the same place at the same time for a few hours, for the first time in two years. So that's Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening/night is the wedding.
But I want to see you all! Currently I'm thinking Sunday night, the 6th, would be good for a big dinner and/or drinks outing, Zeitgeist or Bender's, and y'all can bring along your fiancées, new girlfriends, babymamas-to-be, new babies, whoever it is that I haven't met yet that I should meet. Also, Saturday morning before my sister gets in looks free, for South Bay activities. There are people with new homes in San Jose and Mountain View, if you want to show yours off... houses being not quite so portable as SOs. I fly back early Monday morning.
So mark your calendars for Sunday, kids. I will see you then!
Other than the travel, it's been kind of a blah month in some respects. Memorial Day weekend has been rained out every day and I didn't get to go anywhere, just stuck around taking care of other people's dogs. I put back on all the weight I lost during pneumonia, mostly in the last month, due partially to eating my way through two American cities two weekends in a row. Seriously, it was like right after I got back from DC, I looked in the mirror and whoa where did that come from? Eek. Plus there's been way too much socializing lately and the boozing has gotten to be too much. Time to cut back and try to live healthy for the next while, methinks. Err, except for this coming weekend. ::facepalm::
I've been in kind of a malaise at work all month and not getting much done, though last week was better. And now I've got to book it if I'm to start, and finish, a fairly big project in the next two or three weeks. My summer interns start on Wednesday, and even though the boss will do most of the managing, I'm still terrified of having two law students fresh out of 1L looking to me for guidance, editing, etc. I have no idea how to do this. I had an intern in the fall, but he was a deferred '09 grad and thus in the same shoes as I was. So we'll see. Also I'm kinda bummed that I'll no longer get to play music loudly, burp with impunity, and on days when the judge and assistant are gone (like this last Friday), do enthusiastic air-drumming in my chair with "Tom Sawyer" cranked at top volume.
All right. San Francisco, here I come.
I went to Chicago and it was a wonderful 48 hours. Great food. Awesome architecture - I enjoyed just walking around, going through Millennium Park, enjoying the Bean and the other art installations there, and walking along the Magnificent Mile, gawking at buildings. I also got in a key hour at the Art Institute, where I saw "American Gothic," Caillebotte, numerous O'Keeffes, several Renoirs (the AI has just a fantastic Impressionist collection) - it was a short but jam-packed hour. starofpersia let me stay with her in Albany Park. It was great seeing her again, and I got in just in time to go to her birthday party. OMG so fun. Theme: the year 3030. Amazing costumes. I love that she has friends who get totally into a theme costume birthday party. (And make cupcakes frosted to look like vulvas.) I spent an afternoon hanging out with hukuma and fanlain (as well as Alice and Bob, though they didn't talk much). We checked out the surgical science museum on starofpersia's recommendation, and we had only an hour before closing to enjoy the various murals and exhibits, all of which seem aimed at making you appreciate how great it is to live at this point in the history of medicine. I mean, one day we'll look back on things like modern dentistry and chemotherapy with the same horror that we now regard leeches and trepanation, but damn. The Public Image Limited concert was terrific; John Lydon was in a great mood, aided by the bottle of bourbon onstage that he kept swigging from. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear, finishing off the encore with the whole audience singing along to "Rise." I had this moment where I realized I was surrounded by hundreds of white people. That was unusual. Lydon was the only original band member up there, as near as I could tell (no Jah Wobble!), but they really put on a good show. And then I came home for four days.
The following weekend I went to DC and accompanied cipherpunk to fireba11's wedding, which was beautiful. They looked so happy. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, at a beautiful location in Virginia with these amazing views of the mountains, with a dinner to die for. I danced. Ate cupcakes (I see a theme emerging). Saw thewronghands, met/re-met a bunch of great people. Stayed with a law school friend whom I saw for a total of about one hour, after spending Friday night at Piratz tavern in Silver Spring. He was out when I got back from the wedding and I was too bushed to go join him. And then I had to leave early Sunday morning in order to go to a shooting range in Virginia, where I had the pleasure of experiencing an MP5. And then it was back to PR again. I also got to see briancanfly twice, at Piratz and at brunch at Scion in Dupont Circle, which I recommend to you locals. This was my last time seeing him as a single man - him, that is, not me - before his wedding in July, which will bring me to Rhode Island for the first time in life. So that was whirlwind trip #2.
This coming weekend is yet another whirlwind wedding trip. I'll be in San Francisco this coming Saturday and Sunday. My sister is flying in from Phoenix and all five of us, parents and kids, will be in the same place at the same time for a few hours, for the first time in two years. So that's Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening/night is the wedding.
But I want to see you all! Currently I'm thinking Sunday night, the 6th, would be good for a big dinner and/or drinks outing, Zeitgeist or Bender's, and y'all can bring along your fiancées, new girlfriends, babymamas-to-be, new babies, whoever it is that I haven't met yet that I should meet. Also, Saturday morning before my sister gets in looks free, for South Bay activities. There are people with new homes in San Jose and Mountain View, if you want to show yours off... houses being not quite so portable as SOs. I fly back early Monday morning.
So mark your calendars for Sunday, kids. I will see you then!
Other than the travel, it's been kind of a blah month in some respects. Memorial Day weekend has been rained out every day and I didn't get to go anywhere, just stuck around taking care of other people's dogs. I put back on all the weight I lost during pneumonia, mostly in the last month, due partially to eating my way through two American cities two weekends in a row. Seriously, it was like right after I got back from DC, I looked in the mirror and whoa where did that come from? Eek. Plus there's been way too much socializing lately and the boozing has gotten to be too much. Time to cut back and try to live healthy for the next while, methinks. Err, except for this coming weekend. ::facepalm::
I've been in kind of a malaise at work all month and not getting much done, though last week was better. And now I've got to book it if I'm to start, and finish, a fairly big project in the next two or three weeks. My summer interns start on Wednesday, and even though the boss will do most of the managing, I'm still terrified of having two law students fresh out of 1L looking to me for guidance, editing, etc. I have no idea how to do this. I had an intern in the fall, but he was a deferred '09 grad and thus in the same shoes as I was. So we'll see. Also I'm kinda bummed that I'll no longer get to play music loudly, burp with impunity, and on days when the judge and assistant are gone (like this last Friday), do enthusiastic air-drumming in my chair with "Tom Sawyer" cranked at top volume.
All right. San Francisco, here I come.