Saturday in the City

My Saturday was the most perfect Saturday. Even if things didn't go to plan, everything that happened was wonderful. To have every day like today would be a dream.

On the ride up to Oakland, traffic stopped momentarily on 17. I was wondering if there was a wreck, but then a deer bounded by my car and it was obvious people had stopped to let it pass. Things picked up and off I went. I used my GPS to navigate to Robin's, and I bought a car charger for my phone (only $15!) so now I don't have to worry about my phone dying on the road.

I parked at Robin's and we got through the catching up and what's been going on and all that happenings. Her apartment has really been furbished out since last I visited. It looks great! I drove down to the Bart station and parked on a side street, and we rode over to the Ferries Landing or whatever it is called. Turns out the stop was further from the museum than we originally thought. Like a whole bus ride further. Oops! Robin showed me how to use my GPS (well Google Maps) to figure out the bus route to take, and there was a free shuttle to the Presidio! Booyah! But I'm getting ahead of ourselves. I held a spot in line at Blue Bottle Coffee and Robin fetched us sandwiches from Cowgirl Place Sandwiche Something (not the real title). We each ate half with plans to eat the other half later, but switch sandwiches. Mine was mozzarella and proscuitto, hers was turkey and some other cheese. She treated me to New Orleans style iced coffee (which has chicory in it) and got herself a coffee. Oh that was good iced coffee! Good enough for me to drink, and I'm not a coffee drinker.

We walked down to where my phone said the shuttle would pick us up, and we sat on the grass and talked and drank our coffee. It was a nice jaunt up through the Presidio, and the last stop was only a few blocks from the museum! Hurray! All this time I was texting Josh & Carmen who were going to join us at the museum.

The museum in question is the Walt Disney Family Museum. There is a special Mary Blair exhibit happening right now, with her original art works, and I had to see it! Mary Blair did visual development and illustration for Disney in the 30's and 40's. Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros. The exhibit was really nice. You could get up close to the originals. Some didn't look so well preserved as the paper had yellowed and we theorized that the color had faded on the paints. Still, her work was wonderful! And everyone dug it (Carmen and Josh showed up about 20 minutes after we did). There were many really nice quotes put up about her, and it really made it seem like she was appreciated. Of course it's easy to make it seem that way long after the fact, but hey! Her art lives on!

I picked up a few postcards and then we went out to get juice! Carmen drove us. I had fancy immune booster carrot juice and a wheatgrass shot. Went healthy! I drew in my sketchbook. We conversed. It was a windy, bright day. Afterwards, we got a life to the station. I hugged C & J goodbye, grabbed my Odd Owl poster, and off Robin & I went to hop on the train and go back to Oakland! It was an easy crossing, though I felt a total tourist for always putting away my card and having to take it back out. Robin had me drive over to this alley of artsy shops in Oakland, and we wandered around that area for a bit. I put on some foo foo that smelled like trees. I really liked it. I'm not much of a foo foo person, but I'll have that foo foo! I didn't get it though. Expensive! My car got a bit misplaced, but we found it! We didn't take note of which streets it was on when I parked, but backtracking returned us. I hung out at her lovely apartment and had some tea.

Before it got too late, we hugged out goodbyes for the time being, and I set out for 45 minutes south of Oakland: Mountain View. Garth was working late, so I hung out in In-N-Out with a burger, fries, and shake and my Kindle and read and had a little peaceful me time. Nice to just sit and read. Okay eating a burger undoes all the healthy eating I did earlier today, but whatever. Garth and I shared a pitcher at this little dive bar near his place. There was a darts tourney happening, and damn if they all didn't consistently hit the dart board!

All around, through and through a great day.

last days as a 24 year old

Saturday:

• Slept in, of course. 
•  Got cashback at Trader Joe's and some snacks for the drive up. The couple behind me in line was really nice, and they were from Poulsbo so we bonded over being far away from the gray weather.
•  The drive up to San Francisco was uneventful.
•  Carmen and Josh bought some guinea pigs and named them Merlin and Arthur. They are quite cute.
• Carmen and I took the N Train to tonight's venue. 
•  The gig was Trails and Ways with My Satellite and Tremor Low.
• Phil and his brother Stephen were also at the gig. Phil and Carmen both bought me birthday drinks. Nice people. 
•  It was a good show. Not hop around and dance type music, but I dug it. Tremer Low moreso than Trails and Ways, which was the headliner.
• We ate sushi down the street and it was good. 
•  Cabbed it back, though it wasn't that late.
• It was nice to sleep in that big cozy bed that I slept in all those months ago while looking for, and eventually finding work.

Sunday:

• Woke up relatively early for me, though Sundays tend to be early days.
• Had some oatmeal and tea and chatted with Josh and observed the guinea pigs.
• I was a bit late leaving San Francisco for Oakland.
• And my GPS refused to locate any satellites.
• So I got turned around, and turned around again.
• And arrived on Lakeshore an hour later than planned
• But I made it!
• Finn, Robin, and I drove onwards and parked and had brunch at Cock-A-Doodle Cafe.
• We browsed the used bookstore while waiting for our table.
• I had the eggs benedict. It had avocado and it was delicious. I ate it with my hands and made quite a mess of it, and I probably embarrassed my companions but they have good poker faces.
• From there we returned to Robin's, where I parked.
• We walked down to Lake Merritt and went into another used bookstore (though it also had new books). George Grosz's autobiography caught my eye. I want to read more biographies and non-fiction, so this with my Lucrezia Borgia and Berthe Morisot tomes will make for some good historical reading when I eventually get around to it.
• Finn treated us to coffee, though I had hot cocoa, and we sat by the lake and Finn read to us from This Is How You Lose Her as the sun set. It was a nice time. Finn biked away.
• Robin and I drank wine and watched Clueless.
• Then we drank tea and watched a bit of Basquiat.
• Then I drove home.

And now it is past midnight, so I guess I am officially 25.

Robin & Finn

What a lovely wonderful day! Things are really coming up quite splendidly in my life these days.

Met Steve in San Jose for a little afternoon hike. We went to the, err, Sierra Azul? open area in Los Gatos, and walked up the path a bit. There were some mountain bikers, but we were never in danger of being squashed by some maniacs. It was a bit chillier of a day, but when one hikes, one warms up. After proving how bad I actually am at going up hills, we shared a sandwich in downtown San Jose, and parted ways. I headed North some more to Oakland.

Though it was closer in to Berkley than Oakland. I found easy on the street parking and waited outside Zachary's pizza for Robin and Finn. Finn was the first to arrive. I don't think I've seen him since I was unemployed. Oh how fast things change! Robin arrived next and we decided on sushi instead of pizza. I had udon and a philly role. Robin stuck to rolls, Finn had ramen and rolls. We shared sake, and a good chat was had by all. From there we went to Tara's Ice Cream. I had the salted caramel with brownie bites. It was so damn tasty. They had tons of different flavors, and a few I had never heard of before. Good stuff. I need to find all the hip little places in Santa Cruz, so that when people visit me, I can take them to groovy places.

We went back to Finn's place, and watched Anchorman. Which was odder than I remember it being. I dunno. I think I don't like the character of Ron Burgundy that much.

It was nice to keep the company of good old friends. A bit of a drive, but ever so worth it.