Anti-Tsunami

I have a ton to write about. I feel like I can only be superficial about a lot of serious stuff, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Israel
So I’m about to leave for Israel and I’ve vowed to leave the electronic
age behind for a bit, so this is my last rant for a while. I think I’m
so nonchalant about Israel because I not excited about the flight,
there are so many law students on my trip, and I have already been to
Israel (even though it was in pre-puberty). There’s something about
going somewhere entirely new that’s very invigorating. I used to think
travelling was worthwhile because it helps you identify with people.
But, another thing that makes Israel less exciting to me is that most
people I know have been there. Call me a hypocrite b/c I’ve been known to criticise others for making travel decisions based on the "wow" factor. Anyway, I know I’m going to have a blast because my expectations are so low. And, I know I’m an ingrate b/c this trip is free!

Mail Order Brides
Most of you probably don’t know much if anything about my dad. You should because I’ve started thinking about him a lot lately. This is partly because one of my most vivid memories of him is from our trip to Israel when I was a wee lad of 5. This memory is so prominent because it marks the beginning of the sabbatical in our relationship. He wasn’t in my life from about age 7 to age 17 - which was both of our faults. I have stories for many blogs, which range from a kidnapping, to inflatable boats. But, I’ll spare you (for now). Ted is 79. He’s scrappy. He likes women of color. He designed the cardboard display cases for Leggs panty hose. He pinches waitressess asses. He was once shot because he refused to give up his gold jewelry to armed robbers. He’s always (well, usually) the Plaintiff. He isn’t much for fidelity.  I’ve been thinking about him because when I talk to him on the phone I hear him letting go… little by little. He’s in this awful place in life — which he’s pretty much created for himself — a prisoner of his bad decisions and lack of follow-through. He’s told me that he pretty much lives to stay alive. Anyway, the one thing he hasn’t given up on is entrepreneurship. Yesterday we spoke and he told me his newest business idea: to start a mail order bride catalog. This is stuff I used to talk about in my Birmingham classes and look at with absurdity. But, I now only know, but am cut from the same cloth as a person who wants to sell women from developing countries. I don’t hate him for it. He’ll never get it off the ground. But, that’s not the point.

Meet the Parent
My mom and Basil just came to visit. It was quite a successful visit. The weather sucked big-time, but we made due. We ate basically every type of Asian food you could imagine, from Thai to Vietnamese, to Korean. The week was characterized by lots of parties. I was the emcee at the staff holiday party, which they came to (where my mother made quite the problematic assumption). The next day, my mother cooked for 50 of my closest friends at a party we hosted at my old apartment. I called the party "Meet the Parent" and the response rate was higher than anticipated. It got a little stressful at the end and I thought I was going to cancel it. Steve told me that the members of the house were all complaining about the number of people and that my mom wouldn’t be able to cook the food and how they should all be able to bring all their friends. This was stressful to me because I hadn’t anticipated that the turnout would be so high, and it involved my mother, and my old apartment. I hate knowing that people are talking about me. Even if I know they do, it just makes me feel creeped out. I’d rather not know.

Sidebar: Andrea and I had this conversation about the traits people show after you get to know them, and she thinks mine is that I am much more private than you would think I am. It makes me uncomfortable that so many of my friends have hooked up with one another — and I am not talking paddling parties.

Anyway, I didn’t cancel and it went really well, and they were gracious hosts, and it was just lots of fun, and included lots of rice and salsa dancing. My mom said that unlike Jessica’s friends, my friends were "sincere" and "didn’t talk for the sake of talking". I like that. I rarely get to see most of my friends in one room together. And that felt nice. It’s the company you hope to keep in Heaven.

Sidebar: One problem with my hosting parties is that I feel like I am at work.

Anyway, my mom redecorated my apartment and now Joanna’s looks pretty good! She’s going to come back without Basil, which will be nice. That’s the interesting part about relationships. That partners become affixed, which changes the nature of every affiliated relationship.

Oh, and my mom and Basil didn’t mind the prostitutes (including the transvestite ones) in my neighborhood. (They are in Austin right now checking out our houses and investments in South Padre).

Sublet
I subletted my apartment again. It’s a pretty addictive thing to do; the easiest way to make money ever. I think I am furthering an illicit affair. The subleasee told me he was going to buy me new sheets after his German female visitor leaves (his wife is in Scottsdale).

Movies
I saw three movies recently: Rent (again for the 5th time), Jesus is Magic, and Brokeback Mountain. Jesus was pretty funny. Some of the stuff was super edgy, but it was a strange movie to see with your parents. Brokeback Mountain was pretty good, mainly because we bought popcorn and Scharffenberger semi-sweet chocolate. I bumped into an old colleague at the firm I worked out. It makes me feel so awkward to see the lawyers there and brings back all these feelings of misery and failure. It plagues me. Anyway, the movie went a little slow, and was a tad melodramatic (and the aging wasn’t convincing). But, it was a movie that promotes reflection — like Fight Club. It’s a lot more than gay cowboy flick, but rather it seems to be about men’s repressed feelings, and marriage. And, in retrospect it was good. I think it conveys a lot more about men than a movie like Sideways.

Interesting Survey

4. Alumni Director at a Law School

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER
1. Flirting With Disaster
2. Rent
3. Bring it On
4. Une Liaison Pornografique
(and Bamboozled and the Secretary)

FOUR CITIES YOU’VE LIVED IN:

1. St. Paul, MN
2. Plantation, FL
3. Hartford, CT
4. Berkeley, CA

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH
1. Trading Spouses
2. Golden Girls
3. Family Ties
4. Elimidate

FOUR PLACES YOU’VE BEEN ON VACATION:

1. Iceland
2. Greece
3. Botswana
4. Jamaica

FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
1. calbar.ca.gov (the irony)
2. gmail.com
3.
friendster.com
4. drudgereport.com

FOUR OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE RESTAURANTS:
1. Lahore Karahi
2. Chino Latino
3. Spicy Green Bean Deli
4. Pollo Tropical

FOUR OF YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS:
1. Saag Gosht
2. Tom Kha Ga soup
3. Saganaki
4. Dole Whips

FOUR PLACES I’D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. On a massage table
2. The Himalayas
3. The Blue Lagoon
4. In the spiritual vortex in New Mexico


Parking Lot:
– I attended a paddling party a couple weeks ago. It was very interesting. Check out the website: www.loveplaysf.com
– I need to go to Glide more often. It makes me feel good!
– Recently I’ve developed the urge for an SUV
– I now have a digital camera
– I know how to reupholster a chair seat
– I haven’t yet purchased holiday gifts. Somehow it just didn’t happen.
– I keep on bumping into people; I wish SF were the size of NY
– I really want to buy a house in New Mexico or Oregon
– I drank a lot of kombucha this week

Weekend was really good so I have to write about it.

Tapas

1) We celebrated Dana’s birthday at Picaro, a tapas place. I bumped into a Macite there, and the CEO’s of google were there. Dana works for google so we went with a group of nice googlers. The tapas menu lacked depth and I was charged with ordering. I seriously think I could be a wedding planner, though I do not want to be.

80’s dancing

2) Afterwards we went to a cool 80’s club called Delerium. When we walked in the bartender sneered to a patron saying "what are these yuppies doing here?" I was at first offended. But, then, I was told that I am a yuppie. So, I guess it’s ok. We had so much fun dancing and carrying on. I am so inspired by the 80’s. This place had such a fun demographic mix of scenesters, and every race, creed, sexuality, and age was represented, including lots of short people. Loved it. (That’s one thing about living in the city - people are much more segmented in general than in a small progressive town like say, Amherst where there are many less social options.)

Domestic Warlock

3) I had a very domestic weekend. I went to three different Ross’s and am intimately aware of their homegoods offerings. I enjoy buying homegoods almost too much.

Geriatric Catfight

4) On Sunday, we went to see Into the Woods in Palo Alto. I bought Joanna tickets for her birthday. This was a professional equity play and to be honest, I think I could compete with any of the male voices. It made me feel good. The acting was great. At the end of the second act, these two 80-something white-haired lasses started cat-fighting. I was the only one under 65 there, so it was of course my responsibility to stop it. The woman next to me asked that I did. So, I went over and scolded them twice. This sort of thing makes me realize that we are all the same in terms of our instincts (Jerry Springer guests and accountants), just some of us have more to lose than others. When you’re old, you have less restraint and less to lose. Anyway, I didn’t feel quite valiant. It reminded me eerily of the catfight between the women on the bus about a year ago. Question: why me? This stuff doesn’t happen to my friends.

Nightmares

5) It has been mighty cold in my apartment, so I have been sleeping with a blanket over my head, which I suspect is leading me to have nightmares. Last night, I feel like I had a film festival of every genre of nightmare, from spirits, to robbers, to disease, to job problems…all in succession. It was annoying. I had a really important meeting this morning at 9 am, and woke up and thought I pressed snooze, but really pressed hour, so I work up at 8, but it said 9, and I freaked. Not the most restful night. Maybe it’s because I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which was really good but disturbingish.

Conference

6) Today I attended a conference for advancement professionals: CASE. The experience totally juxtaposed all the substantive law conferences I had attended in the past (CAOC, NAELA, etc.) I actually enjoyed it instead of fighting to stay awake. I engaged in group discussions and overall had a rip-roaring time. I realized today that I really like to hear myself speak when I feel like I am being articulate, which is not all the time. I told a bunch of alumni directors about beta blockers, which was funny. (by the way, the generations have been redefined in the development world: people born in 1961-1981 are Gen X and are characterized by reactiveness, people born after 1981 are Millenials/Gen Y and are characterized by civic engagement. Pretty interesting, no?) Walking back from the party I realized how much I love the buzz of the holidays in SF, the cold air, the lights, the clanging bells of Ferry Plaza. It felt really right.

Morocco

7) I desperately want to try this new hole-in-the-wall Moroccan restaurant in my ‘hood called "Tajine"

Party boy

I have lots of holiday parties coming up, which makes me feel busy - yelp elite, lila, a house party or two, and a x-mas tree decorating party at Mills.

Peace out. Sorry if uninteresting.

I know I have been absent for a while. This is mainly due to the fact that I don’t have internet in my new apartment. I think I need internet, so this is going to change, at which point I will be more consistent in my musings. Hip-hip-hooray.

So this is going to be sort of stream of consciousness b/c I want to condense a lot of random information.

1) I finished travelling for admissions. I am glad to be done with that. I felt like my life was on hold. It was fun to visit all these different people everywhere. I had a fantastic time in DC when I went back. Saw so many oldies, but goodies, including Dan (who was interviewing for the DOT Honors Program - do ya’ll remember that?), Anne, Katie, Megan, Matt, Bri, Leon, Laura (from law school), Peta Gaye, you name it. I couldn’t believe how DC had changed. Specifically, Chinatown was all chichi. And, the green line is all gentrified. I remember we used to tremble when we were there, and now it’s heavenly. Wait a second - Sarah Scopel - are you in DC and I didn’t see you. Shoot! That just occurred to me.

2) I had my performance for my advanced ACT class and it went pretty well, even though I woke up with a froggy voice. I was so sad when the class ended. It felt so nice. We sang the song we sang at our high school graduation and it totally brought me back. One of the people in my class asked me to record on her country CD as a back-up singer. Cool, eh? I actually failed my basic singing class due to absences. (If you miss 3 you automatically fail - and I had to miss due to work travels). It felt strangely bad.

3) I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Mills College. We played lots of charades and Cranium. It was a 12 hour ordeal. The corn souffle was stellar.

4) I am obsessed with the movie Rent, which I have seen 4 times in the Theater. I even walked by 6th and Mission just to see the site of the Cat Scratch Club.

5) I had this really interesting conversation over legitimate pizza (finally - Za’s in Russian Hill - mmmm). I love taxonomizing people, and it’s fun to do on the basis of self-esteem and ego as separate categories. I was actually able to identify a quotient for almost everybody I know. It’s very interesting b/c there are certain stock characteristics that relate to the different combinations. For example, people with high self-esteems, and low egos tend to be really into meditation and yoga. Perhaps my reasoning is reversed. We determined that I have a high ego and a moderately high self-esteem. What about you?

6) I had some great visits from Cara, Josh, and Melanie. They are all superstars. I tried to take them to different ‘hoods, sampling food everywhere, and I think I overstuffed them. Had some interesting conversations with Mel about the different life paths people at our age take. I introduced her to taro bubble tea. She liked that - but wasn’t so much into the gratitude game. I guess it’s not for everyone. (Petey was a champ). Cara said they are considering moving to SF. That would be great! Delia and Basil are visiting in 2 weeks.

7) I frikkin love my apartment. Love it, love it, love it. I never knew I would be the type who enjoyed living alone. I always thought I would be scared or lonely. Heck no. I just enjoy every second of it. It’s all me. My stuff, my food, my bathtub. If you haven’t tried it, you must! Andrea just got her own little apartment. I was scared it was in the ghetto, but it is fine. It’s actually a block from where Full House was supposed to be located. We are trying to motivate Joanna to decorate her apartment.
I have been eating fantastic food. Try Goood Frikkin Chicken and Chez Maman (the burger with brie is to die for). I guess Bernal Heights is on my radar now. Also, the best hardware store ever - Coles. It was like the pinnacle of customer service. They also had a really weirdly good candy selection. I always thought Toblerones were overrated. But, not the bittersweet ones. Those are fantastic!!!! MMMM.

9) My job has been good, but stressful. I ran a big event, and the biggest problem was that a co-worker who was supposed to drive me to the venue with some important things decided to pick me up an 1:15 late. Also, one of my judges forgot her robe. It was stressful! But, apparently looked OK from the outside. Also, Jill has been working for me, and she is incredible. It is SO nice to have someone to help — to tie up loose ends.

11) I don’t feel like I am really going to Israel in 3 weeks. I know a bunch of frat boys are on my bus, all coming together. It’s going to be like law school all over again!

12) I have been hearing from lots of blasts from the past, like my friend Courtney from middle and high school just e-mailed me. Turns out she used to live in SF. It’s weird to hear things like that. Like I would never expect that she of all people would jaunt across the country. She’s now in NYC. I love hearing from people randomly. I had like a 5 hour conversation with Vanessa last weekend.

13) I threw a big Mac event in San Francisco (with Grinnell, Carleton, and Oberlin) - the place was packed. Over 200 people came. It was awesome to see all these people from progressive liberal arts colleges eating wings. I am just into meat-eating. Sue me. Met this economist Carletonian who won a car on the Price is Right! I was sad to find out that the contestants aren’t randomly selected. (He also hates ketchup, and studied abroad in South Africa…weird.) Notably, of course the two people who constantly malign me did not attend the event.

14) I finally went to the Castro Theater and participated in one of the sing-along movies. We saw The Sound of Music. It was totally interactive, there’s a costume contest, etc. I loved it. I don’t think I had ever seen it before, which I believe is sacrilege.

15) Ross has incredible deals on furniture. It’s weird b/c I totally hate Marshalls and am generally opposed to these kinds of stores, but at the Ross in the Richmond we met this decorator who scopes out their stuff every day. Conversely, Big Lots is like crappy dollar store stuff that is totally overpriced, though I did see a very interesting contraption that was part toaster, part griddle, part coffee maker.

16) I am getting really into coffee.