there ain’t never enough time

I’ve had an amazing, and incredibly full trip out to SF.

Saturday was rafting with SF Gay Hikers (grand total 11 of us) & a new-to-me Catan. I got up early, headed down to the Jamba Juice by the Safeway on Market and met up with the group. We spent an unnecessary amount of time and effort figuring out who should go in which car, and eventually packed it up and headed up north to Sacramento. We went on the very mild south fork of the american river. at worst, there were category two rapids, and those were few and far between. I liked getting out and swimming along side the raft. We stopped at one point for a convenient cliff. I did a few cannoballs, a twist, and a somersault into the water. I decided to stop there before injuring myself in attempting to do some sort of back dive. We were like the only group on the river without booze or minors. On the way to & back we had several interesting conversations in the car. Including a clear distinction between sleazy and skanky.

Two of the gentlemen had a board game night they wanted to get to. I got an invite to it. The hosts are big fans of the catan series. I brought my Giant Ziplock Bag o’ Games GZBoG (it’s amazing how many games you can fit into a small space when you take them out of their boxes) but it was mostly neglected for the weekend. We only played Seafarers. I lost, I was unimpressed. It adds a little, but not alot to Catan, imho. Still has run away winners, too much time spent formulating deals that go nowhere, and random progress courtesy the dice.

Sunday was Tom’s & Urso’s Wedding. Most minimal wedding ever. Even more minimal than ‘s. The ceremony was under 5 minutes on the beach in Pacifica. 16 guests (including two out of town wedding crashers, who seemed quite welcome), and Denny’s afterwards (a step up from the original taco bell plan). And yet, the exchange of vows was certainly very heartfelt.

Monday was Bike rental and underwear night. Still recovering from my sunburn from Saturday, I went out and picked up a hybrid bike rental from the eastern edge of golden gate. totally different feel from my bike at home. Better maintained, but heavier, bigger, wider, with shocks and handlebar padding. It was the SUV of bicycles. Also a little short on me. Glad I reserved a road bike for the triathlon.

Monday evening, I went to underwear night in the Castro. I did not get down to my underwear myself. I did however meet a very attractive gentleman and make out with him at the back of the bar. Numbers were exchanged, plans were made, and not followed up on. A true SF experience.

Tuesday was talk with professor, east bay lunches, meeting Adam & time with tom. I went over to UC Berkeley and talked to a professor there about the Energy and Resources Group and maybe doing a PhD with them. He was encouraging, and made grad school sound fun. We glossed over the money thing. I really don’t know what to expect. I know funding generally depends on field, but what does that mean for an interdisciplinary PhD? Especially one where you can go technically heavy or technically light, depending on your own focus? Hmmm. I should talk to current students in the program. I also quizzed all past and present PhD students I hung out with about their thoughts on PhD programs. I’m mildly pro-PhD at present and majorly pro Bay Area.

I had an early lunch with Lili at crepevine, where I had blueberry pancakes with extensive enjoyable conversation. I had an early dinner with at Herbivore, where we had the appetizer special (all their best dishes are appetizers anyway). I swear I did something in between, but can’t really remember what. I went across the bay where I met Adam, and hung out with him, tried out Dosa, where I had a muttar paneer utthapam. It was okay. Adam was a very entertaining individual to meet. We went back to Tom’s place where I tried to introduce him to Thurn and Taxis and failed, but did introduce Tom to it. Adam bowed out with claims of brain burn from his day.

Wednesday was union hijinks, meeting new people and board games. I went into the office for a union meeting, where little progress was made (fortunately, that was remedied this week). But I did get to meet the SF union rep, and see a bit of the office. I could live with the SF office no problem. But I doubt it will happen.

That evening, I went for board games in the east bay, where I met for the first time. I got to the bart station where we were meeting, walked out and got the text message “I’m here and wearing a red lifeguard t-shirt” and my cell phone immediately died due to lack of battery. Grrsigh. I spent 5-10 minutes looking on the wrong side of a pillar and stand for him, but eventually found him. (he was right by the exit, sensibly enough). We went over to the house of and met up with him, Nathan, Simon, Lili, a couple whose names I can’t remember (Jeff and … um ….) Ethan, and, before long, Steph whose contact info I seem to have trouble finding when I want it. I taught Race for the Galaxy and then we played Tichu. Lili and I kinda crushed Nathan and Elliot, who played amazingly well for his first game (final hand we set their grand tichu, made ours and went out one-two for a 600 point spread from a single hand). Eric, Steph’s partner, showed up towards the end. I acquired their contact info, and went back to Tom’s place.

Thursday was lunch with Josh R, Meeting Alan, seeing Tom’s parents, and having dinner with Josh W before heading across the bay for quality time with . Josh and I talked about work and future plans. Alan and I talked about the wonder that is SF. Tom’s parents, and I talked about being rabble rousing union types, and various other topics. Tom’s mom took a good picture of me. I’ll have to remove the red eye and lj-iconify it. Then dinner with Josh W. I twisted his arm into joining me at one of my favorite veggie restaurants, which is a total hole in the wall in china town called lucky creation. I especially like their gluten puff appetizer, though Josh was less sold on it. We discussed various things. Then he dropped me off at BART and I headed over to Angie’s. I think that was when I watched BSG: Razor. It was good, in keeping with the series, and adds a little depth to the story arc.

Friday was my longest non-competition run ever, lunch with angie, and seeing insignificant others for the first time. I started the morning off by canceling a union meeting and running a little over 8 miles (in an hour and 25 minutes.) This is the longest run I’ve done except for the run in april, and I didn’t have anyone handing me water and gatorade this time. Plus, it was a lot cooler in chicago in april. I don’t feel too bad about my time. Angie and I meandered around a bit and got lunch between the fruit bar collective and gregoire’s. Now I realize I’m from the midwest, but deep-fried mashed potatoes? Really? =) Enh, not my thing, but Angie likes them. =)

I then went across the bay, picked up my bike from tom’s and proceeded to try to bike from SF civic center to fisherman’s wharf … right across the steepest hill in SF. This didn’t work terribly well. It was slow, difficult going, and I got off and walked, arrived about 10 minutes late, and very sweaty. I also had a headache, probably related to dehydration and exertion, through out the play. I was quite favorably impressed with Insignificant Others. It worked well. And while I didn’t see any character that seemed modeled off of me, I definitely saw bits and pieces of myself in the characters. Particularly Jordan (pining after the unavailable is my prime specialty) and his crush (disappointing those pining after me is my secondary specialty) I got to see at intermission, and meet his sister. I had a very amusing to me exchange where I went up to the bar/concessions stand and it went something like this:

Me: “Hi there, do you guys have water?”
Her: “We have spearmint, peppermint, and orangemint flavored water.”
Me: “Okay, but do you have, you know, water water?”
Her: “Metromint is one of our sponsors.”
Me: “I’ll take the orangemint.”

The flaking with Geoff (from underwear night) occurred after the musical, and I was okay with that. I was tired and cranky, and it was late.

Saturday was WoW time, farmer’s market, Simon/Lili time, and then spades with SF Gay Hikers. I started off the morning with an Underbog run with two 70’s and me a lowly 64. One of the 70’s was an enhancement shaman, and the 63 tank kept wanting aggro. Good luck buddy, you need it. =) We cleared it quickly and easily, despite chain lightning from the final boss in a heavily melee party.

We then hit Flacos at the berkeley farmer’s market, where I got a soft taco, a taquito and a tamale all fake meat. It was delicious. Then was hang out time with Lili and Simon at Angie’s place. After which I went across the bay to Spades night with three other guys from the sf gay hikers group. I ended up being partnered with one of the guys that I have a crush on from the group. We won because he carried me (not that I was useless, but he was more useful). I bid nil once and blew it on the final trick. He made a double nil and two or three single nils, blowing only one nil.

Sunday was flying away home. I got up and looked at the chicago time on my laptop and freaked out. I was halfway to angie’s Starbucks when I realized my snafu, so I went in, grabbed some breakfast and talked with her before heading to the airport. We also got her starbucks wireless account going.

I miss the bay area. I think that’s like half of the crankysad that’s been running my week.