Season Three, Episode Eight: New Years Resolution, Revisited

--this article appeared in UCSF Synapse on January 6, 2011--

Yes, it is that time of the year again, and no, I’m not talking about the National “Return Unwanted Christmas Presents” Day. It is that time of the year when gym membership sign-ups are probably at their highest (and gyms reaching its fullest capacity), nicotine gum and patch sales are brisk, and lots of broken promises are initiated. With the new year, some people are reenergized and motivated to change what they feel like is an area in their lives that they can improve upon, and thus make New Year’s resolutions.

Last year, I made such a plunge, and now, let’s look back and see how successful (or in some cases = EPIC fail) I was in maintaining those resolutions.

Spend more time with Family and Friends
Overall, I’d say I did fairly well in this department. In the past, I called home MAYBE once or twice a month; this past year, I probably called once or twice a week. I have made time for the BFFs, and reconnected with friends that I’ve been meaning to catch up with.

Fit in Fitness
I think I held my end of the bargain, considering the circumstances. Rotations (and HP&M classes) did take a toll on my body, but I made it a point to work out at least 2-3 times a week. Otherwise, I would’ve not had the energy to do work I had to do when I got home.

Tame the bulge
This one I’m not so sure how I did. Considering that I’m still carrying a little extra “holiday weight” (no thanks to my mother!), I have gained about 15 pounds as compared to the beginning of last year. The hopeful person in me would like to say that the weight gain is mostly from muscle weight, though the realist in me would partially attribute it to my mom’s devilishly delectable desserts she made for the holidays.

Get out of debt
Well, this one was NEVER going to happen; as I’ve mentioned previously, I just took on a mortgage last year, and unless there is a substantial trust fund that’s set to mature under my name, I don’t see my mortgage being paid off. And staring at me like a barrel of a gun is my ever-increasing student loan debt; though if I get into a residency, I get to postpone the joy of paying back these loans for another year. But as far as unsecured debt, I’m actually doing pretty well; no outstanding credit card debts, no car payments, etc.

Learn something new
So, last year, my friend and I threw around the idea of sharing a Rosetta Stone CD and learning Chinese. Yeah, that DIDN’T happen. She and I were just too darn busy with school and work stuff that we didn’t really have time to fully get something out of the experience. There’s always next year.

Help others
Still making good on this promise. MHC is going strong, and we just celebrated our one-year anniversary this past December (though I did miss the festivities!).

Get organized
Definite improvements in this department. For starters, it’s been awhile since I was able to finish things way BEFORE a deadline; I guess I’m one of those late-starters… But my residency applications were all finished before New Years’ Eve, which is impressive since most of them are due the second week of January. I’d call that progress. AND I’ve made a serious dent in organizing my house, that it was actually presentable enough to have my first overnight guests, my college best friends Maiti (currently doing her third year of medical school in Cuba) and Michelle (works in LA, in town for a wedding in Berkeley). We’ll see about that housewarming party (it might actually happen BEFORE graduation! Lol).

No new shoes in 2010
I am actually really proud of this one! A resolution that saved me hundreds of dollars! It’s amazing how much money I spend on shoes, and even more amazingly, how strongly I resisted breaking this resolution, in spite of many temptations.

Try to be punctual
Hmmm… let’s see, how should I put it? Work in progress? Hahaha… Though I’d say, I was better this year. Last year, I was supposed to meet up with high school friends for dinner at 5:30 and I didn’t show up until 7:15. This year, meeting up with the same high school friends for Free Museum Tuesday at the Museum of Art in Balboa Park in San Diego (which if I may add, is quite impressive and makes me wish that I went to it more often while I was living there) to see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, I was only late by 45 minutes! Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

So by my count, I have five fulfilled resolutions, one unresolved resolution, and three epic fail resolutions; that’s not too terrible. What’s my new year’s resolution this year? Redo the ones that I wasn’t able to accomplish? While that may be the logical one, I probably didn’t fulfill them for a reason. Turn in my SITC columns to my managing editor BEFORE 5pm on Mondays? Hahaha… So, let’s try for something in the middle: A dear friend of mine (who is an avid reader of my column) has suggested that I should write more about being single, given the title of my column. Touché. So I guess I’ll try doing that, but after I’ve talked about my European/Moroccan adventures! Stay tuned for that one, folks!

Season Three, Episode Season Seven: Day at the Museum, Part Deux: Impressionist and the beyond at the de Young

The impressionism movement was important in many respects, and in particular, it serves as an important intermediary between the "Romantic –style classical painting" and the "modern art". The artists at this time experimented with different techniques, vantage points, and subject matter. We are fortunate to have some of Musée d'Orsay's collection on display at de Young Museum until January 18^th.

Cezanne

I admit, when I was first studying art, I didn't have that big of an appreciation for still-life art; but after studying Cezanne's techniques, I grew a greater appreciation for them. Instead of using shading to represent form and volume, he uses subtle modulation of colors. Instead of using the traditional depiction of perspective, he uses multiple viewpoints to assemble various "everyday objects" in a discordant fashion, and uses repetition of similar shapes and the harmonious use of palettes to bring the composition into a perfect balance. Cezanne has painted over 200 still-life paintings (he wanted to harness the "power and poetry of everyday objects), and some are display here at the de Young. Be sure to check out "Still Life with Onions" and "Kitchen Table" to appreciate some of Cezanne's brilliance.

Gauguin

Gauguin's life experiences have certainly shaped his artistic endeavors. His life in Paris, living on rue de Chaillot at the heart of the seizième arrondissement, not too far from the Seine,
influenced his earlier works of representing a sort of
rural bonhomie. His time at Arles with Vincent Van Gogh was two-months filled with intense collaboration, and each artist had a contrasting orientation (Van Gogh – more expressionistic, Gauguin more contemplative) that allowed for some "healthy competition" between the two artists, propelling each other to push the limits of color and imagery to the extreme, resulting in 15 Gauguin masterpieces in such a short time span. "Les Alyscamps" in particular was quite striking; he uses abstraction of natural forms and arbitrary use of color (the "flaming red bush" and the "blue tree trunks") to exemplify a certain level of expressive quality that represent his "Synthesist style".

Not to miss paintings: "Tahitian Women", "Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ", "Les Alyscamps", "Arearea".

The Pont-Aven School

In contrast to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac's Neo-Impressionists style (ripipoint or "pointillism"), which they considered to be too rational and progressive, the "Pont-Aven School" (Emile Bernard, Charles Laval, Paul Sérusier, and to a lesser extent, Paul Gauguin) advanced the aesthetics and iconography as advocated by Gauguin's artistic circle and the Synthesism movement. These artists sought to further push the limits (previously successfully established by the Impressionism movement) of Realism. In particular, these artists drew on the Romantic notion of reconnecting with one's origin and found a certain inspiration in the peasant life of the inhabitants of Brittany to represent the "primitiveness of province life", perpetrating the Celtic piety, the political independence, and the poetic nature that is ingrained in Brittany's culture.

Not to miss paintings: Bernard's "Breton Women with Umbrellas", "Bathers with Red Cow", and "Madeleine in the Bois d'Amoir", Laval's "Landscape", Sérusier's "The Fence", and Gauguin's "Seascape with Cow (at the Edge of the Cliff)"

Season Three, Episode Six: The day at the Museum: Impressionist and Beyond at de Young, part I

I’m very grateful that Musée d’Orsay is going through major renovations in preparation for its 25^th Anniversary in 2011; it’s been long overdue. I remember when I was living in Paris, I used to go visit d’Orsay almost every week (thanks to my American University of Paris ID card, which got me in to most of the Parisians Museums (60, in total) for free); I remember that whenever I’d go, I’d only see certain sections at one time because the lighting in some sections (the Salle des Colonnes in particular) was really terrible at times, so you’d have to go at a certain time to get some good ambient lighting. Also, the current layout as it was back then was a little hard to follow, and when it got busy, I always felt a bit claustrophobic. It felt a bit disjointed, and a bit disorganized; there was not a cohesive stylistic, thematic, or chronological organization to the collection.

Another big plus (and more relevant for us who live in San Francisco) is that because of the renovation, the museum is lending out some of its collection as a part of a “traveling tour”. I missed the first exhibit “The Birth of Impressionism”, and I’m bummed because I missed some of my favorite artists’ masterpieces (Courbet, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pisarro, Renoir), and some of my favorite pieces from d’Orsay: “The Dancing Lesson” by Degas, “The Gare Saint-Lazare” by Monet, and “The Birth of Venus” by William Bouguereau (which, in my opinion, comes awfully close in matching the radiance and the astounding beauty of the original, painted by Botticelli).

Not to be amiss, I made sure that I came to see the second exhibit: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay. I was pretty stoked because Impressionism/Post-Impressionism is my FAVORITE art movement; the thing that I like about it most is that there is something for everyone: there's something to appreciate, irrespetive of the viewer's art knowledge. You don't necessarily have to know everything about the paitner, or the subject for that matter; you can always appreciate the intricate brushstrokes, the color contrast, the different techniques employed, etc.

I know the Van Gogh exhibits are getting all the press, and for good reasons. “Starry Night (La nuit étoilée” is arguably one of Van Gogh’s (and the Impressionist movement’s) best known piece. I’ve always been awestruck by the sheer brilliance of the painting. This painting represents the pinnacle of Van Gogh’s disposition in life; irrespective of his mental instability, his use of the muted blue and green palettes contrasted with the yellow palettes gives way to the illusion of dancing lights from the stars and the radiating lights from the city and with his vivid and empathic brush strokes he’s conveying a message of hope and divinity as represented by the subtle connection between the two lovers in the foreground and the constellation of yellow stars in the sky.

His use of bright colors certainly influenced other artists (Gauguin, in particular) of his time. But there’s more to see in this exhibit.

One of my favorite post-impressionist painters is George Seurat. Unfortunately, one of my all-time favorite paintings “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” was not part of the collection (this painting is located in the Art Institute of Chicago), but there are a number of his works shown in the exhibit, including his sketch study for Le Cirque: even in this sketch, you can appreciate the uplifting effects of his use of color and optics, his upward sweeping lines expressing the lively pleasures of the circus.

Also, make sure to NOT miss the other great works of the “pointillism” artists like Paul Signac (Women at the Well, Entrance to the Port of Marseille), Georges Lemmen (Plage a Heist (The Beach at Heist) and Théo van Rysselberghe (The Man at the Tiller, Sailing Boats and Estuary). I was especially impressed with van Rysselberghe’s work with “Sailing Boats and Estuary” because he utilized all the colors of the rainbow in this painting, in spite of using mostly a bluish palette to represent the sky and the water; you had to look at the painting closely to identify the other colors. And Signac’s work (especially the Women at the Well) is just phenomenal; he painted this painting after Seurat’s untimely death (he died at age 31), and perfected his mentor’s uncanny technique of juxtaposing colors to create a very intense color harmonies that evoke a very Utopian daily life at St. Tropez in the 1890s.

Tips for all of you who’d like to see it: See it on a weekday preferably after lunch (2-3pm is good)! Also, just as an FYI, they are normally closed on Mondays, except for December 27^th, and MLK Jr Day (January 17, 2011). They also have extended hours during the holiday season (Sunday December 26^th – Thursday, December 30^th and from Thursday January 6th – Sunday January 9^th, 2011 it’s open from 9:30am – 9pm) . Ticket information: Students are $16 w/ ID and adults are $20. Although I would suggest for students to get the annual FAMSF membership for $55/year; it’ll totally pay for itself. As a member, you receive 4 free tickets (+4 companion tickets) to see the exhibit (though only 1+1 companion ticket at a time), and other special exhibits, plus, you get into the Legion of Honor for free too! Other enticing upcoming exhibits at the de Young include “Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico” from February 19 – May 8 2011, “Balenciaga and Spain” from March 26 – July 4 2011, and “Picasso from Musée National Picasso, Paris” from June 11 – September 25 2011.

There’s too much to talk about in one sitting (I haven’t even discussed Cezanne, Gauguin, the Pont-Aven School, and the Nabi yet), so we’ll pick it up where we left off at the next column!

Season Three, Episode Five: Restaurant Review: Nopalito

Nopalito
306 Broderick Street
San Francisco, CA 94117-2275
(415) 437-0303
Four out of five stars

NOPA (North of the Panhandle) has a lot of things going for itself. Officially part of Western Addition, NOPA was coined by the real estate smarties that wanted to push gentrification (and real estate value), and as a result, what was once an unassuming area of San Francisco, is now home to a bustling hipster mecca, with plenty of activities that cater to the hipster crowd (live shows at the Independent, 90s clubbing at Madrone’s), as well as a diverse selection of fine dining establishments that cater to different tastes and palates.

One of the many fine restaurants in the area is Nopalito, which means “little cactus (nopal)” in Spanish. It prides itself as a “vibrant neighborhood Mexican kitchen” that celebrates the “traditional cookery of Mexico”.

Being from SoCal, I consider myself not necessarily a “Mexican food connoisseur”, but I’d like to think that I know “authentic” Mexican food when I eat one. And this place isn’t quite it; and I think that’s the charm of it all. Nopalito is like the Mexican version of what an organic PF Chang’s would be like.

Ok, maybe that’s a bit insulting to Nopalito, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is not your El Farolito-type of a restaurant. By any means, I’m not trying to degrade Nopalito; The food is prepared fresh with local, organic, and sustainable ingredients, and the presentation is quite pleasing.

Speaking of food, some things to try while you are here: First and foremost, the Totopas con Chile (Tortilla chips, salsa de arbol, cotija cheese); they are to die for! As in literally, you’d feel that your artery is slowly clogging as you bite into the spicy chips dipped in sour cream. And then when you’re done, you feel like you’ve just lost a few years off your life (and you rationalize this by saying, “Eh! But those are the Depends years anyway”) but gained a few QALYs (and weight). That’s when you know that you’ve gotten to the good part.

And I know 7x7 has the Carnitas (long braised pork) in their list of the “100 Things to Try Before You Die”. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they were yummy, but if it were me, I’d put the Totopas in the list before their Carnitas. And there’s something about their Enchiladas de Mole con Pollo (Sauce of chiles, chocolate and nuts, shredded chicken, onion, queso fresco) that draws me to them; I get it almost every time that I go there. And recently, I had a taste of their Torta de Chilorio (Sandwich of shredded pork in adobo, jack cheese, onion and avocado), and it was pretty good (minus the avocado part). I know, I’m part of the 0.001% of Californians who do NOT like avocados, so sue me.

Another not-to-miss item: Margaritas! I know they’re not technically a “food item”, but they do make them really well here. A pitcher or two will come in handy while you’re waiting for the ridiculous line during the dinner rush, so I would suggest calling ahead of time to get on the “waiting list”.

Keeping up with the “gentrified” neighborhood of NOPA, the clientele is what you’d normally expect in a “hip and cool” San Francisco restaurant: San Francisco foodies, people that have the website “Stuff White People Like” as their homepage in their Safari browser, Quarterlife Crisis sufferers, and the like. On the other extreme, there are plenty of businessfolks who frequent this place, I’d assume because of the ease of parking (there’s a parking structure next to the restaurant), and the fact that the space itself is quite relaxed. And quite a few tourists too! Not Fisherman’s Wharf in magnitude, but I swear, every single time that I’ve been here, there’s always a contingency of tourists eating there. Maybe they have a coupon on the Visitor Guide?

Oh yeah, I’ll definitely be back. It’s around my neighborhood, the prices are reasonable, the margaritas are excellent, and it’s a nice spot to people watch.

Season Three, Episode Four: Daniel Kessler, my Lover: my night @ the Fox Theater with Interpol

I've been listening to Interpol for a few years now, ever since my friend from I-House lent me her Antics CD, and ever since then, I was hooked. There was something about their sound that was hauntingly beautiful, and emotionally gut-wrenching, all wrapped in an otherwise other-worldly amalgamation of poetic lyrics and distinct patterns of guitar riffs and drums. There was something about that album that spoke to my inner indie emo punk self.

I've never seen Interpol live before, and in my desire to see them in concert, let's just say that I paid a handsome amount of monies to get a pair of tickets to the sold-out show. But it was all worth it. And then some.

Before the concert, Karmela and I decided to have dinner at Pica Pica, a Venezuelan restaurant in the "Valencia district" part of Mission. We used to live together a couple of years ago, and have not seen each other for a few years. Over a Pabellon (Shredded Skirt Steak, Sweet Plantains, Black Beans, Cheese) Arepa and Cachapa, Guiso and Tilapia empanadas, and Pasapalos (Sweet Plantains) (what can I say, we're the kind of people that eat, and eat well), we caught up with each other's lives, swapped life stories, man issues, professional endeavors, and the like.

This is the second show that I've seen in the Fox Theater. Over the summer, I saw The New Pornographers with a couple of my friends, and since we bought our tickets too late, we were not able to get General Admission tickets, and instead, we ended up sitting up in the boonies. I still had a great time listening to them live, but I've made a resolution that I will only watch concerts via General Admission; at least while I'm still young and the jumping around and the other stuff that crazy kids do while in concerts haven't gotten old to me yet.

Once we got to Fox Theater, a funny thing happened after we got our beverages; we were about to check in our coats in the coat check area, and as we were paying, the guy manning the booth thanked me and called me by name. I thought for a second, trying to place him in my memory. Did I meet him from somewhere already and just don't remember him? Not that I would put that past me, I definitely have done that in the past. As it turns out, my old pal from college, Julianne, was back there; we were in Student Council @ UCSD, and we haven't seen each other since then. Apparently, she's in Sacramento, and just finished law school. It is such a small world, indeed.

The set list was a mix of their old and new stuff. They opened with "Success", one of the songs off their self-titled fourth studio album. They played all of my favorite songs (C'mere, Summer Well, Rest my Chemistry, Evil, Barricade, Narc, Take You on a Cruise, PDA, Not Even Jail), so I have no complaints there. They sound amazing live! They sound very similar to how they sound on their records, which for them is a particularly good thing. 'Mela and I danced, grooved, bounced, and reveled in their music, and at times, I felt like I was 21 again.

And Daniel Kessler is just amazing on guitars. 'Mela must've snapped over 200 photos, and more than half of it was all Daniel. It's been decided: Me and 'Mela are going to have his kids. I'm still trying to figure out how that's going to be biologically (and logically) possible, but as soon as I figure it out, I'll report on my progress.

A couple of things just got on my nerves. The "Oh, excuse me, coming through, I'm just trying to find my friend" routine is just a nuisance; just go through and stop making lame excuses. At least have the cojones to own up to your actions. And oh, tall guys (and girls), can you all do us a favor? Please try not to be so close to the stage, because you are blocking precious real estate. Thanks!

The encore was more of the same awesomeness. They opened their encore with "Untitled" (a song that was used in the Friends season 9 finale), and then they followed it with "Stella was a Diver and She was Always Down". Throughout the concert, I was wondering when they were going to play "Slow Hands", one of my all-time favorite songs, and they played it as their last song; a fitting end to the night.

I walked away from that concert not just with a $30 Interpol shirt (which I wore to school the next day, by the way), but also with a deeper appreciation for Interpol. Until the next concert! And this time, I'm getting those tickets as soon as they're released!

Season Three, Episode Three: Single in the City goes to St. Louis!

The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacists Educational Showcase was in St. Louis this year. The consensus that I have gathered was not a favorable one; actually, I don't think anyone said anything remotely positive about St. Louis.

The weather throughout trip was actually quite wonderful: low 70s and sunny throughout the day, and a crisp mid 50s at night, which is apparently quite different from the "normal" weather pattern in St. Louis; one day it will be sunny, the next it is pouring down rain.

The conference itself was well worth my of time, though I would say this year as compared to last year, the speakers were a bit disappointing. This year, we had the "Three Doctors", who I thought were very inspirational, but the fact that that I flew into St. Louis that morning via a redeye flight meant finding creative ways in trying to stay awake: coffee, self-inflicted pinches in multiple areas, and the occasional slap in the face. CMS Deputy Administration and Director Jonathan Blum delivered the Friday Keynote, and you can tell that he's not very used to public speaking; he's a very intelligent man, but perhaps his nervousness made him speak without any pauses (not even for breath breaks).

I didn't get to go to as much educational showcases this year compared to last year (not getting reimbursed = no required events to attend), though the ones that I did attend were quite useful. I especially enjoyed my roundtable discussion about medication adherence; now I don't feel so lost about my project.

Our search for our Friday night entertainment was quite entertaining, to say the least. Most of the UCSF contingents stayed at the Four Seasons, so we tried to hang out around the area, which was Laclede's Landing, a nine-block industrial area with cobblestone streets and vintage brick-and-cast-iron warehouses. One thing that I made sure we DIDN'T do was cross the Mississippi, into East St. Louis; apparently, it's not a very safe place.

For dinner, we decided on getting our grub on at The Old Spaghetti Factory. I hadn't been to one in years! After dinner, we strolled along N. 2^nd Street, trying to look for a "happening place". Walking down this street reminded me of Tijuana for some reason. Sleazy doorman trying to get you into their bars. Even sleazier men clogging up the street hooting and hollering. At one place, there was a scantily clad rail-thin woman shaking her pom-poms. Seriously. True story.

I don't remember the name of the bar that we eventually went into, but what caught our attention was the "$1 shots/$2 jaeger shots" sign out front; it was too much to pass up. The place was decidedly "gritty" and "grungy". They served their shots on ketchup container cups (WTF?). The DJ played a LOT of late 90's/early 2000's songs, but to his defense, he was VERY responsive my song requests. Though I think the people that were there were looking at us funnily, especially when my song requests came on; I don't think this place regularly see people dancing to dance music.

It is in this bar where I heard the weirdest pick-up line someone has ever used on me; A scruffy, buttoned-up shirt dressed man, perhaps in his mid 20s, came up from behind me with his flipped phone opened up as if he's ready to take a number, and asked: "Hey, are you a hairdresser?" Now, I'm not sure if this was the "code phrase" in Missouri for "Are you gay?", but nonetheless, I missed that whole exchange. And he was actually kinda cute. Bummer.

We ended the night at a bar titled "Big Daddy". We passed by this place on our way to the hotel on Wednesday, and they were playing music on full blast at 9 AM; yeah, it's THAT kind of place. I was half-expecting this place to be crawling with the "corn-fed Midwestern" folks and I was half-right. The good thing about the nightlife in St. Louis is that some places stay open until 3 AM, with last call 40 minutes before closing time. I was also amazed at how cheap it was going out in St. Louis! One round of drinks for 5 people cost me about the same as 1 drink here in the city.

Most of the UCSF contingency left on Saturday morning/afternoon, but I thought that I'd take a later flight to play tourist. I was gonna try to go to the Arch, but apparently I had to be there BEFORE 10 to avoid the crowd, so I passed on that. I also wanted to go to St. Louis Museum of Art, which actually sounded kinda interesting: they had a very eclectic art collection as part of their permanent collection, plus they had some Impressionist/Post-impressionist paintings by Monet, Degas, Gauguin, and van Gogh ), but I woke up too late; I didn't get out of the hotel until 12:30. That and I had an assignment due on midnight Saturday that I had to finish, so I just strolled around Laclede's Landing, ate lunch al fresco while working on my assignment. There was a classic car show that I checked out; I had never been a car enthusiast, but I was able to appreciate the stunningly immaculate condition of these early to mid-century cars.

Would I ever come back to St. Louis? The weather could've fooled me to think I was in San Diego. The nightlife wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be. So I guess, maybe. Though next time, I'll be prepared for any weird pickup lines that may come my way.

Season Three, Episode Two: A Weekend of Nuptials, Natalitial Shindigs and Nudities

When I go back in time to figure out when exactly my liver started to fail me, this past weekend would probably be as good a starting place as any other time. But I guess when you have a wedding, a birthday and Folsom Street Fair to celebrate, knowledge and logic go out the window. Or at least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.

The weekend started off tame enough; friend from Japan was in town until Saturday afternoon, so we had a chill Friday night, dinner and wine around the ‘hood, and had an early day anyway, since my call time was 8am for my clinic’s volunteer orientation the next day. Had to ditch that early to make it to my friend Larry and his beau’s sail boat wedding, and my friend Susan was picking me up @ 2:15.

It was such a gorgeous day for a sailboat wedding. The afternoon temperature high was in the low 90s, though a gentle breeze from time to time made sure that it was bearable.

This was the third non-Filipino wedding that I’ve been to, and the second wedding that I’ve attended that involved one of my classmates. I guess we’re getting to that stage of our lives. Oh, snap, does that mean that I have to start growing up? I digress.

The wedding party was dressed in a nautical theme, down to matching sunglasses, belts, and the whole nine, which I thought was such a classy touch (way to go, bride-zilla… ahem, Larry). Paul’s son (and one of his best men) played a Led-Zeppelin inspired interpretation of Canon in D with his electric guitar; man, that 14 year-old boy is going to be trouble (if he’s not already). The girl next to me was balling her eyes out, so either the ceremony was very sweet and touching or she was just one big crybaby; I’d say it was the former.

Sail boat weddings are such great ideas; something about being at sea (or I guess in this case, bay) and nuptials seem to just work. Maybe it’s the openness, or the symbolism of the voyage that the couple is about to embark upon, with their love acting as the main sail that will direct the course of their paths together as partners. Just FYI for those who are contemplating sailboat weddings in the future: it goes without saying that a summer wedding would probably be the best time to have it, and if you’re going to do it, that means end of September/mid October is your best bet.

On to the reception – where the real fun begins! Bubbly, you’ve always been my nefarious nemesis, and you strike once more! I had a great time with my “date” Allison even if you were such a cheap date; well, not as cheap as Susan, who was blurry after 4 sips of the margarita =p And those lemon cakes were AMAZING! Man, if weddings do one thing right, it would be cakes.

Luckily, this wedding didn’t have the usual horrors (Macarena, line dancing, YMCA), but they did do the train and I definitely didn’t partake in that! We did however, danced to some groovy music, and even did a little “Single Ladies” dancing; Liza Minelli would’ve been proud.

Bottles of champagne and endless pitchers of margaritas later, somehow, I managed to make it out of Tres Agaves alive just in time to cut in with Krystal, Katie, and Nikolai for Joel’s 25th birthday celebration at Roe the same night. At that point, I remember bits and pieces from the night, but mostly good memories. I saw my friends who I haven’t seen in awhile, so that was good.

Sunday was all about a different kind of love. I met up with my friend Vannida and her friends Gina and Katie for some afternoon delight @ Folsom Street Fair. Or as my friend Vannida calls it, “San Francisco’s equivalent of church.” Well, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were certainly there spreading the love and the protesters armed with their affable “Jesus-loves-you” placards certainly made their presence known.

It definitely was neither for the faint-hearted nor the flinchers, but I guess that’s just par for Folsom’s course. The rest of Sunday’s events were not suitable for children under 18 (though someone was enjoying the festivities with her baby (who couldn’t have been older than 18 months) in a baby sling; in her flimsy defense, at least it was made out of leather). Heck, for professional reasons, it’s probably not suitable for anyone over 18 for that matter. I guess you’ll just have to dig that one out of me.