Kiss, Saha's and Ways of the Superior Man

Horoscope for the day: "Quite a few dramatic changes have been occurring in your life lately, but fear not -- they're all a part of the process. The universe wants you to realize your true path, and it's urging you to let the creative sparks fly. "

After my community service, got home, showered and waited for Helsley to arrive. The three musketeers trekked a block and a half to Napper Tandy's for drinks and catch up - and it almost felt like old times. It's funny to think back how long Helsley has come into town and the three of us got together from our busy lives to catch up and share. It's been 8 years since I've moved to SF and our lives we've all gone our own separate paths, but yet the love and admiration for one another has only deepened. I'm not sure how much longer these forays will last. I can see Helsley and I continuing this - but the third musketeer is surely dropping out soon.

After KT left, I dropped some quarters in the CD player and we listened to some oldies. Lots of people make fun of my music but not Helsley. He's the only one who loves my music. So he validates me in that way. Met up with KT and Merhdad at Saha's for dinner. Marmee took our reservations and sat us in a plushy corner. After an amazing meal, Mahamad personally came out and sat with us - which always feels great to know the owner and chef. At Rye's we attended Rachel and CC's Kiss party (for their birthdays). It was crowded and I was shell shocked. Hadn't been in a bar for so long, the loudness, the energy, the craziness took me back a bit. We hung out until 1am, then headed home to do some real partying. Shelaine came over and the 5 of us hung out until 4am. Helsley and I had a really great time catching up. AG is a very rare person. He not only understands my friendship with Helsley he nurtures it. He gave Helsley and I some time together to catch up at the end of the night - which I really needed and really appreciated. After the baby, Helsley hasn't been able to come up as often, so the times that we do have together, are cherished even more.

It got me thinking, where will we be in 5 years, 10 years? Last night, after spending the day napping and vegging out in front of the tv, AG and I headed downstairs for some bonding. He read 5 chapters out loud to me from "Way of the Superior Man: Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work & Sexual Desire." AG stumbled upon it this weekend when he was cleaning out his storage unit. First, it was just really nice to turn off the tube and reconnect. Second, it's really fun to have him read to me - that sparks deeper conversations. Third, even though the title states that it's for the superior man, lots of good concepts rang true for me. But you know, I've got more of the masculine. It sparked a good conversation about what we want this year to be. More and more, I've come to realize that you can live your life just letting things happen to you - which can be loads of fun, and/or you can set out some goals and make things happen. It's best to find a cohesive melding of the two - but it's the first time I've done that with a partner, and it feels pretty damned good.

SF parking sucks but Project 20 rocks

Parking is one downside of living in this great city, but I've gotta give a shout out to Project 20 and the creator of this Program. Project 20 gives back to the community. If you have parking tickets, you can elect to pay a fee (a % of your total tickets) and work off the remainder (at $6/hr) for any of the 3000 nonprofits in the city. The newest rule of Project 20 requires that you complete half of your hours with City Works (i.e. picking up trash/debris on streets) (9 hour credits on Saturday and 12 hour credits on Sunday).

This morning, I woke up at 7:30am and headed towards the courthouse. Today I helped high school students paint and clean up Burton High School. It was a great feeling to see young kids volunteering on a beautiful weekend to support the clean up of their school. I felt really good about my contribution to the community. We painted the bleachers, others cleaned up graffiti and landscaped the fields. Walmart provided bottled waters and Subway provided food for the volunteers. Note: I discovered that Walmart had a Manager's Cleanup program where their manager cleared debris and cleaned up garbage littered around Walmart stores. What a neat way to give back to the community. For those who can't give money, give a part of your time. This city is so progressive.

President's Weekend in Humboldt county

Results of the root canal - not as bad as I feared, not bad at all. Matter of fact, my godamned filling hurt more. Xanax, laughing gas and novocaine rocks. My endodontist, Dr. Woo had the state of the art facility, with 100 movies to choose from while he scrambled the nerves of my tooth and sucked it out. I selected Fantastic Four - something fun with no thinking required, and something that I could care less if i remembered.

Saturday afternoon, the family took off for Humboldt to visit Grandma Gluck. Arrived in the evening with time to take all the kiddies for a walk before departing for a Jazz concert. Sunday we perused Eureka's waterfront and ate breakfast at a restaurant/bar/bed&breakfast owned by the family of an infamous girl that AG and friend dated. (This is a scandalous and juicy story, one which I hope AG will allow me to tell our children some day.) That could have been an interesting brunch, but I didn't get to meet the infamous Diane. Darn! There's this wicked part of me that wants to know what AG was like as a teenager. He told me lots of stories, but it's never the same. It's better getting the ex-girlfriend, teen view.

While there, we came upon a cute little store that had some whimsical cards. I found the name of the artist, Patience Brewster (this is not a pen name). Her great great great grandfather was one of the original Puritanists on the Mayflower. Check out her website, it's pretty darn cute - it wasn't just her illustrations that were great, but the captions that went with it.

On the ride home, I had a great time driving and racing against a soccer mom in her mini-van while AG was sleeping. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in steering with the winding roads that I didn't realize how naseating it could be in the driver's seat. Um, sorry honey.

Feel like hiding from the world some days?

Last night I had some odd dreams that I remembered quite well this morning. Since I'm getting my first root canal in the next hour.. I had dreams of going to the Endodontist... They sat me in that dentist chair and the assistant x'd where I was supposed to get my shots - a total of 6 in all.. Then the dentist pulls out this bazooka-like gun with 6 needles, stuffed it in my mouth and gave me all 6 shots at one time. Then they started partying in the other room waiting for the novacaine to kick in. Well, I think they took some of the novacaine, because 3 hours later, they were still partying it up and my numbness was wearing off. When I told them, they gave me 6 more shots... this time, the novocane kicked in immediately and I felt like a helium balloon... floating just above ground and not able to move. The assistant dragged me over to the chair and tried to stuff me on it, but because I was floating, they couldn't get me strapped down.

The next dream I had was heading to the Endodontist, yet again... this time, the endodontist ended up being my good friend Brian Fan. But he had this dentist office that was not really a dentist office. As if he was playing "dentist" and the chairs were plain chairs and then he tried to give me my novacaine... and this time I felt so high, it wasn't novocaine... the great thing about the dream was, i really felt high while i was sleeping... i woke up several times in between and thought that i was on something - now that's worth sleeping in for.

So, in 15 minutes I'm to take my Xanax, and my brother is driving me to the dentist and dropping me off... the tooth hasn't hurt in days and I'm hoping that the nerve is dead and I won't feel too much. I'm not a wimp, but tooth and back pain has got to be the worse. 

Auntie Rachel's Day

Yesterday was Rachel's birthday and here's a toast to a wonderful and amazing friend. She's the godmother/auntie to the pups and Lila's first love. We celebrated with Xt and Susana at Canteen, great food - especially the dessert. I think we ordered Quintrelles... little drops of dough filled with rich dark chocolate... and when you tried to slice your fork into them, chocolate squirted out - how nice to feel that squish between your teeth? 

Cute as a ladybug!

She's growing fast, and her smile is as bright as her dad's. I wonder who she will be more like.

AG and I spent this weekend with the pups, my brother Hung (who just moved to SF and into a cute one bedroom in Alamo Square Park), and some of AG's friends. Friday I cooked seared Ahi for Hung and Elaine. Saturday AG and I lounged at home all day, then I forced us to shower at 1opm and head out. Elaine heckled us too much for staying in and not going out anymore... It didn't matter where we went, we just needed to get out of the house, it's too easy to stay at home and do nothing and I'm not losing another precious weekend night staying at home. It makes me lethargic the next day.

So we headed out on foot, peaked into the Phone Booth, then got a txt from his friend Gammond. Hopped into the car with a bottle of Sky Vodka and some chips to Gammond's house. Hung out with Molly (G's girlfriend), Tasha and Danny (G's brother). Started off playing monopoly - but the boys got bored and left us girls hanging. The rest of the night, we talked, asked a lot of questions and had ourselves a great time. Although the Asian in me was brought up not to ask direct questions about personal issues, the American in me wants to know and asks when I'm curious.

When I'm interested in someone, I like asking a lot of questions about them. Not about the weather, what they do for a living etc... but more about who are they? what do they believe in? what makes them tick? how do they view themselves? what do they fantasize/dream about? These answers and the manner in which they answer them are fascinating. I get a lot out of their responses, and sometimes their reaction is quite telling. I've toned a lot of my questions down or I set up the question so that it would be more positively received. People are so vastly different, so the same and so fascinating.

Sunday we headed to Dolores Park with the pups, with a pit stop at Tartine's of course. Their Macaroons and chocolate pudding are to die for.

Footpaws in the Sand...

One night a little weiner dog had a dream, she dreamed of..... 

Morning mist at Mandarin Skies

Here's a gorgeous view from the deck Sunday morning. Sienna was up and crowing every morning along with all the forest critters... We napped intermittently throughout the day to catch up from lack of sleep... but it was worth it to connect them back to nature. 

Beach Bum

Spock-like beach bum in her elements. 

Meeza's birthday weekend

Last weekend AG and I and 5 other couples rented a beautiful cabin/guest house near the Russian River up north of SF for Meeza's birthday. Friday night it was stormy with huge fat raindrops on the skylights. We slept in the office nook which had a round hobbit window and skylights above.

It was a food orgy - usually is when we are with Brimeeza's clan. Those guys can eat. We finished off 9 bottles of wine on Friday with 17 more bottles to go. Saturday afternoon we went for a 4 hour beach excursion and Sienna's true colors came out. She's not a city dog, she's a huge dog in a little body and she's country all the way. Lila would have preferred to be carried and not soaked by the waves. Being drenched only invigorated Miss Sienna. Here's AG with his little princess. 

Russian River - Mandarin Skies

AG and I are heading north to Russina River with the girls right after work for a weekend getaway with 6 couples and 4 dogs. It's Meeza's birthday weekend - there will be lots of amazing food (the Saha boys, Bri and Muhommad will not fail us), hot tubbing (I think I will get teased again for wearing my swimsuit and not showing skin), puppy loving (Habib - poodle and Troops - an interesting mixe of daschund/chihaua - meeting our hot little girls), magical retreat for the oh so weary. http://www.rrgetaways.com/mandarins_1.htm. This house is on 4 acres of fairy magic woodlands - perfect for hunting wild mushrooms and fairy wings ;).