Summer weekend, sunburns and all...

Vernissage has come and gone now and, as predicted, I will most definitely have to return to Fort Mason to actually look at the art. Although the warehouse was huge, the number of people attending the reception was even huge-er(?) and it was nearly impossible to concentrate on anything. Not to mention the elbow-throwing struggle it took to get anywhere near the food. The first time through the line, I was polite and took just one of each item. The second time through, I had learned my lesson and piled my plate as high as I could get it. After being pushed and shoved and cut in front of, there was no going back a third time. But there was excitement in the air and a lot of really really good art, from what I managed to see.

Pre-Vernissage, our house was used for a staging area for everyone to get "ready" for the event. Unfortunately, there was no advance notice that this would be happening, and our house was a complete and total pigsty. It's a fact that I only really ever clean my house when I know people will be coming over. The rest of the time, I clean just enough to keep living there without being completely disgusted. I know, it's shameful. But I just hate cleaning - it's not how I want to spend my time. Everyone arrived way before I got home from work, too, so I had to depend on Neil to do a hasty clean. Which meant that he just threw everything into the closet. It worked. No one made any mention of the 1/4-inch thick layer of dust on the bookshelves and end tables, so it must not have been too big of a deal.

Interestingly, Neil's closest friends that he has made at SFAI are all girls, so there were 5 girls plus Neil all primping and preening in our apartment. Vernissage ending up being a chance for everyone to dress up, so there was fancy dresses and makeup and hairdryers. Neil fit right in, getting clothes advice from the girls.

Then, it was off to the show to throw elbows around the food table, and congratulate all the graduates on making it through to the end. At 9:00 on the dot, they ran out of alcohol, which pretty much shut the reception down. I think this was actually the plan. So we headed off to the "after-party". Unfortunately, I had made the extremely unwise decision to wear the pair of Payless high heels that I had bought for Vegas and only worn once. The super-strappy heels that pinch my feet in about 15 places. Not to mention the pain in the balls of my feet from being in heels. My feet are extremely accustomed to being in flat shoes, and objected strongly to being at a steep angle all night long. Of course getting to the after-party meant walking about 10-15 blocks. Oh, the pain. By the time we actually made it to the club, I was almost completely incapacitated. And when we finally made it inside the club, we realized that about 500 people were trying to squeeze into a room made for about 50. It was ridiculous! At one point I got bumped into and thought I might fall over for a second, but then I realized that wasn't possible - there was no space to fall over in. I just sort of tipped over a few inches onto the people right behind me.

So, as soon as we could, we squeezed back out of the club and headed to another bar for the rest of the night. About 12:00, I finally had enough and called it a night. Clubs/Bars are just really not my thing. I can't hear a word anyone is saying, and so I feel like I just sit in my little bubble, alone, head bobbing to the music. By that time, however, my feet had had it - there was no way I could take another step in those shoes. So I took my shoes off, and walked the 10 blocks home barefoot. Even having seen how those sidewalks look in broad daylight, and knowing what I was probably walking in, it didn't matter. There was no way I could take another step in those heels.

Neil finally straggled in around 1:30. An early night for him, lately.

Saturday dawned bright and SUPER hot! At 11:00 when I left for the market, it was already 70 degrees. Summer continues. There were a few nice surprises at the market - peaches and blueberries!! And red onions, cucumbers, zucchinis and squash. The market is starting to explode with options - it's almost too much. I want to bring everything home. But then half of it would rot. By the time I got home from the market, Neil had returned from watching all of his friends graduate, and we were both ready for a nap. It was the perfect nap conditions - all the windows open, warm, humid air streaming in, and the sounds of summer drifting through the apartment - the sounds of the baseball game in the park, people in their backyards enjoying the sun, the call of the parrots and other birds. We slept for two hours.

After naptime, we headed to Alamo Square Park for a potluck/barbeque with a bunch of the people who graduated. It ended up being less of a barbeque and more of a potato chip potluck - the only food there was potato chips. But it was a perfect evening for sitting in the shade in the park with nice people, just hanging out. For those of you not familiar with San Francisco, Alamo Square Park is the park with the view of the "Painted Ladies" - the row of Victorian Houses with the city in the background made famous in such pop-culture classics as Full House.


Sunday was a pretty laid-back day as well. Neil was feeling generally down in the dumps. I think because a bunch of his friends have graduated and are probably leaving the City, and things are changing and he probably realizes that he only has a year of the good life left now. Whatever the reason, though, he was pretty blue. So, to counteract that, I dragged him out into the sun. We headed down to the beach at Crissy Field. There's a nice wide, sandy swath next to the Bay, so it's calmer waters, with no waves. We basked in the sun and watched the kite-boarders and sail boats. Unfortunately, we basked a little bit too much in the sun and Neil got completely toasted. Apparently, he takes a little while to "develop" his redness, because it didn't look bad at all when we were out in the sun. Only when we got back to the house after eating lunch did he turn beet-red. Poor guy

After all the hard work of sitting on the beach, needless to say, we were ready for another nap. Another lovely, soothing, perfect 2 hour nap.

Then, while making dinner and doing the laundry, I learned a valuable lesson. Never, ever believe that you have time to run to the laundrymat and put the wet clothes in the dryer while you are cooking pasta. You WILL overcook the pasta. Everything was going fine - I had all of the clothes moved over from the washers to the stacked dryers in about 4-5 minutes. Then I started to put the quarters in. And of course, one of the machines got jammed and stole my quarter. I proceeded to move the clothes to the dryer right below it, and as soon as I got all the wet clothes moved, realized that the dryers are stacked - the top and bottom use the same change slot. BAH! So by the time I had moved the clothes to their third dryer of the evening, and got it running, I was well past the 12 minutes it takes to boil pasta. And dined on a lovely meal of big, mushy rotini. Yummm. Neil declined to eat dinner, not being such a fan of pasta anyways.

Looking back on the weekend, it was pretty low-key, laid back, with lots of napping. Not such a bad thing, I guess, but with the sunny, warm weather, I feel like somehow we should have accomplished more.