Sam's L33t Journal

My vacation last weekend to San Francisco for my cousin David's wedding was pretty great. Why am I not getting to posting about that until this weekend? Well, I started getting sick on Monday, and arrived home late Wednesday to the lethal combo of killer cold, jet lag, and sudden 90-degree weather. And I've been doing a bunch of cleaning prior to housemate switchover (DJ's departure and Josh's arrival). (A bit of cooking, too.) And trying to hit the ground running as soon as I got back to work. So I've been fairly flattened.

All the wedding festivities were very fun, though. A great dinner with the family, a picnic on Angel Island, late-night pre-wedding karaoke, and the ceremony itself, held on the Eureka (a museum ferry-boat docked off of Hyde Street Pier). The ceremony was amazing, if a bit windy, and the reception was incredibly fancy. Hard act to follow.

The rest of the vacation was pretty great, too. Did some shopping, met a long-time acquaintance for the first time in person (chiaki777, glad we had the chance to meet!), visited Berkeley (and spent much of that time hanging out in a cafe near the UC Berkeley campus, helping Julie hack on some debugging related to one of her projects), visited the Museum of the Long Now again, ate some amazing food. The area around Fort Mason is beautiful, too, and walking along the shore in the morning before the crowds get thick is quite pleasant.

I was very glad to be able to convince Julie to take a bit of a vacation. We both like San Francisco quite a bit, it's such a great city to walk around. We've both been before, but this was our first time visiting together.

As for my own wedding, invitations are out, yay! Still many logistical details to pin down, but stuff is getting done.

The conclusion of my San Francisco saga follows, in not particularly organized fashion.

Thursday: My family arrived in town, I joined them for dinner with my dad's host sister, her family, and some of my dad's other acquaintances from the Philippines. Was fun.

Last night at the Union Square Backpacker's Hostel. That stay went well, of the six nights, I had a room to myself for four, and the other two nights my roommates were friendly, sound sleepers, didn't snore. The accommodations were minimal but reasonably comfortable and clean.

Friday: Had breakfast with my family, went to the Museum of Cartoon Art and the Golden Gate Bridge, relocated to a rather luxurious hotel. Friday evening service, and dinner at some Mexican restaurant. In response to Stephan's enthusiasm (Stephan being my cousin and the bar mitzvah in question), the rabbi said something about "having a prophet in the room", which struck me as a remarkably rabbinical backhanded compliment. I'm usually lukewarm about Reform congregations' services (and that's relative to my non-enthusiasm about religious services in general), but I enjoyed the weekend's services more than I expected, the ritual was very heartfelt.

Saturday: Saturday morning service (the main event of the bar mitzvah celebration), reception at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma, family gathering at my aunt and uncle's house. Stephan gave a really excellent d'var torah.

The portion in question was Parshat Terumah, in which God tells Moses to take donations from those whose hearts are moved and build a tabernacle (portable temple for the Israelites' journey through the desert) and then gives incredibly precise instructions for how such a tabernacle should be built. Stephan used the example of playing a musical composition to explain why something done freely "because one's heart is moved" might still require following incredibly precise instructions.

In the evening, stayed up late drinking at the hotel bar with a woman who was tagging along on her mom's business travel (since the room and rental car were covered, it made for a cheap weekend vacation). She was the sort of drinker who wants everyone around to continually drink more and extols the virtues of drinking to excess. I ignored her nagging, I don't drink more than I find fun. But that aside, it was good conversing with her (and the other travelers who got drawn into that conversation), and I didn't pay for any of my own drinks (she bought me a beer and a cocktail, another drink came from an anonymous (also rich and/or foolhardy) benefactor who decided to buy a round for the house).

Sunday: Morning brunch at my aunt and uncle's house with homemade lox (really, really good; Uncle Marty is a professional chef and consequently an excellent cook), then airplane trip back home, with more good conversations along the way. Only problems were a slight delay due to weather and the fact that I seem to have lost my cell phone charger (I'll probably be able to buy a new one tomorrow, but if not my cell phone might be dead for a few days).

It was really good to see so much of my immediate and extended family. I enjoyed meeting family friends and cousins of Stephan that I hadn't met before. Also was great to see Stephan again, he's an unusual, cheerful kid. I hadn't seen him for ages, so I'd expected he'd be rather different than I remembered, but he's much the same as ever.

Had a pretty short day, today, and a less eventful one. Had brunch (crepes!) at Honey Honey around noon, had an interesting conversation with a local who had some better-than-usual suggestions for places to visit on my tour. The rest of my day was pretty straightforward, though. I wandered down Market Street, walked through the Mission and the Castro, had a beer at Zeitgeist, enjoyed some scenic views, had dinner at a diner

Tomorrow: Golden Gate Park during the day, robotic bartender festival at DNA Lounge in the evening.

(I feel like I should go out again this evening, but I'm tired, so I probably won't. Vacations should be relaxing, after all.)

Woke up, sorted out all the loose ends from yesterday, got a solid breakfast at David's Delicatessen. Spent most of the day wandering around town.

First, walked to Japan Town. Very pretty. The whole walk was quite scenic. The weather is beautiful, warm enough to go without a jacket during the day, though still quite chilly at night. I wandered the neighborhood, then sat and read for a while. Was a bit jet-lagged. Wanted to be more social, but felt very shy and out of it for some reason. My mind was ill at ease. Perhaps had something to do with the holiday.

A group of cosplayers passed by dressed in elaborate Goth-Loli style and some old men complained aloud about our "postmodern" society.

For lunch, I ate at On The Bridge, which is a very odd restaurant in the Japan Center Mall. Japanese-Western fusion cuisine, the decor I can only describe as "otaku kitsch" (anime posters on the walls, shelves of manga, all sorts of Japanese knick-nacks, humorous decorations that seemed really out of place among the other decorations, TVs showing episodes of Sentou Yousei Yukikaze and Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu without subtitles or sound).

Spent the afternoon wandering down Haight Street, window shopping, mostly. A fair number of people begging for change, a few begging for drugs. One guy asked me if I was in the market for the local favorite; I found it odd to see someone dealing by the "ask random strangers" method.

Had a beer at Noc Noc (a nifty joint), drank some coffee at Coffee to the People. Browsed the selection at a volunteer-run anarchist book store. Ate a burrito for dinner (was perhaps as good as Anna's, but not that different and much more expensive). Did strike up a few conversations along the way, but just the usual small talk.

Tomorrow: Take the cable car to the waterfront, contemplate the future at the Long Now Museum.