No Sleep 'Til Oakland

[As the boyfriend said this morning, I slept really well, but could use about six more hours. It all started Saturday night: after a quiet day doing some last-minute preparations for John's company picnic, we got an impromptu call from his 21 year old buddy Fatima: "Come to this party tonight at the Phoenix Hotel. My friend's turning 21!" After having done so well to curb our Friday night "have to party" impulse, I could tell that John and I were thinking the same thing. "A little fun among the youth of today couldn't hurt, especially at such a rock star venue." The Phoenix is a Tenderloin motel converted into a sort of trompe-l'oeil-Miami-1950's-party-pad-masterpiece. We threw John's most recent major milestone birthday (Huntington cleverly leaving out WHICH milestone, OK sweetheart?) there and had a blast. Attached to the hotel is the Backflip nightclub, which has hosted a couple of John's and my recent memorable nights out, recounted elsewhere in tedious detail.]

[Who knew we'd have that good a time? Who knew we'd be foolish enough to befriend this random young hetero couple celebrating their one year wedding anniversary and get hardly any sleep? Next thing either of us knew, it was yesterday morning and we (John and me, not the het couple) were stumbling crankily thru Golden Gate Park, heavily laden with bags of picnic stuff, looking for Speedway Meadow. Meadow found, picnic stuff set up, cold windy fog (de rigueur for that part of town) endured, and then I was off to try to use public transportation to get to the Gay Blog Meet in Oakland.]

[20 minutes waiting for the 5 Fulton bus, and another 20 riding it downtown. 10 minutes trying to find a place near Hallidie Plaza to pee out the four caffeinated sodas I'd had before noon (I told you I hadn't had much sleep...) 20 minutes buying a coffee and waiting for a BART train. Another 15 riding BART to Oakland. An HOUR wandering thru (admittedly sunny and pleasant) downtown Oakland looking for the right AC Transit bus or even a cab to get me to Piedmont Avenue. I knew I'd be late to meet Aaron, Philo, Bill and the rest, but I didn't know I'd be THAT late. As I feared, they'd already moved on from Gaylord's to Barney's Burgers, but I recognized the equally late George's distinctive coiffure, introduced myself, and we made our way together to the latter spot, where we were just in time to order.]

[It was great to sit beside and talk to Casey after all these years. (As he's indicated, he seems much happier than he was at UCSB, when I thought he was so cool, and happy to be there.) It was super to meet all these people I'd been reading for so long, and meet a few whose sites I'll now need to add to my reading list. This whole phenomenon is odd, and I think, something new: blogging/online journalling combines elements of narcissism and voyeurism, and you get to feeling like you know these folks to a certain extent. So meeting them in person isn't quite like being introduced to strangers, but it's not like they're old friends, either. We only reveal certain amounts of ourselves in our writing, and I, at least, feel like I learn a lot more about people meeting them face-to-face. There was the nervousness at meeting strangers, but there were also big hugs and sincere goodwill between people who've offered and accepted some pretty intimate secrets about each other.]

[Casey and I had a mellow ride back into the city, and then I got home and crashed just as soon as I could. OK, now studying...Violet's tutoring me tonight, I better have something intelligent to say about mens rea and promissory estoppel...]

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