All Over The Place

[I knew this would happen. Last weekend was all over the place, connections made or remade, emotions felt, experiences had, and I wanted to share it all with you. Now, though, it's Sunday of the subsequent weekend, and I'm not back there anymore.]

[Briefly:]

[1. The Saturday night I made bearnaise sauce, I watched Muriel's Wedding with my parents. Mom liked it, and Dad didn't leave the room, so he didn't hate it either. He did call the women who dump Muriel near the beginning ("At least let her finish her orgasm") "The Bitches," which made me smile.]

[2. I went to my friend Susanna's wedding in Windsor, which is a very suburban suburb north of Santa Rosa. (S. calls it "Stepford.") She and I have been friends since junior high school, and go into and out of each other's lives from time to time. Due to circumstances I only kind of understood, I was a sort of surrogate brother at this event, S.'s two actual brothers being out of the state on the day. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Susanna's parents, which was fine. She looked beautiful, I got emotional, I ate delicious kosher catering, and then I drove my mom's car back to San Francisco.]

[3. Monday was dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's. More emotion, and I can't write about it here. Real life.]

[OK, so Christopher Hitchens live at City Arts & Lectures was just like he is on T.V. I'd complain about his style in an interview situation, but Gore Vidal (who can do no wrong) does the same thing: the interviewer asks a question, and it's like flipping a switch. A flow of words, absolutely self-assured and not particularly interested in hearing another point of view. More, though: I like an interview subject who understands that an interview is supposed to resemble a conversation. Now, it's true that we came to see Hitchens, not his interviewer, but...I dunno. The lack of humility, especially when bashing a cultural phenomenon a lot of smart people take seriously, bugged me even as I agree with him. (On religion; he's shockingly naive about the Iraq war.)]

[The rest of the week was uneventful. I had custody of Boss-Man's car yesterday, so I got out of the dreary fog and drove out to the Delta. I want to chuck everything, move to Isleton, and open a cool business on the clapboard Main Street. It was warm! I was back in the city by six o'clock...amazing that such a different place as the Delta is so relatively close to chill-breezed, achy-hilled, fraught San Francisco.]

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