Had Bourbon Until Late

I wrote that on the way out of the office I asked a bunch of people about leads for jobs and then sent some emails.  Then I cleared out my station and brought my computer to the assistant general manager’s desk because the floor warden had gone home.  I rode to PHill on the canal and then took the train to Civic.  It was around 230.  I hadn’t had lunch yet so went to Park Chow and ate.  I had been obsessed with my iPod because of New Year’s but after all of the let downs I had given up.  There were a lot of ladies at the counter having drinks.  I had a sandwich and spoke to one of them.

I rode home then and knew I had a couple of hours so I straightened stuff.  I saw mom and dad on the way out.  I went to the Park and down to Civic Center and as I was going down the escalator I made an ironic remark to a lady with a bike that people with bikes are not allowed to ride it.  I found the lockers on 19^th and started towards the party.  I stopped to asked a city worker about finding a liquor store but wasn’t very successful at finding it.  I found the house just fine.  The host and her roommate opened the door and my old coworker, a fire engineer, poured me a glass of bourbon.  I made small talk with his closest associate, another fire engineer visiting from Chicago, and I introduced myself to a tall professional dabbling in additive manufacturing.

Later I was grazing when there was a commotion at the door and most of the party goers went to it.  The man they carried up the stairs was in a wheel chair.  I noted that he had been an expert at the building I had just stopped working at when I worked down the street.  He told me that his concept of the data operation, which I had been involved with at that time, was essentially beyond his comprehension and he didn’t seem to think that it worked the way that it should.  Later I was sitting with the fire engineers as they discussed their wonky pursuits when the additive manufacturer and I discussed his business.  I provided him a critique from the Rogers perspective saying he needed to work on defining his idea and networks of communication.

This was around when a company man arrived.  I had been enjoying the punch and interacting with the host’s best friend and the engineering pool when he and I got to talking in the dining room.  He told me that he worked for the GIS director—who sat across from my previous director in the hierarchy—and said he wasn’t impressed with how IT worked at the company.  I noted that it seemed that from the day of the tragic incident forward the company hadn’t been doing a very good job because IT was separating the business from its core operations.

Upon further reflection it seemed he was saying that the core of the business was almost entirely run by IT rather than the field technicians and managers that do most of the work.  IT had basically engulfed the center of the company’s operations and would not let the business side participate in any IT oriented project.  Essentially, whenever the business side of the company makes data and they are QA/QC’d the experts never actually touch the final product.  I have since surmised that would have a knock on effect with regulators.

During that conversation we migrated to the kitchen and by the time we had finished talking I had found some tasty Belgian beer.  Eventually we had found our hats and whistles and had our shoes on and were ready to go to Mua—the bar down the street.  We went in two groups because our wheelchair bound friend had come down before us.  It was really cold.  I made friends with ladies at the bar and our group of 12 had to work out getting drinks in 45 minutes before the minute hand hit the top of the clock.  I bought my hosts a beer and we went to the dance floor.  I got a free glass of champagne and as the night wore on I realized that I hadn’t needed a date after all.

About 130 I had had enough fun and decided to thank everyone for a good time and left for the all night BART service.  I took the bike down to a lonely platform and later fell asleep on the train.  At Civic Center I rode up Page and onward through the cold night.

I remember the next morning I awoke to memories of the ladies from Saturday night and thoughts of asking one of them out.  I was still in bed around noon when a lady I knew sent me a message.  We interacted while I ate the pancakes mom had left over from the morning.  We agreed to take a bike ride to the beach.  However, we ended up mis-communicating about where we would meet.  I ended up drinking coffee at Central Café watching people rise from their New Years revelry until she sent me a message that she was near the windmills with her friend.

I checked both of the windmills before finding them curled up near a log with a bed sheet in the freezing cold waiting for the sun to go down.  I lay there cuddling with them for the next couple of hours left til night fall.  I listened to how they had gone out dancing the night before.  The other lady, an additive manufacturing executive, had received an engineering degree from MIT.  She was waiting for her husband to return west to California.  The temperature fell quickly in the failing light and we rushed to the Chalet to get warm, have a beer and commiserate.  I noticed my old classmate form SF State Geography was working.  We had trouble at the bar and the service was poor but the meal was ok and I did a fair job of impressing and accommodating them.

We got on the bikes and rode through the park.  I noted that that was a real adventure.  At one point I gave one of them my gloves because she was clearly in need.  I noticed our engineering friend—like others I knew from the American South—liked to sing to herself.  I tried to lead them through some of the hard parts of the Wiggle but based upon my friend’s choices I could tell that she was capable of navigating the terrain.  This is interesting in retrospect because of the way that she seemed troubled by place names.  At her place we got together with her roommate and had bourbon until late.

The next morning it was evident that, though it was the Friday after New Years, our engineering friend still had to go to work.  I met more roommates in the course of getting up and moving.  I took my friend to breakfast and we walked around in a giant stupid circle because I was not capable of planning.  We eventually ended up standing in line at Four Barrel where I had trouble parking my bike and realized that we were listening to Meat Puppets.  Some lady asked if I was Dan while in line and a dog came out to lay on the ground with us.  While we were talking there I basically ascertained that we enjoyed each other’s company.

I rode home up the Wiggle then and discovered that my brother and his wife had returned from Central America the night before and were out with mom.  I noted that I realized all of a sudden that I had to go to Bike Party as well.  I got busy with the small things as I had not done much at home for several days.  I was drinking a cup of coffee when the family returned and I helped my brother find neighborhood thrift stores.  When they left again I took a nap and dad fell asleep and forgot to put potatoes in the oven.

I spent a lot of time thinking about the ladies I had met before New Years and was clearly conflicted about them but knew it mattered very little.  I got up for dinner and after eating, my brother, his wife and I went to the Shamrock.  They took the bus and I rode my bike.  There we talked about their land and my job prospects.  The bartender kind of ripped me off and I saw one of the regulars on the way out.  I said bye at the bus stop.

I rode to Steiner and Chestnut—the drop down from Alta Plaza was exhilarating—where I found the green Bike Party flag.  I noted that it was like they were waiting for me.  My friend hailed me and I immediately saw the guys.  We arrived at the Palace of Fine Arts and I walked around.  I saw some people from SF Park—a now defunct city program.  One of them insisted she didn’t remember me and they left pretty quick after I talked to them.  I eventually asked my friend about his Tweets regarding Todd Rundgren and SF liberals.

After that we rode to Polk Gulch and up to Alta Plaza.  I spoke to one of my lady friends on the way up and her boyfriend steered clear of our interaction.  I told her that it seemed like a reporter we both knew on FB was reading my blog.  Later her boyfriend said “Bike Party is fun!” and I smiled.  At Alta Plaza I talked to a couple we all know about their engagement and talked to the guys about stuff.  The other well-known married couple was absent.  One of the guys noted that he might go to Glen Park Station for drinks on Sunday.

I sat a moment feeling dejected around then.  I had all these friends around me and all I could think of were specific ladies with whom I had had a good time.  I was also reflecting on the fact that I had once again been laid off.  One of the guys offered me a beer in passing and I passed it up.  We descended to Fulton and onward via the Western Addition to Children’s playground via the Fifth Avenue Park entrance.  I interacted with some lady on the ride telling her about the area and my family’s heritage.  At the stop I said thanks to everyone and went home.

On the morning of the day that I wrote this my sister-in-law sent me a message saying that she would mail me my Christmas present.  I got my stuff together and rode to Java Beach.  I interacted with all of the baristas and talked to a couple of ladies.  I read the paper and saw a bartender from Visuvio.  I went home at around 3 and did laundry.  I broke up my papers then and sent a communique to my old coworker.  I send a message to an ex-girlfriend that I had her book—I had been putting that off for years.  She said I could get rid of it.  I asked one of the girls from several days before that wanted to see her at some point.  It seemed that she was considering it because she actually looked at it instead of ignoring my message.  I also made plans to see an old friend from HS on the next Tuesday.  Finally, I bought tickets to watch the Imitation Game at the Kabuki.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.