They Were Both Broken

I wrote that my date and I had her roommate take our picture.  We walked across the street then and caught a cab.  She had donned a purple wig and a black sequined dress.  I had pinstriped pants and a top hat.  I wore my vest and long coat.  The ball was at the Regency.  We had to wait in the ally with the other steam-punkers.  We saw a lady from the Tweed ride and at the door my date said that they just let us in—no tickets or anything.

She went to stand in the drink line and went to the coat room.  They had some Venetian masks so I grabbed a purple and a red one not knowing what would match.  I remember the dance floor was cluttered with terrible dancers.  I found my date and we watched together.  The line for drinks had barely moved when a waitress came by and we ordered.  When we got out drinks we went upstairs.

The array of outfits was profound but only about ten percent was any good.  My date made certain I knew what was what.  The ballroom upstairs was a combination of Tour de Fat and city’s the taxidermy shops.  There was even a display from one of them.  There was also a woman in a 12 foot tall dress that functioned as a tent that people could enter.  It was guarded by a very short person in a bird skull mask.  There was a Jabberwocky puppet show and two rooms had similar attractions.  We walked from one to the next taking it all in.

It wasn’t hard to be enthusiastic.  In fact my only reservation was in how to anticipate my date’s mood.  I saw another lady from the Tweed Ride and a guy from the Emperor’s Bridge Campaign.  I also saw my favorite Bartender and I think my date may have snapped a photo of a girl I was in grammar school with.  We returned to the lower level eventually because I had spent my last few dollars on expensive whisky.  She got us drinks and we watched the main stage.  There I found us a table to place our drinks on.  There was an opera singer and a couple got engaged.  We went out and danced to the five piece band on stage.

We found ourselves upstairs again but eventually she said that she wanted to go so I got us our coats and we walked to a sushi place nearby and were the last customers before they closed.  We ordered a few plates and at several points I was slightly concerned at her reaction to me but it turned out just fine.  We caught a cab towards the Mission.  I think I was asleep around 1.

Around 1030 the next day I met my friend in Hayes Valley.  We went to Café Mercury.  I saw her roommates at some point too.  We also went to Blue Bottle.  We discussed the night before.  I rode to the Sunset then because her friend was coming to pick her up.  However, by the time I was home my friend had sent me a message to say that I needed to bring my top hat to Golden Gate Park.

I noted that I had nearly destroyed my top hat in the course of the weekend but it had made it through.  I didn’t rush though.  I sat with the parents for a while.  Eventually I went through my wardrobe and identified a passable outfit—my nice vest, clip-on bow tie, etc.  I found a group of people at the park with similar outfits on.  I had brought my bocce balls but discovered that they had a lighter set.  My friend was with her roommate there and I met the birthday girl—she had a huge dress on.  I also met a bunch of others.

I played ball after some appetizers and greetings.  My friend walked her roommate to the bus and we never made it to the end of the game because the group had to sing happy birthday.  More people showed up around then—they were roommates and neighbors.  The rest were coworkers.  The cake had a marzipan topping.  We started to pick everything up when it started to get dark and my friend and I made plans to do something together.  As I rode home my top hat flew from my pannier and I had to backtrack to find it.  Some guy said a mean thing to me at 41^st and Lincoln.

I went home and did stuff.  We had planned on going to a movie but she was tired so I agreed to simply go to her place.  I left around 7.  I took Irving and stopped by the corner store at 42^nd.  Then I went to Page and zigzagged to Waller and Laguna.  I started to cross Market at Octavia at the onramp on a green light but didn’t quite get to the crosswalk before hitting the eight inch tall median.  The force of the collision bucked me onto the east bound lanes of Market in front of a VW waiting for the light to change.  I had smashed my shifter, light and right arm.  The driver asked if I was alright and I responded with a “no” and picked up my hat and moved out of the way.

As I walked down Elgin Park towards my friends’s place I called to say I was downstairs.  After we were settled I showed her my arm and told her what had happened.  We made up a bag of ice.  I got the drinks from my bag and sat down to nurse my wounds.  Her roommates were in the kitchen for a while with us.  We ate some soup.  Later we saw In a World while her roommate showed us a parade of outfits.

On Monday morning my friend and I went to the Grove around 11.  I think of the place like it is a feed lot but it was alright.  We walked to Blue Bottle afterwards and got coffee.  She went to the corset shop while I talked to her old boss, who had just happened to pass by.  He said he was interested in the utilities industry.

Eventually we rode up the Wiggle to the Panhandle and over to Decades of Fashion.  I looked at hats.  The guy at the counter there told me to look into BWare on line.  They were located in Mariposa.  While I had discouraged my friend from getting to excited about the selection, she eventually purchased a pair of pumps.  We spoke to the owner who said that she had renovated the building after Villains had left it—it used to be a bank.  We stopped by Wasteland where my friend looked at but didn’t buy a purple onesie.  We finished the day together at Alembic where we bumped into another old friend.  He served us a brandade and a cheese plate.

I went to the bank on the way home.  I also stopped by Swell and ordered a new set of shifters because they were both broken.  I learned that I wouldn’t be able to address my broken bike issues for a week.  I ended up dozing off in the living room but did wake up a few hours later to look through Twitter until 130.

On the day that I wrote this I got up at 930 and went to Java Beach.  There I read the paper and had coffee.  I looked at the internet and read the paper.  I wasn’t able to look at much though.  I remember the owner came in as I was leaving.  At home I was trying to make a quick fix on my breaks and the lady form Kelly Mitchell told me to send her a resume and coverletter.  That took a long time so I went back to the bike a couple of times.  Mom interviewed a cleaning lady

I wrote that I sent in an application and then I wanted to work on the typing but dinner was ready so I did that.  Then I worked on the room.  My friend sent me some messages over the course of the day.  We made some tentative plans for the next week.

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.