On January twenty-fifth I wrote that I was trying to shore up my
blog and the NA before I left the house on the Friday before I wrote this. Mom and dad were making dinner. I had found some papers earlier and had the
occasion to ask mom about them. I noted
that dinner was happening so I called my buddy and she said we would eat
together. I made plans to pick stuff up
and grabbed my bike discards. I bought a
bottle on Irving and my buddy let me know that we wouldn’t be making
anything. There were a lot of bad car
situations on Page and when I got to Waller and Market I avoided the median.
I had to ring my buddy’s bell at the
gate. She was winding down from work
when I asked if I could leave some bike stuff with her because of the bad
timing. She suggested she bring the
materials by the Bike Kitchen after work sometime. She had ordered pizza and we sat in the
kitchen with the roommates drinking the whisky I brought before going to pick
it up. One was at work.
We had been discussing a movie and
eventually settled on Big Eyes. We got
the bikes out and headed for Octavia and Grove.
I knew my Long Beach friend would text me but didn’t know when. We passed through the Safeway parking lot and
parked in the garage. We got a drink and
talked before the movie started but had to sneak our drinks in via the
elevator.
The movie was Amy Adams playing a woman
that allowed her husband to take credit for all of her art. I thought it was good and it was a fair
portrayal of SF in the 60s. I remembered
the Walter Keane pieces from that era floating around a Richmond District flop house
in the 90’s and that was the impetus for wanting to see the movie. It seemed that my buddy had some reservations
over the film but in all liked it.
My Long Beach friend and my engineering friend
got in contact with me before the end of the movie. I let the Long Beach friend know that I would
send her a message the next day but never got back to the other. My buddy and I went back to her house then
the same way that we had arrived. I
remember that she had some misgivings about my riding style. I remember that her roommate may have been in
the back with a window open. I went to
bed around 1130.
Next morning my friend and I were riding
up the Wiggle to Marin. She was wearing
a magnificent a green plaid skirt and with a matching scarf. We went to Central Coffee where the barista recognized
me as someone from Java Beach. I
introduced my magnificently attired companion to her and she served us
outside. We had an interesting conversation
and she tried twice to cut the conversation short—a bit disconcerting. As we cleaned up and started back to the
Panhandle she explained that others were listening and that she was shy. I understood then why I was being too
talkative.
We took the Shrader Valve and went to the
roller skating spot. There we took Cabrillo
to 15th Avenue—she thought we were headed down Park Presidio. At Lake we entered the Presidio and climbed
to Pacific Overlook. We looked at the
view and she told me a story about a trip she and her father took on a sailboat
once where they knew more about boating than the owner—the boat was essentially
sailing backwards.
We took Ralston to a spot where she could
put on a cute sweater matching her outfit and continued to the visitor
center. Then, after a few photos, we
stared the bridge crossing. There were a
lot of jerkoff roadies and she clearly approved of my behavior towards them. After that we took the main road and
descended to Sausalito. I noted that my
companion had passed many people on the ride and was smugly satisfied that
someone attired in such a her proper sweater and skirt would be able to do so. We used my lock to secure the bikes in front
of Benetton because she had forgotten her keys and went to an antique
store. I saw a Girl Scout book on how to
use a compass that I really liked. She
was peeved she couldn’t touch the fur jackets.
We wanted to go to the burger joint that
fronted on the road but went to the Barrel House instead. We had a bunch of whisky and a burger. A number of people complemented my friend for
being stunningly beautiful. We noted the
bartender monocle and a flat cap and learned that he lived in the Inner Sunset.
We got the bikes and passed the Tall Ship
warehouse on our way to the Richardson Bay bike paths. We stopped under the freeway bridge and a
little later were passed by some roadies.
One of them was a lady that noted she was slow in conversation to her
friends and my companion engaged them in that moment. Later we passed a bearded guy with his
girlfriend. They had a lot of
panniers. My companion had no trouble
claiming the freeway frontage into Corte Madera. After passing the mall and heading back under
the freeway she told me about driving around Corte Madera in her Sebring.
We arrived at Sir Francis Drake below the
101 and I sent my Long Beach friend a message.
Then we went to the Landing Brewery and saw the bearded guy as well as
the roadie girl and all of the people that both groups had been with. Ironically we had arrived there before
everyone. We had a couple of beers and
then followed the crowds and cyclists to the ferry. We boarded despite the fact that the gate to
the facility was on the fritz. We got to
meet many of the riders on the boat. My
companion wanted to take photos of me in the wind.
At the terminal we headed to 21st
Amendment Brewery because my Long Beach friend had suggested we meet her
there. We took Embarcadero and then
doubled back. We found my Long Beach
friend at the bar and took a table. I
was surprised that she was traveling alone but she apparently had done this
many times to celebrate her birthday. I
congratulated her for making it another year and she clearly hit it off with my
companion. She told us that she had gone
to Chicago on the same type of brew tour and that earlier in the day she had
gone to the Blue Bear too. As if to
reassure us she told us about some of the jetsam from a few of her trips. Our friends in Long Beach had taken her out
to breakfast the day before.
We then went to Mekkler walking through
the SOMA and Union Square areas and I locked the two bikes up in front of the
bar and then we descended to the lower bar and the girls talked among
themselves. When my Long Beach friend finally
bid us adieu, my companion and I headed up market. Later we noted that her roommate had made
some steak—the smell was unbearable for some reason and we let some outside
light enter the room and even lit matches.
In the morning of the day that I wrote
this I helped a friend clean her house—even though I noted that this would cause
us to miss Lindy in the Park. I helped
out by going to Whole foods and to buy food and wine. Later I made appetizers. Eventually the roommates were gabbling about
in the kitchen and the dishes needed doing.
My friend said several times that she and I were going to the mountains
in a week.
My friend and I got on the bikes then and
went through the park to Andytown. I
showed her some of the ways to go and she took over at the shop. She knew one of the owner’s pretty well and
one of the other owners seemed to recognize me possibly as a Java Beach regular. We had coffee and then my friend made plans
with her buddy and then we swung by my house to grab some beers.
We then rode up Ortega to the reservoir
for a few beers and the Sunset. We told
each other about our lives and I looked at the map and we looked for stuff on
the horizon. After that we headed up to
16th and Lawton and then down to Park Chow. I saw a bartender I knew from SF State while we
ate our salad.
I noted that it was around then that we discovered
that the birthday trip to the mountains was scheduled for two rather than one
week. I noted that this made things a
lot easier and when we went to the Shamrock and refined our plans. I made the embarrassing decision to sit in that
one seat reserved for the more regular of regulars and when he said not to
worry about it later I was further diminished.
We spent some time talking about our ideas for the future. We rode to the park after that and were alone
near the racketball courts for a bit. When
I got home I did a bunch of Twitter and FB stuff.
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.
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