On the twenty-eighth of November I wrote that the ride to Santa Rosa was fine after San Rafael. The driver had a buddy from his platoon in the seat behind him. We arrived at four and had coffee. I was frustrated. We looked in at the Welfare League but had to settle for Hot Couture where I found a tweedish suit that was near what I wanted.
We picked up some lights and rode to my friend’s mom’s. Her sister had brought her boyfriend and they greeted us at the door. I settled in to watch a bit of a James Bond film with the man of the house while the ladies made dinner. Later I cut yams. The rest of the TV watching was really terrible. Thankfully I sat down with my sparkling wine to eat a meal heavy with veggies only a moment later.
The girls had a pretty involved discussion and everyone really enjoyed the kale and couscous. After the meal there was more TV and the ladies did dishes until I took them away. My friend used that moment as an excuse to take the guests home and was left alone with the TV. That went on until the beginning of a Hawaii 5.0 episode. Much later we sat discussing things. I remembered that there was a lot of discussion over family that I had not anticipated, especially the last evening’s dinner. We said good night around then.
In the morning my brother texted me and my friend and I met him at Flying Goat a few minutes after he had arrived. Over coffee he recounted how his life affected by his tiny log cabin in Oregon. He also told us that how his wife’s in Louisiana would allow him to organize his stuff.
When he left, we returned to see her mom. She wanted to know what some Chinese meant so I missed out on reviewing some of the Hawaii photos. I had another cup of coffee before the TV came on. I had determined we would need to go at ten so we packed up and said goodbye.
The ride down the bike path to the bus stop was easy. The place where the bikes went on the bus though was different than we were used to. I folded my bike up and the driver yelled at me about it.
I wrote for a while and called my sister. At San Rafael we had been looking at the paths dreaming and looking at wifi when shift change brought some girls on chewing gum. We switched seats. The view from the bridge was lovely. At Van Ness we got ready and on Golden Gate we got no help when we disembarked.
We went to Hayes and locked up. We had Greek sausage and fries with sparkling wine. Later we went to gather for some SF Made stuff and talked Tweed. Later we walked to the bikes, packed and headed to Charlie’s then where we unpacked and lazed around.
I had planned on meeting my older sister in the Sunset but her husband called and said to come to the younger sister’s house instead. I took the Wiggle home and then walked and ran to the train. When I got in I was ten minutes late for dinner.
When we sat down to eat my brother-in-law and Dad talked about the house. I was the butt of some of their jokes. However, I did learn that dad stopped bringing the family to his parent’s house when I got older and that his mother didn’t much enjoy my presence. I thought that made sense considering my mother’s mom.
The kids had a magic show then. I noted that I no longer fit in. The kids were not little anymore. I was weirded out by their organization. I thought they were still too young and underdeveloped to be entertaining to anyone other than their parents but they were still capable of stealing the show. I walked in when the boys had finished the show and literally disappeared. That was when my eldest niece did a card trick and I noted that the younger one had run out of the room crying.
After that I sat with the parents and sisters talking about the past few days. My sisters had been with my brother the night before. My younger sister was still recovering from that night. I tried on an old jacket as the parents were leaving,
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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