Personal Flourishes

On 16 July I wrote that the apartment was ready for the the trip to mom and dad's. I told them that we would be a bit late but they knew we were not having dinner with them.  Loading our bikes and getting our equipment was really difficult. My friend kept stopping on the ride – it was really our first time doing this – but the ride was easy. We went up to the Panhandle. The crossing at Masonic was under construction and I was annoyed.

Once in the park the ride was pretty quiet. My friend had blankets but it was a terribly cold. We rode to 42nd and then to to the house.  I set up the room and I could hear noises upstairs. I went up and said hi to everyone. We return to the bedroom and started winding down.

It was late but we were able to get to Parkside Tavern. Some health inspectors walked by while I was locking up. They were occupying the hosts and the whole line had to wait. We were really hungry I tried to get a bar table and also try to get a drink but my efforts were foiled both times.  When we were seated the good moods lasted through the whole night. I noted the popular people everywhere. I was reminded of Outback Steakhouse.

In the morning I were up a bit later. I had cereal and, when dad got up, coffee.  Later we headed out to the Botanical Garden for a picnic at Flower Piano.  At first we thought our equipment would not fit onto the bus. We met an older man who told us his brother had died only a little while before. We interacted with him until Ninth Avenue.

Once there we went to Starbucks and my friend went to the store and mom and I quietly made our way to the gardens. I had thought it was the Zellerbach but it we found that the Moon Viewing Garden was next door.  Mom and I enjoyed the music. We stood right next to the piano. My pianist acquaintance was playing really great. It was a standard set of noises. It was marked by his personal flourishes. I noted that I was reminded of Mozart.

An acquaintance from the happy hour walked up only a short moment after I had gotten there. While I was surprised I shouldn’t have been.  We took photos and that was around when my younger sister showed up.  She and I left mom at the piano and hung out with her and her family nearby. I returned to the piano with mom and bumped into a cyclist I knew through the Tweed Ride. I had gone with him and my friend to Sacramento.

My friend showed up as they were leaving. Everyone except my mom and I headed to the fountain for a quiet picnic and it was a breath of fresh air that they were having fun. I found mom back at the Moon Viewing Garden.  After she and I returned to find the rest of the family the pianist showed up to say hi as he headed to another piano.

Mom, my friend and I took our time heading back to Ninth Avenue. We all had wanted to go to the Taqueria but my younger sister beat us. My friend also bumped into an old coworker so we all started drinking coffee and talking.

Everyone headed off when we got to the taqueria, so we said goodbye after we finished eating. My friend and I quietly stopped off at the grocery store.  We took a 7 to Ocean Beach and there I made my friend take some alone time.

She came up at six and we ate a very loud meal. Then we wound down the room downstairs. The kids went home and I sat with my friend in the living room the next couple of hours while she fixed her equipment.  Mom came into the living room and spoke to us. Then dad came in and was goofy. My friend really liked it. I went to bed after that.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I was up at 7:30 and sat reading the paper with breakfast. I lay in the noisy living room for a while.  We had quiet time and then we got ready to go. During that period we moved some furniture for mom and I went on the roof for dad. Mom headed to church as we were packing.

We went to Andytown and the meal was fine. Coffee was delicious. We rode through the park discovered the AIDS walk going on. I was perturbed at the volunteers but later we discovered that we knew someone in the walk. That was nice.

At the Panhandle we took the walking path around construction and quietly roe the wiggle. It was great.

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.