We had cake.

On July 7 that wrote that it was about six when I arrived at the house the night before. My old college classmate was visiting town for a party my friend and I had planned the next day. She had gone to the store and I had taken a nap. When I had wound down the house she and I went downstairs to say hi to play catch up with my old college classmate and his wife.

They had had dinner so when my friend went back upstairs the three of us went up the street for a beer to talk about our careers and other stuff. I told them about our Fairfax vacation and then walked them to where they were staying in the Castro.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I was up at seven. It was actually a surprise when my friend woke me with her noises. I brought the bikes and trailer down and we got ready to go for our family picnic. I had almost finished getting the trailer ready when I switched my shoes. Then I rode to Whole Foods and she went to Dolores Park. I brought her coffee and a couple of the party goers had arrived for the preliminary bike ride.

Four of us rode Sanchez to Market then up the wiggle. Then we went to the Panhandle. I quietly Road in circles and one of the party went to Falletti‘s. We rode to Golden Gate Park then. We passed a family of tourists. They seemed like novices but took a lot of pointers from us at Schrader. We picked up a few revelers at the Conservatory before we rode through the tunnel near the bandshell. More were waiting for us at the playground we had chose and my parents had brought a lot of stuff.

We set up the table in the shade. People started arriving. In addition to the people in ride, there were our closest acquaintances. The guy we had met the last time we had been to the picnic spot – from Bernal Heights was there too. A bunch of my regular cohort of social media relationships were all there - some were a surprize. Flower piano was happening very close by. My old college classmate showed up a bit later.

I went for a walk then with my brother-in-law and his kids. My sister was really helpful. A bit later I ran to the store for beer and then we had cake. I tried to work with my nerves about the event. There were a couple of people that showed up late but by that point so much was going on the day was really great. As the guests pulled away I felt a bit of relief over knowing they were all in good spirits.

I managed to convey to one guest that we wanted to ride back home with her. We regrouped at the De Young and though the ride was slow we quietly got into it. The panhandle was really easy but Grove Street was less so. My friend went home so that I could better help our acquaintance get home.

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.