is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Many Parties. ALL CAPS. Puppies and St. Francis both playing dual roles. Various Confusions.
Last weekend I was invited to five parties. Four of them were on Saturday. And, though I woke up Saturday morning with a tremendous hangover, I did manage to go to three parties late-ish on Saturday. I was bummed to miss the party in the east bay for a friend of mine who is turning 40 and moving to Pennsylvania, but, well, it was in the east bay, and the other three parties were in western San Francisco, and I got a very late start.
On Friday night I went to the Valleyschwag Hoedown with Heidi and Liz. It was a work party, and lots of people were schmoozing and networking, but of course I had nothing to offer the scene, because I couldn�t even understand what they were talking about. I knew that if some of the words they were speaking were changed it would be no different from an academic conference, in terms of what was being discussed over drinks. I had fun despite being locked out of the lingo due to the free bourbon and good people-watching. Then there was this utterly confusing fashion show wherein various people wore various free Tshirts, hats, etc., from various silicon valley or other internet/web/computer-based companies (hence: Valleyschwag). At first I was doubly confused, in that I was confused about why I was confused, but then I figured out that the event was not ironic enough. I mean, when you�re celebrating dorky free t-shirts, there�s supposed to be some ironic distance there, right? But there wasn�t. The t-shirts were very meaningful to most of the people there. The t-shirts stood for things. (Which is why Valleyschwag, a company that sells free stuff, exists, of course. But that�s confusing, too.) Or the t-shirts were helping the people there celebrate themselves? But they couldn�t just do that without the t-shirts? I wasn�t sure. So I didn�t understand what the t-shirts stood for, or what universe it might matter in, or why it didn�t seem to be as funny as it should have been. Hmm. I could say more but it�s probably not worth it. The party was fun, and I got my photo taken with John Wayne. Heidi's photo turned out better.
Heidi and I started walking around south of Market around 1 trying to get one last drink, like all drunks do. We discovered that all the restaurants down there close some time before 1. We ended up at XYZ at the W, where only people who had already opened up tabs were being served. But some guy saw our plight and insisted on buying us Mojitos (we had no choice in the drink, but drunks don�t mind that so much). So Heidi chatted him up while I sat there in my puppy tshirt next to the guy with the puppy in his lap reading a book (the guy, not me or the puppy, was reading the book). But can you, can you really, BELIEVE how cute my puppy tshirt is?
While sitting there in my puppy t-shirt next to the guy with the puppy in his lap, I made a small digital-camera film of my new purse from Japan (courtesy of Heidi) that has a bottle of pepsi on it (the purse, not the film) that pours pepsi into a glass (also on the purse) when you tilt the purse. Since I do not know how to post a film on my site, here is a photo of the purse.
Saturday morning Heidi, Liz and I went to St. Francis, and had perfect hangover food. Levon (the illustrious owner, and our friend) was there and sat with us for awhile. Liz ordered a vanilla malt milkshake and then split it with me and it was TASTY in allcaps. Then I went home and slept for quite awhile.
At some point I forced my way out of bed and got dressed. I had planned to go to the east bay party at 4, Adam and Julia�s party at 5, Halliday�s at 7, but I didn�t even leave the house until 8. Mapquest-to-go for the cellular device was my friend in finding Adam and Julia�s new place. They have a great backyard and I saw lots of good people there, including Marco, Stephen, Jessica and Rebekah, not to mention the always fabulous Adam and Julia. And I saw Tony and Sophie and their baby, way up close, when Tony said, "here, hold this for a minute" and all of a sudden I had a baby in my arms? And the baby was all, with his face, saying, holy soiled diapers I'm in the arms of a stranger and mommy is nowhere in sight! I sensed the coming apocalypse of tears, so I drew the baby's attention to the puppies on my t-shirt and started babbling about how everyone loves puppies (which made Stephen and Marco laugh wholeheartedly) and either it was the puppies or it was my crazed babbling about puppies in baby voice, but I did avert the sob-pocalypse for long enough for Tony to get the bottle of wine open. (For those of you with attention to detail: yes, it's true, I wore the puppy t-shirt TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW.)
Also at Adam and Julia's, I saw the guy who was my good friend in college but who then twice pretended he didn�t know how he knew me when I ran into him years later (this happened at one or two of Adam�s other parties, years ago). This guy, he had eaten dinner at my mom�s house way back when! He and I used to listen to record albums late into the night and discuss music and then I�d sleep on the couch. We were GOOD friends, in allcaps. And yet he pretended he didn�t know how he knew me! But THIS time, he�s all, �Jill, how are you, how have you been?� and seemingly wanting to have an extended conversation, and even mentioning �way back when�? Confusing. But in this case I wasn�t confused about why I was confused.
I wanted to stay longer, but had to get rolling to party #2, a dinner party honoring Bastille Day. I got there in time for dessert. Drank some absinthe, which seems to be all the rage on the party circuit these days. You can order it on the internets from the Czech Republic, apparently. Anyway, it�s tasty and potent, but I wasn�t much into drinking liquor being that I was both hungover and driving a car. Halliday, Steve, Alissa, Aaron and Claira were all there, eating the food of the people. After about an hour the party was winding down, so I left. I called to check in with Caroleen about party #3, and she convinced me to come join her. That is how Mapquest-to-go came to help me find a strange stripmall in Diamond Heights, which I found by driving up lots of small backroads over hills through a dense fog. And there, in Diamond Heights, in a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall, was a karaoke stage adorned in a maritime theme including netting and papier mache seals.
Various people I knew were singing. About ten minutes later Marco and Rebekah from party #1 showed up, which was funny. Whenever Marco is drunk and enjoying karaoke he just CANNOT UNDERSTAND (in allcaps) why it is that I don�t want to sing. But usually I just don�t want to. And then having someone INSIST that I must do so just makes the your-peer-pressure-does-not-work-on-me version of Jill exert herself with force. But Marco, when he is drunk and enjoying karaoke, DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. My singing friends rocked that Chinese restaurant maritime karaoke stage until closing.
Sunday I did some freelance work, caught up on email, and happily ascertained, finally, that someone very dear to me who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, is alive and well, and currently in ITALY at the COLLEGIUM. That made me thankful, and then slightly regretful that I wasn�t at the Collegium (not least because THAT'S WHERE I BOUGHT THE PUPPY T-SHIRT, on a day trip to Assisi, where Josh stood next to me in St. Francis' church and was startled alongside me by the deep booming voice that appeared suddenly from on high saying, "Silencio. Shhhhhh." No, it wasn't God. It was some Italian guy hushing tourists over an impressive sound system.). So, no, I'm not at Collegium this year. But I�m so happy to be in San Francisco, and also happy that Josh is OK. He may never be able to return to his place in Beirut, and that will suck� imagine losing all your stuff? But, hell, I�m glad he�s in Italy and not Lebanon. Many other things I wish were otherwise, especially if we're talking about that region of the world, but I have no heart for that topic today.
Sunday night I met Viveca and Heidi for drinks. I walked from 20th and Dolores to 14th and Folsom only to find our appointed meeting venue was closed. Heidi showed up and we drove to Andalu, where we all had flights of champagne. I got a hearty laugh out of the fact that there is STILL a bureau (as in a dresser, or a chest of drawers) in the backseat of Heidi�s diesel Mercedes. Why did I laugh so? Because it has been in there for TWO MONTHS. To know Heidi is to love her, and to love her is to admit that sometimes you just have to let confusion reign rather than trying to explain.
Tonight it was french class. We had a substitute teacher who kept us working at a dizzying pace. The only reason that I could keep up with her is that I actually do understand French better than I speak it, unlike the other students whose relationship to the language isn't as strange as mine. It was a long three hours, but three hours of language class is always a long three hours. And I have noticed already that it is helping me, despite myself. Now I'm ready for sleeping.
12:13 a.m. - July 18, 2006
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