11 12 pm pdt [ full days ]
I need to take a deep breath. Ok. Yesterday, I went
to work with Matthew and sat reading in the now-vacant office next to him
all day. On Fridays his company has a beer thing at the office, and it
happened to be on his floor in his building yesterday, so I ate chips and
salsa as well as my first cherries of the season while he sucked back two
Pal Ales. We spent a long time talking with his co-worker Raphael, whom I
absolutely adore. The plan was for us to see the apartment of one of his
former co-workers, and Matthew recieved an e-mail saying, "You can go see
it now!" but not the address. Several unanswered phone calls and e-mails
later, Matthew was appologizing for dragging me to silicon valley for the
day. NBD.
It wasn't a big deal to go to work with him, but he was
in a pretty foul mood the whole day because he is so stressed by change,
and moving in with me is a big change.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"You shouldn't take it personally that I'm nervous."
"But I do. I know you think groping me in public is
inappropriate and rude, but I want you to be so overwhelmed with passion
for me that you forget your social restraints. This is the same. I want
you to be so overwhelmed with excitement about living with me that you
forget to be a full-time stress-monster. I'm excited. I think about
buying bookshelves and getting the Red Lady framed so she can go on the
wall. I wonder how we will manage to agree on any decorating ideas and I
look forward to filling a new space with my absurd amount of plants. I
think about driving all of my stuff up here from LA. I'm excited and I
want you to be too!"
So we spent most of the hour and a half ride to work in
silence, and then did the same thing on the way home because he got
stressed out during the beer thing and that really disappointed me to the
point of anger. Of course, we hashed all of it out today and all is still
well in Rachel and Matthew Land.
We swung by the house to drop off our computers and
then drove to downtown Berkeley to see Eleanor (of
ellipses) in a play.
You could take food and drinks into the theater, so
Matthew got a beer and I got a cup of minestrone soup, which I ate before
going into the theater.
A nice young woman moved over a seat so that Matthew
and I could sit somewhere where my short body could see. Her name was
Elizabeth and we ended up chatting for the whole time before the play,
though intermission, and afterwards. She had recently moved to the Bay
from Virginia and her perspective was an absolute delight.
The performance was both funny and intense, and I never
before felt that I was so completely looking into the mind of the author.
If the price wasn't so prohibative, I would certainly like to see many
more live performances.
After the play, Eleanor greeted me with a wonderful hug
and the introductions began. We met Dan (of pure ego), two of
the other cast members, the playwrite, his lady-friend, the director, and
some actor who thinks we met while attending Berkeley. The whole slew of us, minus the
final actor, agreed to try to find a suitably large table at The Albatross. Eleanor requested that
we play Taboo, and we all set off in
different cars.
Matthew and I found a table and set in to wait for
whatever persons elected to join us. The table next to us had several
games on it, most of which were not in use, so I politely asked if we
could borrow their Pente. The woman I
asked explained that it was her game that she had brought with her and
then offered to let us play. We thought that very kind until we opened
the game and saw that it had never before been used. Then we thought her
extraordinarily kind. We ripped open the plastic and placed the stones in
their red velvet pouches.
We played one game, Matthew winning under the auspices
of not remembering how to play. We both felt uncomfortable playing with
this woman's brand new game in the noisy bar, so we returned it to its
tube and returned the tube to her with hearty thanks. I said, "We tested
it; it works." She was surprised we gave it back so soon.
I ordered a saké and Matthew began with a
glass of water, which would later became a glass of McCallan's 18-year-old
scotch on the rocks.
Eleanor and Dan arrived shortly thereafter.
[This entry to be continued tomorrow. Sweet dreams!]
