12 33 pm pst   [ yesterday, in exquisite detail ]

I woke up early yesterday. Or rather, the alarm woke me up early yesterday. Matthew did all his last minute nonsense and then we hiked to my car. In stop and go traffic, we made out way to the airport, mostly dicussing my driving, since I am still a bit green at driving stick.

I hope the airport uber-security gets lessened soon, because I really like being able to wait with someone at their gate before their flight. I also like being about to greet then at the gate when they return. But these activites are not currently possible, so I left Matthew at the curb and made my way home.

I parked the car and headed home when I saw a guy standing on a roof with a torch in his hand. I asked if I could take his picutre. Then I took the other two photos that appeared in yesterday's entry.

I managed to loaf for a bit before heading to work. Yesterday was noon dismissal at the school where I work, I believe because next week is their spring break. So I was supposed to be there at 11:46 to set up. When I arrived at the designated time, there were fourty kids in the auditorium and the office manager (who I adore) informed me that I was the only one there. Then my boss materialized and said that the kids had gotten out early. Now, the staff was supposed to consist of myself, the co-worker who I am not fond of, and my boss. Only my co-worker was MIA. My boss is nice, but she doesn't do much work (in terms of interacting with the kids), mostly because she always brings her baby to work and wants/has to interact with her baby. So be it. So we got all the kids outside to play in the courtyard. They were very well behaved. We had very few kids crying because their feelings were hurt. We only had one scraped knee. Three fifth graders started a soccer game that was them against ~20 junior-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade students. I was laughing hysterically the whole time. My favorite activity consisted of chasing Sam around the yard and tickling him when I caught him. He would claim not to like it, but then one minute later he would command, "Tickle me!" and start the chase over. What fun!

When it turned cold, I brought half the kids inside and put on Dumbo (1941) and though the older kids made loud whining noises, everyone ended up watching it's 63 minutes in rapture.

I was having a fine time at work but was not digging how frustrated my boss was that my co-worker wasn't there. The situation wasn't the best but we certainly made it work just fine...

The rest of the day was uneventful. At 2 30 the MIA co-worker, a co-worker who wasn't scheduled to work, and my supervisor showed up. I took the kids the computer lab and showed them how to build their own levels in Sokoban.

We actually got to leave bit early, which was good because I still needed to buy some wine for the evening's wine tasting party.

[Ok, I just got really distracted by who knows what and by a long series of links I ended up reading a good portion of onefatbitchypoo. Wow! What a fantastic weight loss journal. I can't believe the bravery of the photos and the honesty of her entries. I'm motivated to work out more just from reading her! She's lost more than I weigh. She's lost more than an extire Rachel! I can't imagine what it's like to carry around that much less weight. Exclamaton marks seem trivial to the magnitude of emphasis I want to put into every word about this woman and her site.]

[So anyway...]

I walked in the door at home to hear the phone ringing. Elizabeth had arrived, but was lost because MapQuest had did her wrong (I never have any problems with MapQuest but everyone else I know does, so I might need to put a little less faith in their directions). So I told her how to get here after figuring out what street she was on. Then I wrapped up wine glasses for the party and decided that I was too lazy to change out of the outfit I had worn to work.

When Elizabeth got here, we took off to get some really yummy Thai food. Unfortunately, the service was tremendously slow, so we ended up being in the middle of eating our dinners just around the time that we were supposed to be back at my place to meet people. Phil had called and said he would be late, so I stepped outside to call the other two partygoers. I haven't had a cell phone for long and I like the convenience but really don't like how uncomfortable I feel to use it when I am with other people. Blah.

I called Dréa and told her I was running late and then realized that I had no cellphone number for BiHa [she calls herself BitterHag, but I refuse because she is not bitter and she is not a hag]. I decided to let fate take its course and went back in to finish up my meal with Elizabeth. I really wanted more time to catch up with her but am willing to be thankful for what I got.

Back at my apartment, BiHa was waiting and I found myself appologizing profusely. I need to just accept the fact that things never go perfectly and nobody really cares but me.

I abonded BiHa and Elizabeth at my place (which looked like a hurrican hit it since Matthew had just packed to go to Vegas) and ran to the local market to grab a bottle of wine and meet Dréa, who was there buying olives stuffed with garlic and sundired tomateos (quite a hit at the party!).

Then back to my place where I talked Phil through directions to my place as his alternator failed. Once we were all collected, we set off to the car, which was parked a bit away. On the way there, I did my introductions.

"Phil and I lived on the same floor of our dorm together freshman year of college, and I had a huge crush on him!"

"I also met Dréa at Berkeley. She dated my roommate's ex-boyfriend for a while (I went to high school with the roommate and ex-boyfriend in question). She lives super-close to me!"

"______ and I met because we both have online diaries. Her site is BitterHag but I refuse to call her that because she is not either. We need to make up a better story of how we met, involving a bar fight or something."

"I met Elizabeth at a play on 02 June 2001. She was kind enough to move over so my short body could see, and we got to talking and then made plans to get together again. At least it didn't take a whole year for it happen."

Ok, so I've taken a lot of liberty with what I actually said, but you get the picture...

The wine tasting was hosting at Matthew's old house by his former roommate Tom. All of the attendees who didn't come with me were friends of Tom's from the Bay Area Dinner Club (formerly the Berkeley Dinner Club), which I thought was especially cool because I'm the one who told Tom about the club (on 27 June 2001).

After quite a lot of wine tasting (Sauterne is yummy!), Tom got out his coconut bra...

Late in the evening, I was talking with one of the party-goers named Dave. I mentioned my neighborhood and he looked surprised. I mentioned my stree and he asked my address. After a frantic search for his Palm Pilot, he confirmed that his girlfriend lives in my building on the third floor. I've seen this man go in and out of the building a half-dozen times, but always paid more attention to his adorable beagle then to him. "It's a small world after all."

...and I (no clue why I blacked out my eyes, but it amused me at the time) confirmed that red wine isn't my drink of choice and that I really want to host a saké tasting party soon. Also, PornEaster inspired me to propose hosting a regular "classic porn" film screening. I've seen Deep Throat (1972) but none of my friends have, and I've missed all the other classics, including Behind the Green Door (1972) , Debbie Does Dallas (1978) , Caligula (1979), etc. [I just found a listing of the Top 100 Adult Film Classics, which will no doubt come in handy and which I will now add to my sweet 100 lists.]