Vacation Recap – pt. 2
Forgetting…so quickly…must get it all out before I change back to my angry non-vacation mortal self….
Thursday we had to pick Glennis up from the airport in Oakland in the middle of the day, so we crossed the bay in the morning to spend some time in Berkley. Will is addicted to hip college towns, having squandered his college time at lame-o UCONN; so everytime we’re near one he needs to go buy coffee there and imagine himself late for class. (I squandered my college years at retard-o JMU, but got over it quickly. ) Berkley was perfect for this – it had a great hippy coffee shop we both loved, and a Hot Topic! (I have a frequent buyer card for Hot Topic, which is really only humiliating when you’re not in one. I am two goth t-shirts away from a 15% discount!) After walking around and buying presents for Glennis and Travis, we drove down to the Oakland Airport, listening to David Bowie.
We spent MOST of this trip listening to David Bowie. Will and I both go through pretty hardcore phases with music, so when they co-incide with travel they color they whole trip. For instance, last month in Indiana was the Holland-Dozier-Holland Motown trip. Aberdeen, Scotland sounds like Bob Mould’s Last Dog and Pony Show, and Egypt is to the tune of the Best of Bread (a mormon boy on the cruise gave me a casette tape copy.) So now San Francisco is the city of Bowie, to me – which when you think about it isn;’t that crazy.
Glennis’ plane was delayed, so we found a pretty beach near the airport and hung around for a bit. When she finally arrived we dropped her off at her hotel and went for famous San Fran burritos. Famous San Fran burritos are crazy tasty, but have babies right after you eat them, so I ended up full of hundreds and hundreds of burritos. I desperately wanted to nap, but instead I did a show!
It was not our best show. The audience was small and quiet, which we’re not used to (ahem, let me get this dirt off my shoulder), and it made us totes crazytown. During the second half of the show – while the lovely and talented Dad’s Garage was performing – we ate Travis’ birthday cake and vowed to never enter the crazytown city limits again. Luckily, even when we go crazytown, we still sound pretty, so the audience seemed happy. After the show we went to a bar with everybody, which was nice and fun, and made Glennis and I (drunk enough to) forget our disappointing show.
On Friday, I was starting to get desperate at the impending end of the vacation. I was also desperate to see the motherfucking Mission District – which I’d been trying to get to for DAYS. In the morning we drove up to the Muir Woods – Travis and his fiance Melissa’s idea, but we slept to late to catch a ride with them. The Muir Woods is just 12 miles outside of San Francisco and is full of Redwoods. So now I just need to see the Gulfstream Waters.
In the afternoon, we caught a cab to the Mission District (hooray! Finally!0 and had a very vacation-y lunch (that means beer and Bowie.) Then we walked around the Mission and it was – as I had been led to expect – neat! 826 Valencia was a cool little pirate store with writing workshops in the back. The front featured an original mural by my imaginary comicbook boyfriend, Chris Ware. It seems to be run by the McSweeney’s folks, who apparently also operate the Superhero Supply Co. in Brooklyn and a Space Travel Outfitters in Seattle. These McSweeney’s kids are fun, people!
Just down the block I fell in love with Ripley.
We passed by a sci-fi/fantasy bookstore, which I pointed out to Will – pretending that we was the one with the interest in the store, and that I did not know the Fear Mantra from Dune by heart. Then he pointed out to me that there was a sign on the door that said “Ripley is IN”. I asked “who’s Ripley?” and Will pointed to the bottom of the screendoor and said “that’s Ripley.”
Standing with her nose up against the screen was what appared to be an ancient shrunken gnome, but infact turned out to be an adorable horrible hairless cat. I immediately when inside to pet it. I ended up sitting in a chair at the back on the store with Ripley on my lap for a good 20 minutes. This cat was great! She felt like a suede hot water bottle, and had a hilariously wrinkled face. She looked like at any second she was going to demand I answer a riddle or build a toadstool house. You know, that kind of a cat.
Eventually I Bid Ripley goodbye and we hoofed it to the Castro which was super gay. So gay, Will felt self-conscisous holding my hand. I guess now we know how it feels, gays. They had awesome books and movies featured in the stores there (Mildred Peirce! Bio of Louise Brooks!) which made me a little angry at straight neighborhoods (The Breakup. In Her Shoes. Zzzzzz….) I especially loved the giant rainbow flag the had flying at the top of the hill on Castro – it was like we were in The Republic of Gay, which I’m pretty sure would be a great place to live.
We took a cab right to the theatre, and did a kick ass show! Since we knew what to expect from the crowd, we were able to adjust what we normally do to work with it. I was pretty proud of us for being able to learn from our show the night before. The crowd was much more into it, and it didn’t hurt that Dad’s Garage and Shaun Landry were in the audience laughing just as loud as Will. Afterwards we got food, and then Glennis got savagely beaten by sleep so we all went home.
Law and Order is on! Part 3 will wait!