The One... The Only... The Vieve

Back in Boston

I'm back! Got in last night, about two hours later than I should have, of course. Whenever I fly back to Boston, there's always some maddening hassle and delay. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.

I have too many things to write about, and so I'm not sure what to say. I loved San Francisco. LA was sunny and fun to visit. I smiled a lot. I'm not particularly psyched to be back, but once I do some laundry and wade through my work emails, I'll start planning and plotting a way to fix that.

It was a very emotional trip for me. So much beauty, so many friends. So many reminders of other people's memories and so much potential for making my own. It made me happy and worried and lonely and excited and wistful, all at the same time. It was hard to hold it all, and it's still a little jumbled in my head.

I spent Friday afternoon wandering around Golden Gate Park by myself, alternately feeling content and wishing I had someone to share it with. Friday night, I wandered down to Pakwan by myself and got the most delicious deliciousness. I don't know how they make lentils and spinach taste so good. Felt happy and kind of lonely at the same time.

Saturday, I met up with McG, and we wandered around the Mission together, stopping first at Tartine to get some morning buns and then another cafe to get some juice. We sat in Dolores Park, and ate, and listened to the drums from a Native American wedding ceremony at the bottom of the hill, and petted some dogs, and talked a lot about life. Wandered around some more, talked more, went into a hat shop and Paxton Gate and an antique store. Then to Ti Couz and out of the sun, where we stuffed ourselves with crepes. It was a beautiful, meandering day -- my favorite kind. I want so many more of those.

The wedding was beautiful, and extremely swanky and impeccably organized (as I knew it would be -- it was Courtney's wedding, after all). It made me tearily happy, seeing her come down the aisle, one of my oldest friends. I danced with a lot of married men (I think that was the only type of man there), and also with Hoon's crazy uncle. He was spinning me around and ripping up the dance floor, and I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. I'm pretty sure there's a video out there somewhere. By the end of the night, my feet hurt, and I felt overwhelmed and alone and tipsy, and I had to go lock myself in the bathroom for a little bit and have a little cry.

I slept for a few hours on the floor of my friends' hotel room, went back to John's to pack up, and somehow dragged my hungover, sleepy ass over to Oakland. I took the BART, and was waiting for someone to pick me up and take me to the house, when someone in a car across the street starting screaming. "Call 911! I'm gonna fuck shit up!" She dragged a guy out the car, starting punching him, the other woman joined in, walloping him with her purse, and a bus driver ran over to break it up. The guy eventually walked away, muttering, "Bitch crazy." The women got back into the car, but a minute later one got out again, swinging around half of a pool cue and yelling, "I'm goin' to jail today!" The police showed up a minute later, and I'm pretty sure she got her wish.

LA was surprisingly relaxing. It seems like such a frenetic city (that's how I pictured it, anyway), but it's not at all. I went to Santa Monica and Malibu with 'nette and Eric on Monday, wandered around downtown a lot on Tuesday. Walking up the hills, the smog made me wheeze a bit. Got a little crispy in the sun. I called James, who I hadn't seen or talked to in about two years, and gave him a little shock, I think. We ended up going to dinner my last night there, and it was so good to see him. It made me happy that people, old friends and new, were willing to carve out some space in their hectic and tumultuous lives for li'l ol' me.

There are a lot of other stories to tell, but I'll save them for later.

I miss California. I can't wait to go back.

Posted by thevieve at June 1, 2006 1:34 PM