What a Holiday
This holiday has been among the most fabulous and meaningful EVER for me. All week has been a series of celebrations -- all right up my alley. Thank you to SF you know who peeps for a kick ass party (no acronym included to protect the innocent). Thank you to everyone who came to our fifth Christmas Eve Eve (CEE) party. And thanks to K&M for opening their home to the Yum Yum for an extraORDINARY Christmas Day.
Burp. And here's a photo of one of Van's gifts to me / us. Beautiful watches to go with our rings. (You can also see the sleeve of the new robe he gave me....blue!) 
Meantime, here are photos from the Christmas Eve Eve party. Christmas Day (today) photos to come ... tomorrow.
Karl (of Oahu, Oakland, Oahu, Oakland, Oahu, Oakland consulting fame) starts the evening with finger food and wine. Yum.
Michelle (speaker extraordinaire, NPO program director, and of K&M fame) and Janet (ED of that big place that has to do with foundations and of Janet and David fame but no photos of David available!) talk about all things nonprofit, we're sure. More than half the crowd was of nonprofit ilk (if you include universities).
Nikkol (pharma sales gal who is looking, any hot men out there?) and Haleh (author and professor extraordinaire) pose for the camera.
Nick (of certain Congressman fame) celebrates by wrapping Christmas ornaments around his neck.
Patricia (of arts fame in SF), Van, and Nick (Patricia's son, SF-that-place-where-I-work alum and international NYU student) pose mid swig.
Englishman Travis (of last minute I-ran-out-of-wrapping-turned-hit-gift-of-the-night fame) can't find a seat in the house.
The Ring Leader leads White Elephant Bingo -- much better this year than last with the last-minute-find-and-purchase (thank you Ross of all places) of a "Deluxe" Bingo game.
V&J wrap up the night with a hug from Susan-who-doesn't-have-her-eyes-closed-in-this-photo fame!
Merry Christmas to all!
Christmas
The first gift I remember wanting as a child was a Mr. Professor calculator. There must have been other things I wanted. I was seven or eight when I wanted a Mr. Professor calculator. I also wanted drawing pencils and charcoals, as well as a sketch pad. And an aquarium. The aquarium came when I got a paper route at age nine and bought it myself.
That was when I cataloged every experience and object by smell and color. When a cool afternoon sitting on a picnic table with a friend at the elementary school across the street seemed like it would last forever.
Tonight I lived a Christmas memory of my own creation -- the annual Christmas Eve Eve party Van and I started a few years ago. It made me reflect on my own Christmas experiences -- with and without family. With friends who've become my family. With Van who sometimes drives me insane and always makes me happy.
I don't "taste" experiences and possessions like I used to. Life is too fast. But I do cherish the experiences I have with friends and the moments when I am able to put life on pause long enough to really see them and love them.
How Quickly It Could Go
I was reminded Wednesday night while dining at Modern Thai and after feeling my first earthquake, brief but obvious, that my fabulous life in San Francisco could change in a matter of seconds. I was reminded again tonight when Elaine emailed asking if I had felt the quake twenty minutes earlier that shook Samira's house like crazy.
Fascinated -- and not in keeping with the holiday cheer I'm feeling otherwise -- I started exploring the Internet anew and found eyewitness accounts about the 1906 earthquake on The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
Here are some quotes pulled from stories. The descriptions are terrific.
On the morning of the 18th of April I was awakened from a sound slumber by a terrific trembling, which acted in the same manner as would a bucking broncho. My bed was going up and down in all four directions at once, while all about me I heard screams, wails, and crashing of breaking china-ware and nick-nacks. I was very quietly watching the clock on the mantel, which was doing a fancy stunt, while the ornaments in the parlor could be heard crashing to the floor. A great portion of plaster right over the head of my bed fell all around me. Peter Bacigalupi, San Francisco
Arnold Genthe's famous photograph of San Francisco following the earthquake, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street (from Wikipedia.com)
I take no notice for the moment, and then, as the rocking continues, I get up and go to the window, raise the shade and look out. And what I see makes me tremble with fear. I see the buildings toppling over, big pieces of masonry falling, and from the street below I hear the cries and screams of men and women and children. Enrico Caruso, on tour in San Francisco
My mother then went after some stuff to eat so that we wouldn’t be without something if we had to go up to the hills to get away from the fire. By the time it was gaining headway and cinders from the fire came floating down on us until there was a thin layer of them all over the yard. Lloyd Head, a member of the Roosevelt Boys’ Club
My Blessed Life in SF and Its Close Ties to Karaoke
I was hesitant to move to San Francisco after not quite finishing my time in New York. But love prevailed and I came back west on June 15, 2003 saying, "I'll give it a try for three months." Even though I knew I was coming for good.
But part of moving is making new friends and finding a new home. I left dear friends in New York and slipped slowly into SF life.
With the holidays here I find myself reflecting on my very full life now. More than three years later and more than five years into my relationship with Van and our lives are full and blessed by dear friends -- some of whom were a blast from the past -- all of whom have enriched my life in ways I could not have predicted.
And now a big flourish for Karl and Michelle. 
We met officially at Martuni's but we quickly found our way to where else but The Mint. Yes, a karaoke bar. (Karaoke is incidentally where I met Van in 2001, but more on that later.) Soon the fabulous K&M were brightening our then burgeoning annual Christmas Eve Eve party, then we were off to a trip on the Napa Wine Train, and soon many more wine tastings, dinners, movies, karaoke nights (poor Karl), Yum Yum Clubbing, trips, fundraisers, and more. We are in love with Karl and Michelle. Michelle sings a mean Shania, Dixie Chicks, Tanya Tucker, and Suzanne Vega -- to name a few. And then Becky came back into my life. Let's see. Becky and I met as CAs (really RAs but for on campus apartment housing) at ACU. We've been through it all -- and under a variety of scenarios and constraints. We kissed once on a piano bench -- to our mutual horror. Twas like kissing a sibling.
Now Becky is a globe trotting business owner of ten years with more gusto than one person should legally have. And I adore her more than ever. Becky sings a mean "Summer Nights," but generally flits around pretending she has a song waiting in the queue. (Yes, that is fabulous Michelle in the green shirt behind Becky. Oh the photos this night produced. They would singe your eyebrows if you saw them all.)
A big surprise through work has been my fabulous friendships with Anette, Elaine, and Nick (among others not pictured here so I'll have to talk about them later). 
Like Karl & Michelle -- and more of the gang we'll meet in a minute -- Anette, Elaine, and Nick are crazy fun seeking lovers of life who I simply adore and don't see enough of. Anette doesn't even pretend that she will sing and I'm waiting for the day she gets gone enough to lay one down. Elaine sings a very mean Heart and Nick sings a great "All of Me."
And then Nikkol comes onto the scene two years ago saying, "I don't like karaoke," but boy does she get an earful around this crew and soon she is up in the mix singing "Don't Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton and bringing down the house.
A fab member of the Yum Yum Club, Nikkol is quick to laugh off a red wine stain on her cream colored sweater ... oh the stories she could tell. (Who started it again?)
A moment of solidarity and non-photo-ness for Ana Ana Ana Ana Ana-Marie. Whom I adore.
Our Boyz In Da Hood here, Karl, Nick (yes another Nick) and Van. Nick is the highlight in this photo since I've already mentioned Karl and I'll give Van a special shout out in a second.
Nick is just one crazy-ass-biatch who has so much gumption that he hooked up with a guy running for Congress and actually got the guy to win! He even got Bill C. (of I did not have sex with that woman fame) to stump for his guy. Like most of my friends, Nick laughs -- seriously laughs -- with ease. And he is fond of belching frequently without apology. Although Nick's love of music is so great that he cannot be bothered with our musical destruction of his favorite songs, so the words "Nick" and "karaoke" are rarely paired.
So this is a strange trio. Karaoke bar owner Chris, me, and Elizabeth (who p.s. has seven children ranging in age from 7 to 23 doesn't she look great!).
Here we are singing Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" in three part screamony. Although Elizabeth was doing GREAT. Now we know where her children get their talent.
This doesn't represent all of the fabulous people in my life on the West Coast, but it does represent all of the photos I have readily available on my Snapfish account. Just a glimpse of the people who make me happy.
One last photo for the road:
And before I close, I have to give the biggest shout out to my husband, Van, whom I love and adore more than I thought would ever be possible. Sometimes I leave him tucked away and sleeping in the morning (reading between the lines, he's actually the one who leaves ME sleeping since he generally leaves for work earlier) and I am overwhelmed by love to the point of tears. The odds were stacked against our meeting -- my living in New York and his living in San Francisco.
But in 2001 he made a last minute flight destination change (from Mexico to New York) and I decided out of pity to attend a mutual friend's birthday party after begrudgingly shopping all day for t-shirts with a visiting friend. Van and I ended up at this karaoke bar birthday party. The moment he walked in the door I forced a book in his lap and turned on all of the charm I could possibly summon. Three days later we found out that we grew up in the same denomination (which technically calls itself non-denominational ... ok) and the cement started to set.
This photo is my new favorite of us. Complete, uninhibited love.
An all too familiar story
Denver Pastor Resigns Over HomosexualityIsn't it time for the church to realize something? My heart hurts for these people -- and their wives and their children and....
My Favorite Movie Reviewer
Dave White, "Your Man at the Multiplex" of Movies.Go.Com is my favorite movie reviewer.
He is quick, deadpan, and usually right on, saying what I felt like saying after seeing, say, a movie like The Holiday, which I saw last night with Elaine. Yes, we walked away feeling well -- and like it was just the kind of movie we needed (namely because it reminded both of us that we need vacations, too). Although we knew it wouldn't win any Oscars and I was self-consciously aware that I was agreeing that I liked a pile of schlock.
But Dave White has a way of communicating how I feel.
Today, however, I searched through Dave's past movie postings to see if he ever has anything positive to say, and of course the fag was crazy about Brokeback Mountain. I was, too. But I don't poo poo every other movie ever made. That aside, I thought he fittingly summed up Brokeback (after plugging his sap leaking hole) like this:
Movie Math: Titanic + Same Time, Next Year + Romeo + Juliet - Juliet = Brokeback Mountain
Mexican Just Got Spicier
Around the corner from our apartment is San Francisco's answer to West 43rd and 8th Ave in New York: the "World Famous Nob Hill Theatre."
I walk by the place at least four times a week and can't help but take a gander at the photos of performers on the outside displays with towels, cartoon stars, and fig leaves strategically covering their bits.
I've never ventured in. In fact the whole thing makes me roll my eyes just a bit.
But tonight, while just around the corner at a nearby Mexican restaurant, I had the eavesdropping pleasure of hearing some porn star chatter.
It seems that everyone in every occupation must muse on his craft, because with the intensity and analysis these boys were sending into the world, you'd think they were preparing to perform the next nationwide tour of Macbeth.
The boys -- clearly porn stars what with their chiseled bods and square jaw lines -- discussed how their performance for the live audience could be enhanced if the stool could be just a few inches taller. And how their audience is such a diverse crowd -- given its mix of young and old, tourists and locals. Porn is apparently no discriminator of ethnicity or socio-economic status. The boys chattered a bit about the weather in San Francisco versus New York and Miami. And they compared horror stories about various toys, swings, devices, and apparatuses.
While thinking, "These boys bound for the Robin Byrd Show (NY), if they haven't already appeared there multiple times," my eavesdropping was interrupted when a hillbilly tourist to my left confessed to his table mate: "Since I was eight, I haven't hit a woman, if you can believe it."
Mexican food just got a whole lot spicier.
Forced Gifting
I'm not usually a Christmas gift giver. I hate being told when and how I have to give a gift. I'd much rather be spontaneous and spend my dough on someone I love because I happen across something that reminds me of them in a moment of fondness. Rather than charging around like the dickens trying to find a perfect gift, yada yada.
I've been hit and miss with nephews and nieces. Shame on me. But truthfully they don't expect much since I have been hit and miss since they were born. (Some of them prolly don't even know who I am.)
Tonight, however, I went shopping for myself (as usual) and suddenly found myself thinking about Van. So I bought him some gifts. Hmm. This might be kind of fun.
I Wanna Go To This Church
Great Hair
With me, good hair is like Bigfoot. A fleeting beast that only rears its hairy head every now and then. Well, today was a hit. And so was yesterday. I've finally grown through the gnarly stage and after getting a haircut on Saturday that is too fab for words (cutting the back up again to match the front), I'm enjoying the fruits of my long-hair growing labor.
And this while I still have it. 'Cause heaven knows it's a-leavin' every day in the shower, despite my Propecia attempts to keep it there.
But today I basked for a moment. Great clothes (from a weekend shopping spree) and an even greater haircut. A woman ON THE BUS said, "I like your hair!"
It doesn't get any more real than that. Which makes me wonder: how many people were THINKING that? Ha ha ha! (I'll get a photo up soon, I hope.)
Karaoke & Beer
Attempts to curb my karaoke cravings have proven unsuccessful lately. With spurts of culture happening now and then (when I attempt to cultivate broader interests like museums, art, theater, etc), I still find myself going back for a beer and a song.
Here's a pic of Van and me from Tuesday night (we missed Yum Yummers!). He says about the photo: "I wish I had smiled in the picture." But I think he looks fabulous, and besides, I can more closely examine whether my Arm & Hammer Complete Care Whitening Toothpaste is working (thanks Marquel for the tip).
Wednesday night we had dinner at Café Andrée (read my updated Yelp review about Café Andrée) downstairs and I had a Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, a beer that is new to me by Anderson Valley Brewing Company. I highly recommend trying it. My other two favorite beers are: Negra Modelo from Mexico and Duvel from Belgium.
Yum.
P.S. I'm suddenly a walking commercial. But I really like talking about things that go in my mouth.
Meantime, here are photos from the Christmas Eve Eve party. Christmas Day (today) photos to come ... tomorrow.
Karl (of Oahu, Oakland, Oahu, Oakland, Oahu, Oakland consulting fame) starts the evening with finger food and wine. Yum.
Nikkol (pharma sales gal who is looking, any hot men out there?) and Haleh (author and professor extraordinaire) pose for the camera.
Nick (of certain Congressman fame) celebrates by wrapping Christmas ornaments around his neck.
Patricia (of arts fame in SF), Van, and Nick (Patricia's son, SF-that-place-where-I-work alum and international NYU student) pose mid swig.
Englishman Travis (of last minute I-ran-out-of-wrapping-turned-hit-gift-of-the-night fame) can't find a seat in the house.
The Ring Leader leads White Elephant Bingo -- much better this year than last with the last-minute-find-and-purchase (thank you Ross of all places) of a "Deluxe" Bingo game.
V&J wrap up the night with a hug from Susan-who-doesn't-have-her-eyes-closed-in-this-photo fame!
