Meet Me at the Clock Tower
First we met Michael. We didn't know where to go, so I was just getting as close to the clock tower as I could. I kept going upward (there are a LOT of stairs at Ghirardelli Square!) until someone called my name.
Honestly, I felt a little awkward. Here I was, in my 5th or 10th outfit of the day, the one I ended up wearing after I just gave up in frustration, feeling rather self-conscious about how I looked, standing in front of a very handsome man with the nicest smile ever. So I did that thing I do when I’m nervous—I started talking non-stop. But you know, the awkward just kind of *poof* went away after a few minutes (which isn’t to say I stopped talking non-stop, but I became a little more focused).
And then Varla arrived. She looked like a grown up Emily, just like Mike said! I forgot that they had met before, but that added a degree of comfort, knowing they already knew each other. Besides that, she just has a way of making you (me) feel at ease.
Shortly after that, Leese, Stanks, Nia, Jacob and David all showed up. Now I've met Leese & the boys before, but not Stanks or Nia. I actually *forgot* that I'd never met Stanks before because I've heard so much about him through Leese and seen so many pictures of him. I forgot until he said, "Nice to finally meet you" (or something like that). After my look of confusion passed, I reiterated something similar. Oops.
(Aside: Nia is a beautiful young lady. Not too old for her age; self confident, but not in a flamboyant or cocky way like teenagers can be; and obviously very intelligent. I'm glad I had this chance to meet her.)
We headed off in search of a burger joint and were surprised and pleased to find one right there at the Square! Cool. We sat outside, had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch (the waiter didn't fuck up anything--that's always a plus), and then hung out near the fountain for a while visiting, taking pictures, and not wanting to say goodbye. But Stanks had to go to work, so their contingency of 5 left around 1-ish. Bye guys! Longer visit next time!
Em, Varla, Mike and I walked across the street to the steps at the ocean front where Em promptly took off her shoes and began to RUN at break-neck speed up and down the beach. Silly kid.
We had conversations I'm not going to share, but we talked about you, and we talked about you... Oh, and we talked about you, too... Oh yeah, and you, too! Hee hee hee!
(What happens on blogger-meets stays on blogger-meets. You wanna know what was said, you gotta show up.)
The wind would whip up every so often, blowing sand in our faces and hair in our eyes (well, except for Michael. He was wearing sunglasses). I don't know about Varla, but I had a mini-beach in my bra when I undressed later that evening. Hahaha! It was just about as perfect a day as I've ever seen in San Francisco, and I've been living up here for more than 16 years.
Are you tired yet? Yeah, us too. Let's go find coffee. God bless Michael when he said the word "Starbucks" (whew). Some people are anti-S. I am not one of those people. I LOVE the Starbucks empire and all it stands for. Resistance is Futile.
On the way to Starbucks, Em spontaneously grabbed Varla's hand. (Now I happen to think V's butt looks GREAT in this picture. She's not convinced, but she did give me permission to post it.)
We found a Starbucks, got our coffees, and Em had to go to the bathroom. Kids have the greatest perspective on stuff. Instead of making a line, she just pulled a chair up right next to the door to wait. So funny!
Then she crawled right up into Michael's lap, uninvited, but I don't think unwanted. She's SUCH a flirt!
We decided to take our coffees into Golden Gate park so Em could continue running around and we could continue our gab-fest, so we loaded into my FILTHY car (I haven't washed it since our camping trip in June and although I clean out the inside on a regular basis, that regular day is Monday, so it was FULL of crap! Sorry again, Michael...) and started driving.
And driving. Then we drove some more. Oh, then while we were driving, Em fell SOUND asleep...
so I drove Michael back to his hotel. This was the point at which the caffeine kicked in, so I did my Katey and Lois Lane impersonations. Yeah, I kinda suck at impersonations, but we were laughing anyway. No ladies, I swear they were laughing at me, not at you guys (heh heh). At the hotel, we all got out and took more pictures, thanks to the roof of the car and a timer device on Varla’s camera.
Em and I then drove Varla back to her VERY cool looking neighborhood (girlfriend, I am *so* coming to hang out with you one of these weekend days so we can go wandering), and headed for home.
We got home shortly after 6:00, sunburned, sandy, and tired. Ate a bit of dinner, then crashed hard.
Man--all Sundays should be so fun. Thanks, everyone. It was a pleasure to meet you all!
Honestly, I felt a little awkward. Here I was, in my 5th or 10th outfit of the day, the one I ended up wearing after I just gave up in frustration, feeling rather self-conscious about how I looked, standing in front of a very handsome man with the nicest smile ever. So I did that thing I do when I’m nervous—I started talking non-stop. But you know, the awkward just kind of *poof* went away after a few minutes (which isn’t to say I stopped talking non-stop, but I became a little more focused).
And then Varla arrived. She looked like a grown up Emily, just like Mike said! I forgot that they had met before, but that added a degree of comfort, knowing they already knew each other. Besides that, she just has a way of making you (me) feel at ease.
Shortly after that, Leese, Stanks, Nia, Jacob and David all showed up. Now I've met Leese & the boys before, but not Stanks or Nia. I actually *forgot* that I'd never met Stanks before because I've heard so much about him through Leese and seen so many pictures of him. I forgot until he said, "Nice to finally meet you" (or something like that). After my look of confusion passed, I reiterated something similar. Oops.
(Aside: Nia is a beautiful young lady. Not too old for her age; self confident, but not in a flamboyant or cocky way like teenagers can be; and obviously very intelligent. I'm glad I had this chance to meet her.)
We headed off in search of a burger joint and were surprised and pleased to find one right there at the Square! Cool. We sat outside, had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch (the waiter didn't fuck up anything--that's always a plus), and then hung out near the fountain for a while visiting, taking pictures, and not wanting to say goodbye. But Stanks had to go to work, so their contingency of 5 left around 1-ish. Bye guys! Longer visit next time!
Em, Varla, Mike and I walked across the street to the steps at the ocean front where Em promptly took off her shoes and began to RUN at break-neck speed up and down the beach. Silly kid.
We had conversations I'm not going to share, but we talked about you, and we talked about you... Oh, and we talked about you, too... Oh yeah, and you, too! Hee hee hee!
(What happens on blogger-meets stays on blogger-meets. You wanna know what was said, you gotta show up.)
The wind would whip up every so often, blowing sand in our faces and hair in our eyes (well, except for Michael. He was wearing sunglasses). I don't know about Varla, but I had a mini-beach in my bra when I undressed later that evening. Hahaha! It was just about as perfect a day as I've ever seen in San Francisco, and I've been living up here for more than 16 years.
Are you tired yet? Yeah, us too. Let's go find coffee. God bless Michael when he said the word "Starbucks" (whew). Some people are anti-S. I am not one of those people. I LOVE the Starbucks empire and all it stands for. Resistance is Futile.
On the way to Starbucks, Em spontaneously grabbed Varla's hand. (Now I happen to think V's butt looks GREAT in this picture. She's not convinced, but she did give me permission to post it.)
We found a Starbucks, got our coffees, and Em had to go to the bathroom. Kids have the greatest perspective on stuff. Instead of making a line, she just pulled a chair up right next to the door to wait. So funny!
Then she crawled right up into Michael's lap, uninvited, but I don't think unwanted. She's SUCH a flirt!
We decided to take our coffees into Golden Gate park so Em could continue running around and we could continue our gab-fest, so we loaded into my FILTHY car (I haven't washed it since our camping trip in June and although I clean out the inside on a regular basis, that regular day is Monday, so it was FULL of crap! Sorry again, Michael...) and started driving.
And driving. Then we drove some more. Oh, then while we were driving, Em fell SOUND asleep...
so I drove Michael back to his hotel. This was the point at which the caffeine kicked in, so I did my Katey and Lois Lane impersonations. Yeah, I kinda suck at impersonations, but we were laughing anyway. No ladies, I swear they were laughing at me, not at you guys (heh heh). At the hotel, we all got out and took more pictures, thanks to the roof of the car and a timer device on Varla’s camera.
Em and I then drove Varla back to her VERY cool looking neighborhood (girlfriend, I am *so* coming to hang out with you one of these weekend days so we can go wandering), and headed for home.
We got home shortly after 6:00, sunburned, sandy, and tired. Ate a bit of dinner, then crashed hard.
Man--all Sundays should be so fun. Thanks, everyone. It was a pleasure to meet you all!
posted by Aimee at
10:00 AM
|
<< Home