Blind Date

Last week, my friend J sent me an email and asked me if I wanted to meet a friend of his, M.  M was supposedly very cool… described as: “funny, very smart, well educated, and has lived in NYC, Chicago, DC and now 4 blocks away from you in SF.”  Awesome, I thought we have a lot in common.  This would be an awesome time to meet new people and friends living in SF, since it seems that every potential love interest I have at the moment lives either across the country, in Germany or in Singapore.  I thought I did my diligence… J sent me a picture of M from an event they went to together sometime last year. M was not excruciatingly good-looking, but he was handsome with dark eyes.  J gave M my email and we exchanged a few pleasantries.  Spur of the moment last night, we decided to meet this morning at my favorite restaurant in the hood, Mission Beach Cafe for brunch.  Well, that’s about all the good stuff you’re going to hear.  If you’re opposed to hearing about me making fun of someone, stop reading now.

Point of View

This morning around 10 AM, I joined the joggers, dog owners, and homeless people making their way around Dolores Park.  As I approached the lawn, I saw a small crowd around a couple painted white and wearing masquerade type masks.  I wondered what they were doing as Sammy and her 2 cousins, L, E and I made our way up the lawn.

As we got closer, I realized the 2 “people” that bystanders were surrounding and photographing were not “people”, rather they were an art installation made out of the material casts are made out of to set broken limbs.  I looked at them a brief second before L and E freaked out and started barking at them.  Obviously, L and E did not like  the people or the art.

40 minutes later, I came back sans puppy but with my camera and took another second to ponder the art that graced my morning.  The “person” on the right, had a bleeding heart and was kneeling in front of the person standing.  The person standing, obviously dominant, was holding a mirror that said “It’s worth the Fight.”  My first thought was fight = war.  But there were no weapons.  I wondered if the materials the people were made of, and if they had anything to do with the message.  I wondered why the people were wearing flamboyantly colored masks.

There were two guys standing near the installation, both shirtless, one black, one white, both carrying beers.  I asked them to please move over so I could take a picture and told the guys – “there have been people here stopping to take pictures all morning.  I can’t figure out what this all means.”  The white guy (found out his name was Joey said, ”well that’s the point, [for people to think] I made these.” The other guy, said, “isn’t it obvious… LOVE.  It’s worth the fight.”

A Going Away

My sister and part-time roomate Diana left for Germany last week.  She’ll be gone for 3.5 months and I’ll have our Mission apartment all to myself (and 3 dogs) for the entire summer.  I missed her going away party at the Phoenix since I was in NYC, but flew back to SF a couple of days before she left.  One of the things Diana is weary about for her trip to Germany is the food.  She typically eats pretty healthfully, and is not a major fan of heavy food we stereotypically think of when we think of Germany.

To send her off properly, Christina and I took Diana out to a going away dinner at Delfina.  Listed as one of the top 100 resturants in 2008 in the Bay Area, I’m surprised I’d never been there, since I live on the same street and enjoy good food.  We showed up for our  5:30 reservation (My NY readers / friends, please don’t judge – my sister goes to bed at 10 pm every night for work at 6 AM).  The place was already lively and packed, as Californians like to eat early.

A Local Tourist

This is a picture of a tourist in the Mission District in San Francisco.  Living here (part time at least) I forget that San Francisco is a tourist destination and the cool things we take for granted are novelties for others.

 

Man taking photos of churches on Dolores and 16th in the Mission