September 1, Berkeley


Obviously, we wake up late.

Well, Jon and Chris wake up late, I get up at 9:10am for some unknown reason, shower, and KJ and I head out to Dim Sum at Yank Sing in San Francisco (444 Battery, best Dim Sum in SF!). We give Jon the number for KJ's cell phone before leaving, and tell them to call when they get into the Embarcadero Station (making them figure out how to take BART all by themselves *grin*).

They call just as we finish the Dim Sum off with those really really yummy and very very sticky sesame balls.

We meet them at the Embarcadero Plaza, and took the bus (#21) to Golden Gate Park to check out the A La Carte, A La Park that we'd seen advertised in the S.F. Weekly. Pride and Joy were going to be playing there around 3pm; I'd seen them during the New Year's Party at (insert_name_here) Hotel in `92-`93. We get to the park, it costs $8 to get into the area! And we weren't even hungry (Dim Sum does that to you). So, we pretty much just crashed on the grass next to the stage and listened from there; Jon had brought his skates so he and Chris took turns skating around the park while KJ and I talked and read the papers.

At some point I'd called Kimon and told him I'd be around that evening, and that KJ would know where I was, and to call when he got back from his race in Santa Rosa that morning. He called around 3pm, so we arranged to meet at Holonet (where they work) at 5:30pm. So, I needed to leave the park by 4:30pm, and when that time rolled around somehow Chris had gotten lost along the way back through the skate dance area, so KJ and Jon stayed to find him while I hopped back on the bus/BART back to Berkeley. I got to the office at 5:35, not too late!

Kimon was just finishing his dinner, so we went back to his place while he prepared for his 6:45pm skating session that night at the Berkeley Iceland; he'd recently reorganized the entire leading organizational body the skaters had as far as paying for and scheduling ice time!

It was a great visit, I hadn't seen Kimon in quite some time. The changes to the house were incredible; since I'd lived there they'd redone the entire upstairs kitchen, all the windows in my old room, rearranged a few doors and windows, and basically made the whole place just that much more beautiful. One of our skater friends, Jim McKee, had done practically everything, and Sean, one of the housemates from when I was working there, had done the terrazzo (sp?) countertops. Absolutely gorgeous.

Kimon left for his skating session, and I walked over towards southside to get myself some dinner. Ate at EatAPita, a rather good middle-eastern restaurant with a really good half-chicken plate. Unsurprisingly I ran into a bodybuilder + friends there; we started talking -- they asked if I were Swedish (good call), traded business cards with Abby (from Fremont), Sam (the bodybuilder), Bill, Mohammet, and 2 others. Bill and Mohammet live in Berkeley, just below College off of Dwight -- about 3 blocks from Kimon's. Cool.

I finished eating after they'd left, and walked through campus to KJ's, checking out some of the newly-finished buildings (well, new since the last time I'd gone that way), arriving at KJ's around 7:20pm. Jon was out getting some cheese to go with the wine (a really good gewurtztramiener), which we promptly finished while watching KJ's first laser disc purchase, "Wishing for Wings that Work" (a Bill&Opus special).

At 8:30 Jon drove us all to the Emeryville train station, we said our goodbyes, and they dropped me off and left.

Then I went inside and found the train was 2 hours behind schedule.

That's the last time I don't call first before leaving a party to catch a train. *sigh*. So, I write in my diary for a while (up to this point), then get tired..so I set my beeper to go off 10 minutes before the train is supposed to arrive, get out my air mattress, and sack out for about an hour.

The train arrives at 11pm, and I get on. It's a Superliner, I'm in coach, but the hostess/conductor lady gets me into a row of 2 seats all by myself, and these are Comfy Chairs. She hands me a pillow, I get situated, go down the stairs to get some water, come up -- and my pillow's gone! I'll be darned. I ask the conductor for another; she tells me it's amazing, sometimes when people de-train they leave a little nest of pillows behind. She hands me another, and I fall asleep before we get much further than the north end of the Bay.



caetta@holonet.net