I got in a zipcar and headed to Sacramento to my cousin Michele’s place in Orangevale. I hadn’t been to her annual family holiday gathering since 2002, which had been right after I had split up from Rick, and as Michele reminded me, I was in pretty bad shape back then. So it was nice to be able to be in better spirits and share some time with my family. Of course, with the economy like it is, the high spirits were tempered somewhat with the reality of business and politics, but for a few hours, I was able to just be.
There were 10 children there, which was a big increase since the last time I had attended: straight people sure do know how to have kids! I got to be big Uncle Paul and sing silly nonsense songs and play games and tell stories, so that was really fun. I learned that my story-telling abilities are a lot better than they had been 10 years ago.
After supper, there was a white elephant gift exchange, and I ended up with a box of praline truffles, which were really tasty, but I forgot to bring them with me! It’s ok, though, because all the chocolate would be spending its lifetime on the hips had I not “forgotten” to bring them home.
When the party was over, I hopped in the car, and called Darin and Christy up, who were at home working on trying to get their next movie project off the ground. Christy said that Darin was writing and probably didn’t want to be distracted, but I could hear Darin in the background saying for me to come over. So 20 minutes later, I was downtown and sitting in their newly revamped living room, and reading a draft of one of the four scripts he’s working on, and watching Christy put together a poster or flyer for one of the other potential projects.
Did you know that many species of Armadillo only give birth to identical quadruplets, and that this feature of the species makes them “ideal” subjects for certain types of scientific experimentation? Terror de los Armadillos Gigantes, indeed.
They were going to be headed over to another holiday party comprised mostly of 20-something theater kids, many of whom have worked with Darin and Christy on the Trash Film Orgy and Monster from Bikini Beach, so it was nice to be hanging out with them. They were all on myspace, so it seems, so I might have to spend a little bit of time revamping my myspace profile. Or not.
Anyway, right around 01:55 or so, I decided that I had had enough of the drunken revelries of these creative kids and it was time to start driving back to San Francisco. Darin and Christy wanted to go back home and get back to work on their projects, too, so we bid the kids farewell, and got back to their place, where I dropped them of, and we talked about the script for a few more minutes. I had to hit the road, though, so said goodnight, and hopped on the freeway.
I got back to UGH at 05:00, parked the zipcar in the driveway, and came upstairs to crash out. 10:30 this morning I woke up and headed out to fuel the car back up and return it to its location at 8th and Market. Walking home in the brisk, cool air in my rainjacket and flip-flops was just perfect. My feet got lots of fresh air, and my body stayed dry and warm! It was delightful.
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