Dating Archive

Friday morning dawned, and I rose, feeling the grainy kiss of morning in my mouth. My relationship with morning lately has been one of recrimination and regret, as I silently curse the coming of the sun.  Getting out of bed and facing the bleakness of the economy’s toll on my once-thriving massage practice seems to have become a chore lately, although I still put in some work every day on marketing my practice.

But as I boarded BART to SFO to get my rental car for the weekend, I started to fel more of a sense of purpose.  The nice lady at the rental station gave me my free upgrade because I’m a Hertz #1 Gold member, so instead of a tiny Ford Focus, I got a Mazda 5 series with more space for the stuff I was planning on taking to Sacramento for the weekend: massage table, all the food to cook dinner for the TFO production crew, clothing for the wedding and work and stuff to spend some time with George.

My mind started focusing on my upcoming tasks as I drove back from the airport, first to my one out-call client’s home to pick up my portable table, then to UGH to pick up the food and clothing.  I hit the road right around 13:15 and breezed through traffic to arrive in Sacramento right around 15:00.

I had soaked pinto beans the night before, so all I had to do was season and simmer them, then add some butter and mash them up.  I cooked some Mexican-style rice with garlic, onions, peppers, tomatoes, made pollo asado, al pastor, my brother-in-law made guacamole, my sister made the tortillas when she got home from work, and I packed up the food, heading over to the studio of TFO Production’s latest movie, Planet of the Vampire Women.

I arrived right at 18:00, and set up the food.  They were getting ready for their shooting schedule for that day, with Darin writing up a shooting order for the various scenes, Amy busy preparing the special effects, Christy getting the camera and lighting ready, and other crew members running around doing their thing to get ready, too.  The actors were in their costumes, putting on their makeup, and the scene was very satisfying.

They were filming the attack of the lightning bats scene, and we were having fun – they put me to work running one of the colored lights that needed to have a hand on the dimmer.  So I say behind the camera, moving the dimmer switch brighter and dimmer in an attempt to make the light look like a candle or torch in a shifting wind.

Finally, though, I had to leave, so I packed up the remains of the meal (actors and crew are hungry!) and schlepped over to my parents’ place where I was going to stay the night.  They were still awake, and we sat and talked for a time before I headed to bed.

07:00 and my phone’s alarm went off, gently waking me to start getting ready for my nephew’s wedding.  I made a pot of coffee and some oatmeal for my folks while they were getting dressed and ready.  We got into the van and I drove us to Folsom to the Lake Natoma Inn, where we arrived just in time to for the wedding to begin.  My parents are very slow-moving, owing to their mobility issues, so I drove like a mad hatter to get us there on time.

The wedding was very short and simple, as neither of the participants are religious, and the reception luncheon was very nice, with many options for carnivores and vegetarians.  David, my nephew, made 150 cupcakes – he’s a culinary student – as well as lovely jars of blueberry preserves to give out as guest gifts.  After around two hours, though, my mom ran out of energy, so I gathered up the van and brought it around so we could get my dad’s chair into the van’s lift, as well as get my mom loaded into the van, and I drove us back home.  I worked on their computer, cleaning up some of the crap that had been installed, fixed the light in the ceiling fan in the office, before heading over to my sister’s place to return the serving dished I used for Friday’s dinner.

Finally, I hit the road around 17:00 for Palo Alto, to see George.  It had been around three weeks since we had seen each other, and my arms were hungry to cuddle with him.  Once I got there around 18:45, we hung out for a little while before deciding to walk the two blocks to University Ave. and all the chi-chi restaurants, but the pizza joint George wanted to show me was closed, so after walking around and not seeing anywhere that we wanted to go, we walked back home, and George made us some penne alfredo, and we watched What Happens in Vegas and snuggled.

On the way out to the restaurant, though, I went out to the rental car to grab my wallet from my messenger bag, but the bag wasn’t there!  I went back inside and looked around his place, then called my folks to see if I had left it there, and it turns out that I had.  I hope that my brain isn’t becoming that middle-aged mush.  Which meant that I didn’t have any cash, license, keys, etc, and that I had to drive back to Sacramento to pick it up.  Doh!

So, Sunday morning, after breakfast and coffee and lovin’ with Georgie, I hit the road – George lent me some money to put into the car’s gas tank – and I made it back to Sacramento, worked some more on my folk’s computer for an hour, and then turned back around and drove back to Palo Alto to spend my last few hours with George.

At last, I had to tuck him in to bed and come home to San Francisco, where I brought most of my stuff up from the car, had a quick wash, then climbed up into bed, and slept the sleep of the dead.

Lessons learned:

• Elderly parents need lots of preparation time to ready for events.
• Helping elderly parents is oddly satisfying.
• My family is actually pretty cool after all.
• Palo Alto is overpriced and pretentious, yet has a pastoral quality to it.
• Georgie looks really good ball gag in his mouth.