fivel: the mouse wanderer

days 18 - 21 have flown by and 22-24 are looking to be equally busy. for this reason i'm going to summarize now and (probably) fill in some gaps down the road:

FRIDAY
eduardo (former coworker) paid ki a lunch visit. he is on break from nyu, where he is in business school. ed is characterized by his loud laugh, blunt (but warm) manner, and foul mouth. it was good to see that business school has not tempered his character ;0p frankly, it was inspiring to visit with him because he's going for his goals with 100% determination. plus, he invited me to visit him in barcelona this fall, which won my favor. at least for a few days.

with compTron and j-rum's phone companionship, swiss miss and i see off on our san francisco adventure. it didn't take long before we were singing at the top of our lungs, laughing, drinking (sparkling water), and generally being merry. i am very grateful that swiss jenny asked if she could sit by me at church several months ago because she is a true gem. we rolled into sf around 2am and fell asleep around 3.

SATURDAY
came bright and early as we put money in our parking meter at 7am. momentarily forgetting where we were, swiss miss and i stepped out of the hostel and, with delight, exclaimed: "hellooooo san francisco!" this became a trademark of our trip.

we trekked all over town on foot, via cable car and trolley. at fishermans' wharf we took pirate pictures, ate clam chowder (a first for jenny, and also a new vocab word), argued with persistent seagulls, and acquired tickets to visit alcatraz. we breezed through ghiradelli square (which was completely unimpressive to jenny's swiss tastes), observed the crookedest street at hyde and lombard street, climbed some of the steepest hills i've ever seen in a city, and checked out coit tower.

alcatraz proved to be very impressive. the ferry ride over was beautiful, the audio tour was excellent, and the conversation stimulating. jenny and i covered everything from irreverent jokes about spoon-digging to freedom to philosophies of human behavior (love, war, violence, punishment).

back on the continent, we rode the muni along embarcadero street to boudin bakery for dinner. after returning to the hostel in union square, we investigated options for the evening and settled on "city nights," an 18-and-up club at harrison and 3rd street. we had a great time because, well, "wir sind die parteitieres," but the club itself was a little ridiculous (as 18+ clubs generally are in this country). hands patrol was on triple-overtime, ear-nibbling was out of control, and i silently vowed NEVER AGAIN to go dancing without dave. we merrily made our way back to the hostel around 4am.

SUNDAY
another early morning happened as we attempted to meet up with my friends, kristin and kyle, for church. however, our plans for spiritual rejuvination were foiled by the "bay to breakers" run (a 7-mile event from the sf bay to the pacific ocean). realizing church meetings were not in the stars, swiss miss suggested we could "keep the sunday spirit" anyway, and we walked barefoot through golden gate park taking video of people in costumes, crossing paths with many a nude individual, and eventually planting ourselves at the japanese tea gardens.

kyle, kristin, jenny and i made our way out of the park and to the sunset district, where we went to a curry restaurant (another 1st for jenny). kyle then took us up in the hills near his apartment behind ucsf to a very windy hill/cliff with an amazing panoramic view of the city. rendezvous came to an end and jenny and i drove along the pacific highway toward the marina. after napping for an hour near fishermans' wharf, jenny and i did final driving tours through little italy, chinatown, haight ashbury and castro district.

our trip home was nearly uneventful and i parked it at 12:00pm.

MONDAY
ok. i am getting very very very tired. so in a nutshell: anna, the return intern, had her first day back at the showroom. so that's great. the day got mostly awesome when dave invited me to check out lori mckenna's label show at the hotel cafe. surprisingly great music followed with unsurprisingly awesome company. my favorite song was called "make every word hurt." a post-show visit to amoeba topped off the greatness of it all. i acquired grateful dead and gn'r albums for $10, total.

tj and i planned a few details for her bday (at which time i will be passing the birthday torch). then i headed to jarom's to visit with swiss miss, compTron and her friends. awkwardly, jarom was not there. however, he returned and animated chats followed between swiss miss, j, and me.

not the most exciting description of 4 tremendous days. but fatigue prevails tonight.

TITLE EXPLANATION
en route to san francisco, swiss miss informed me that the direct translation from german of "the american tale" movie title is "fivel: the mouse wanderer". personally, i feel that i missed something spectacular in my childhood by calling it "the american tale".