Weekends

The last few weekends have been good ones. They've included a sampling of all the things I've been missing over the last year (or 5). All the hobbies I've been mentioning, the family time, the chill time, connecting more with San Francisco, the music scene, friends, photography, and above all... sleeping in my own bed. The fact that I haven't had to travel anywhere over the last month has been part and parcel to this. It's been a nice break from the hectic schedule that has defined the last eight months.

Sally took me out for my birthday in Sept. Oh ya... I'm 29 now. Ugh. Anyhow, she called as I was driving home from a rather hectic upgrade at a site in Pasadena. As always, she was stunning, we had some good sushi near my apartment, but most impressive was that she remembered. Last time we went out on my birthday was in 2002.

Carlee sent out an email last spring with tentative dates for some backpacking trips throughout the summer. One of them, the last one, landed on a weekend that wasn't committed to either work or Renegades. Come the last weekend of September, 6 of us and a beautiful yellow labrador boogied up to the Carson Iceburg Wilderness off hwy 4. The plan was to do 16 miles roundtrip with an overnighter at Bull Lake. That plan was shattered when we completely blew past our turnoff and wandered another 3 miles past it to another lake just off the pacific coast trail. It was just the ass-kicking I needed to realize just how out-of-shape I am. Granted, 22 miles in a weekend with a 40 lb pack is no walk in the woods, but I seriously freakin lagged. Speaking of walk-in-the-woods, the Bill Bryson novel came up in conversation a few times... I thought that was kinda funny. Another bonus was that we got to thrash James' rented Hyundai on some dirt roads... wee!

Another road trip involved a 1-day cabin-scouting trip to Tahoe on behalf of the group (more later). Good Lord, that was a fun drive. Beautiful weather, perfect Hwy 50 road conditions, top-down, Carlee navigating, all-out balls to the wall blast up the mountain, around the basin for a few hours, and back down again. No details here, as they would involve enough self-incriminating evidence to warrant an arrest. Motor-Trend calls it "making time". http://www.motortrend.com/features/112_0210_chp/ I call it "the very reason I got that car".

Other recent diversions included some good times with the buds at a couple clubs in the Mission; Elbow Room and DNA. For the record, Michael Franti and Los Mocosos whoop ass. Not that I'm any authority, but these guys know fusion. Influences range from Cuban to Mexican, Jamaican to Zydeco. From ska to funk, hip-hop to rock. That night was a part of a series of gigs that Lonely Planet is endorsing. http://www.jambase.com/emails/Spearhead/050930/index.html Good shite.

This weekend, we saw Lyrics Borne at DNA. In-freakin-credible. Another disclaimer: I'm not some closet hip-hop junkie in a yuppie's disguise. In fact, the yuppie in me is no disguise, and I don't know shit about shit when it comes to real hip-hop. But this guy is a solid musician... his wife sounds like she was trained by an operatic singer, and the bassist and drummer were freakin tight . Chalk another one up to Carlee, the professional partier (corporate event planner) for some more good times. http://www.mtv.com/news/yhif/lyrics_born/

I've also been fortunate enough to spend some quality time with some members of the family with whom I really wish I was a little closer. The ironic part is that some of them happen to be the relatives that live the closest to me.

Landon, Ginger, and Amelia spent an afternoon in the city. Amelia is turning out to be quite the charmer. She already has facial expressions. In fact she can use them to immediately communicate whether what you're feeding her tastes like crap, what kind of mood she's in, and even if she's made a deposite in her diaper. They came over for a while, and we caught up on current events. They seemed stressed, and I called Landon out on it as they were leaving. He offered to stick around for some real conversation, and for the rest of the afternoon, we watched USC squeek one out against Notre Dame . We talked about the Idea I've been tossing around to various members of the family. More on this later (again with the deferrals, I know). We talked about his position in life, the changes that have come around over the last couple of years with him, myself, the family as a whole, and the kinds of pressures that have arised from them. It was the best conversation I've had with my brother in years.

During the week prior, my cousin Tom emailed my brother and me out of the blue about an upcoming visit from my Uncle Armistead and Aunt Geil from Denver. They were visiting some friends in Napa for a mass birthday party, and Tom was hosting a quick lunch at his place in Alameda. Landon and Ginger couldn't make it due to a logistics glitch, but I took them up on the offer in a heartbeat.

There isn't a lot that I really know about Armistead and Geil. Growing up, it was hard to see much beyond their sense of humor, solid family values, and the fact that they are very good at what they do. What I do know, is that I need to get to know them better. Armistead has had a lot of success in financial advising, he's a father of three boys, a skin-cancer survivor, and the lucky husband of one amazing lady. Geil is a brainiac, a storyteller, a supermom, an entrepreneur and a recently recovered stroke survivor. Together, they've formed quite a tidy business (www.thebrowninggroup.com). Unfortunately, the two of them intimidate the hell out of Armistead's older brother, my dad, although Dad would never admit it. But my father's insecurities can wait... this is about a great visit with some all-too-distant relatives.

I biked down to BART, took it to Alameda, and met up with them. I came armed with a gift for Tom's 2-year-old, Martha; a hardback collection of Winnie the Pooh stories. It struck a chord... turns out she's quite the Pooh fan. I love seeing a kid giggle with glee; especially at the site of a brand new book. Tom and his wife Tallie are something else too. They've created quite a home in the bay area, have a second kid on the way, have top-tier educations, excellent careers, and are quite the ken-and-barbie couple. *BARF* Just kidding. Tom also has a cool hobbie-turned-business-venture. www.skydeckcartoons.com is good for a laugh, and it lends some insight to one very cool cat.

We all chatted it up for a while. We discussed my other cousin's (Denver Morgan) plight in Phuket searching for his soon-to-be fiance last New-Years. He was on a plane headed to Thailand when the tsunami struck. She was on the beach waiting for him. He looked for her for weeks, combing through the wreckage and the remains of so many lives lost. USA today found a picture of them on the US State Department's Missing Persons website. The story inadvertently launched a national media tour for Morgan in hopes of finding some leads: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050104/a_missing04.art.htm After that story appeared, Morgan went on Larry King, CNN, Current Affair, all the national papers, the APP, and others. We had all met Nichole for the first time September '04 at a Browning reunion in Virginia just 4 months before she perished. She was beautiful, funny, smart, and driven. Damnit. I'm sorry, cousin Mo.

It took an hour to write that paragraph, and I damn-near cried doing it.

I finished that weekend with a ride circling Alameda Island. The city slicks that Jim McFarland gave me are supah-shweeet. Smooth, fast, and quiet tires. I had my camera with me, and for the first time in months, was inspired to do some real shooting. I took some random shots around the island's bay-shore and hopped on BART back to the city. Sunset was approaching and the night was crystal clear; time to head to Treasure Island to do something I'd been meaning to do for months. I'll post these pics as soon as I get a chance, but the results were very pleasing.