I haven’t posted in awhile because Blogger made me angry. I’m not supposed to complain too loud because it’s still in beta (as are all Google products, forevermore), but now I’m wishing I had just read LiveJournal’s open source manual and tried that. I haven’t had a chance to thoroughly examine the template or adjust my .css, and I won’t do it in the next few days because Gus is here.
So far, we’ve visited ValleyFair Mall so I could hit up the Clinique counter for a darker shade of powder now that I’m sporting a hot (natural!) California tan. I managed to land a free gift, even though Clinique Bonus Week is officially over. Nothing like a make-up bag full of crap I’ll use half of and forget about to make me feel like a VIP customer.
Then, Gus and I listened to reggae at Music in the Other Park. The tunes were great and the crowd was diverse and lively. Like almost every other Bay Area event I’ve attended, this free show reminded me what a minority I am. An overly-clean, yuppie minority, at that.
Further narrowing it down, I’m in a tiny group of Bay Area dwellers who isn’t trying to pull off a look. I don’t dress up, I don’t wear copious amounts of accessories, and, with the new job, I don’t dye my hair rad colors and wear my nosering. It’s much more attention-whorish in San Francisco; in San Jose, people mostly dress up in trendy outfits I don’t like.
Gus says the look people are trying to pull off here is “rich”. I would have to nix that theory for at least 90% of the girls (who wear whatever Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 sell for the standard $14.99) and even if it’s more true for the guys we see out, there’s nothing attractive about some choad who’s all about his watch and his shirt. Yeah, there are more hot cars here than in Austin, but there are more people here too. Plus, people in cities generally don’t have children, so they spend their extra money on sports cars and crap they don’t need. I’m sure one of us will turn 30 and buy a ridiculously expensive car. I’d rather have that than a ridiculously expensive kid. So put that in yer pipe and smoke it.
On tap for the rest of the weekend is a drive past Sonoma to pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir and then we’ll double-back for a wine-tasting in Sonoma and some jazz music. Then, onto San Francisco, where we’ll spend a couple of nights in the old US travel standard, Holiday Inn. I used to have a flyswatter from there, which I found to be an odd and humorous promotional item. (“Holiday Inn. There may be flies here, but we got your back.”)
Fireworks? Yeah, we’ll see some fireworks. Nothing can top the fireworks I saw at Ka-Boom on Memorial Day, so we’re probably just going to stay here. Out of the 8 zillion places to see them, the ones at the amphitheatre down the street should do just fine.