Saturday, April 6, 2002

Today ants were found crawling all over our Brita water pitcher, which we usually leave out on the counter because neither of us like to drink refrigerated water. We'll be happy to be out of our current place. Breakfast at home: oatmeal. Patrick took a 2-hour nap—he thinks it was the antihistamines that made him drowsy. While he napped, I vacuumed the apartment and cut my hair. It's just below the top of my ears now, I've been letting it grow out some. Patrick bought flowers for his mom, who had just had very painful surgery on her shoulder. Lunch at Sunflower. Patrick and I went on a shopping spree in Union Square and the Castro because it's his birthday next Wednesday and he's kicking off the week-long celebration by shopping. When we arrived at Powell Street station, I was hurrying through when Patrick pulled me back to watch and hear an amazing violinist, a 30's-ish blonde woman. Patrick thought she must have studied at Julliard or some similarly renowned school of music. She wore pastel lemon jeans and a spaghetti string tank top with the Charlie Angels logo on it. She played energetically and passionately. We savored the nuances of her skills. In the 3 minutes we watched her, she earned US$5 (which includes one from us)—amazing! At the end of her piece, we clapped and smiled, and she smiled back at us. I asked her for her name, and she said it was Sonja. Hours later, Patrick still felt affected by her music, jealous of her art. He wanted to cry with happiness at her beauty. We shopped, and Patrick got 4 items of clothing: a muscle-tee (Gap), a long-sleeved lightweight sweater (Kenneth Cole), 527 jeans (Levi's), sweat pants (Perfetto). We snacked at Franciscan Croissant and Hot Cookie. Dinner at McDonald's. I finished my taxes today. I didn't owe as much as I thought I would, so I'm happy. I packed up a gift for Mia Levine and Katherine King and their new baby Parris Addison King-Levine: a cloth book that teaches how to tie and buckle and zip.