Sunday, July 7, 2002
Breakfast at home: Life cereal for Patrick, oatmeal for me. We picked up Kentucky Fried Chicken (aka KFC) for the Stern Grove Festival today—one of a series of free summer concerts. Conducted by Alasdair Neale, the San Francisco Symphony played Gershwin (Cuban Overture), Bernstein (Symphonic Dances from West Side Story), Liadov (The Enchanted Lake), and Musorgsky-Ravel (Pictures at an Exhibition). Sam's friend Janet McLain got there early and saved us a great spot on the first steep rise behind the picnic tables. The weather was cool and overcast, with a breeze bringing fog in on occasion. I met a friend of Patrick's and Sam's—Vanessa Polgar, who joined us with her friend Vlad. We listened to flawless music with the wind running through the trees and dragonflies buzzing amongst our heads and thin-legged spiders crawling through the grass. We shared our fried chicken and other assorted snacks. Sam shared his champagne and sodas. Janet shared her champagne and delicious strawberry shortcake. Vanessa and Vlad shared their ham and cheese sandwiches. Janet knew all the fun tricks—she brought bubbles to blow and a giant, red balloon to let the audience bounce into the air. The Symphony finished off their performance with an encore of Souza's "Stars and Stripes Forever," which was festive because everyone was still in a patriotic mood after the recent holiday. Afterwards, I worked on a Web site for Sam. Patrick and I had leftover KFC for dinner. At 8:58 PM, Patrick finished writing all of the final revision of his first novel—Second Island. I read it from where I had left off (the end of chapter 18), made some corrections, and then we were both tired—a long and fun and productive weekend. Patrick laments: "I can't believe there's nothing else to write." And: "I'm ready to make some money off this baby!" And then: "No! You can't put that in there! That makes me look like I'm all about money!"