Sunday, December 22, 2002
Talked with Tina for nearly an hour. She told me about a psychic reading she did recently. She thought I was gonna roll my eyes at what she learned, as I am frequently doubtful of mystic -ologies that Tina enjoys from time to time such as numerology and astrology. However, her story seemed to indicate that her psychic reader did indeed have knowledge about Tina that she could not possibly have known. She also made one prediction that came true regarding Tina's sister, Sisi. Tina will soon have a new home on Ohio Street in North Park. Breakfast with Brian and Kelly at Baghdad Cafe. We tried going to Tangerine at 16th and Sanchez. Tangerine (415-626-1700, 3499-16th St) is new and none of us had been yet, but they didn't have a great selection of breakfast food, and we were in the mood for breakfast. Afterwards, we made a pit stop at their place then went downtown shopping. We stopped in to the Container Store—so gay—and I pictured Joel wandering the aisles in a wide-eyed daze, his arms just a blur from grabbing hundreds of "must have" items and sticking them in a shopping cart as he zoomed through the store. We saw so many gay men milling the aisles it felt like a brightly lit sex club. Patrick didn't like the store at all, and I'm not sure why, but he seemed to feel sick and wanting to leave only a few minutes after we arrived. I myself thought it was just okay. Some of the items were clearly items no one in the world needed, such as the transparent plastic box that perfectly holds a box of baking soda. It came with two lids: one holey and one not holey. When you think you need a container for something that already has a container, you need therapy—not a container. The plastic box that holds the facial tissue box is another great example. Other items were best only for very particular people, such as the plastic box with dividers sized to perfectly hold your tea bags—as long as they are *exactly* the dimensions of Bigelow tea bags (as shown in the demo model). We have a very diverse tea bag collection, and I knew this plastic box was not an ideal solution for us. I didn't think of this until later, but I wish I had asked one of the salespeople, "Excuse me, but I was wondering if you have a container for the baking soda container over there. See, I already have the baking soda container, but things go in and out of the refrigerator and freezer and the baking soda container frequently falls over—I need a... I don't know, maybe a *rack* or a *holder* for it. Does Rubbermaid have a freezer storage system that takes care of my ice tray, baking soda box, and vodka bottles? Do you have anything like that?" Another idea that Patrick and I came up with after we got home was to dress up as (or send in) a leather daddy and his boy and ask a salesperson if they have a storage solution for their dildo collection. The requirements are more stringent than you'd expect. For example, you can't use those clear plastic boxes that are commonly used for sports memorabilia—when you have lubed up fingers you don't want to be dealing with a tight-fitting box lid. Same thing with enclosed solutions like drawer or closet "systems." Timing is key to a good scene. The best Patrick and I could imagine was a peg board with various sizes of clips—or maybe small shelves—to hold the dildos: readily accessible, easily customizable and configurable, enables others to view the diversity of your collection easily. There were so many gay men in the store, I was surprised there wasn't a demonstration dungeon (like the demo living room at Ikea) showing 3 different ways you can store a dildo collection and all your other dungeon toys. Another idea: the dildos hang from a ceiling rack, like a pot rack over a kitchen island, and you use velcro on the bases of the dildos to attach them. A sizeable collection would look quite foreboding and portentous from underneath. We split from Brian and Kelly in the store to go our own way of shopping—they wanted to go to MOMA Store; Patrick and I needed to go to different places, and it's hard for 4 people to keep together in even the same store at this time of year. Downtown there were plenty of people shopping, so many that we avoided certain streets because there were just too many people on the sidewalk. Patrick and I shopped at French Connection, Urban Outfitters, and FAO Schwartz. Bought 2 pieces of clothing at FC—one for each of us. Everything was 30% off! Patrick got the brown corduroy short-waisted jeans-style jacket that Brian had told us about yesterday. Brian was right—it did look good on Patrick. Patrick also picked out for me a blue sweat jacket with gray and white striping along the arms. "You can wear it to clubs for dancing!" I rolled my eyes, but we got it anyway. We decided to shop for others after Christmas since prices would (hopefully) be better and since we weren't going to see them until after anyhow. Ran in to Mike Webb and his companion Dawn on MUNI while riding back to Church Street where we had parked, chatted with them for the ride. Got a snack at Chow (415-552-2469, 215 Church Street): Patrick and I split a meatball sandwich with fries, root beer float, and orange pekoe iced tea (US$13.46 after tax but before tip). Delicious, reliable as usual, usually very efficient staff. Our server was Krista. Dropped off Jackie Brown at Superstar Video. Shopped for shoes for Patrick at Rolo and other nearby stores, but he couldn't find anything he liked. Came home, Patrick mixed music and I caught up on e-mail and wrote in my journal. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover Chinese food from last night. Laughed at justinspace.com—weird, funny collections of images such as obscene interiors, pink triangles at Disney World, and stuff sold on eBay.