Wednesday, August 15, 2001
After work, I meet Patrick at Nirvana. I have the folkanese soup with chicken; he has the spinach ramen with chicken. Jasmine tea. Then, we go to Brian and Kelly's housewarming party and see their new home at 1992 15th Street for the first time ever. As our gift, we bring a very tall, red orchid whose exact genus is not easily identified, even by orchid experts. We both like their place a lot and are amazed at how spacious it feels for a San Francisco home. (About 1800 square feet, Brian says.) My favorite room is the living room with the corner fireplace. Patrick's favorite room is what will soon become the master bedroom, so chosen by Brian and Kelly because it is the furthest bedroom from the street and therefore the quietest. Brian says it doesn't quite feel like home to him yet, and that's understandable as they have yet to move all their stuff in. In some places the previous owners have gone crazy adding layers of paint to layers of paint, blurring the edges of moldings and corbels, but Kelly mockingly fears that a small, starter paint stripping project will reveal a "clean spot" that would necessitate the same work to be applied to the rest of the house. I know how he feels. A whole bunch of their friends arrived to celebrate, and hopefully they all signed the butcher paper Brian left out with Crayolas and Mr. Sketch Scented markers. Patrick and I plan to help them move boxes this Sunday. Unless I'm mistaken, this was also my first time meeting Denis.