Wednesday, August 18, 2004
I slept in. Fruit smoothie for breakfast. Mikey and I took the 66 then the 44 to Clement Street. While the bus drove through Golden Gate Park we observed graffiti: VOTING IS SEXY. Mikey liked it so much that he wants to make a t-shirt that says that. We shopped at Kamei Restaurant Supply (415-666-3699, 507 Clement Street), which had lots of inexpensive kitchen and houseware goods, mostly from Asian sources. Interesting things we saw: a home soy milk making machine, plastic rice dispensers, silicone muffin pans, a fruit-kabob device, a tea set hanging on a portable metal rack, an avocado scooper and masher. I bought a 12-cup non-stick muffin pan for $5.50, a ramen bowl to match the one I had picked up at Uwajimaya in Seattle years ago for $11.50, 50 Reynolds pastel baking cups (1090000387) for $0.59, 32 Reynolds foil baking cups (1090000383) for $0.99, and a wooden rice paddle for $0.49. We stepped in to a small cafe called Little Paris (415-221-6028, 445 Clement Street) pondering something to eat when we ran into Christopher N, one of the 2nd-year students in the UCSF School of Pharmacy PharmD program. We stopped a few minutes to chat—he's interning at Walgreen's in the Castro and another location. Mikey and I continued on, looking for something to eat, and we stopped at a convenience store which also sold crepes. Mikey had banana with almond, I had one with spinach, mushroom, and cheddar. We walked around Clement a little more, then took the 38 Geary to Union Square. We ran into Nico and his co-worker Mia outside of Rite Aid, so we chatted a few minutes while they were on break. Nico looked sharp, as always, this time in an all black suit and tie. He possibly has another stand-up gig on August 21 at The Marsh. I got a gift for the office. We wandered in and out of shops, spent a lot of time looking at Crate and Barrel's huge store. We tried to buy bus tokens at the Powell booth, but they were all out. We tried to get info from the Visitor Center, but it was past 5:00 PM so they had already closed. Dinner with Mikey at Cafe Venue (415-546-1144, 721 Market Street), which was an eatery which he remembered and enjoyed from a previous visit to San Francisco. Mikey had soup and a sandwich. I had penne with cow sauce and a side Caesar and a berry smoothie. We took the subway to the Castro. We tried to buy bus tokens at the liquor store but they were all out. We walked up and down Castro, stopped in A Different Light bookstore for a while. Went to Magnet for Smack Dab open mic, headlined by Alvin Orloff (who read from Gutterboys) and Bambi Lake (who read from a work in progress about a homeless person's adventures). I especially enjoyed the life-in-the-Castro memoirs of Mark (I didn't remember his last name)—a weekend from 25 years ago today. Mikey's favorite was someone named (I think) Swag, who read a poem about answering doors naked, cops, cats, dreams, and not dreams. Mikey also really liked Alvin's t-shirt, which said "POWERED BY" and had a picture of a stack of pancakes underneath. We took MUNI home. It was a one-car, and I was surprised that we immediately got seats. The ride was uneventful. After getting home, Mikey had his Chinese herbal tea, then went to bed shortly thereafter. I stayed up to write in the journal, then went to bed as well exactly at midnight:15. A fine day.