I'm continuing to stay reasonably busy...
Friday I just cleaned house, vacuuming and dusting, tidying up where I had neglected to tend to things while traveling. Boring, but it has to be done!
Saturday I messaged @Jessica about heading out for a day. We had discussed this briefly over coffee and not-challah on Wednesday, and decided to go for it Saturday. Jessica dropped by, and we took off to the local rapid transit station, umbrellas in hand Just In Case...
We hit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (I'm a member... Yay, free guest pass!) to see a couple of shows. First off was the Brassai exhibit, mostly his early 1930s photos of Paris. Fascinating stuff, from the places we both recognized, almost unchanged over 80 years, to the insights on queer culture in the City of Lights in the 1930s. Remarkable stuff!
I also wanted to catch the Sea Ranch architectural exhibit, which was really neat. This is a beautiful, somewhat remote development on the California coast, most remarkable because of it's deliberate esthetic focus on being unobtrusive, treading lightly on the land, and trying to avoid being an exclusive, "Malibu North" sort of community. They did a fair amount of work to undo a century of damage from logging, farming, and ranching activity, while at the same time coming up with very clever ways to fit in a low density development with the region's landscape. This is a development that would not even be possible with the current rules about coastal construction, but I still find it remarkable that they took a path so very different from any other coastal development I have encountered.
Well, after that it was time to find lunch, so we went to a nearby microbrewery pub. While we were in the doorway considering the menu, another downpour started, clinching the deal. That was our lunch stop. We went the tapas route with a sausage flatbread and nicely sautéed Brussels sprouts to share, along with their beers. That was nice, sitting by the window with the rain outside, warm with good conversation inside.
While there I got a call from other friends near home, inviting me to a musical event that evening. I knew that Jessica and I would be home well before this so I accepted, and let Jess know what was up. We eventually finished up lunch and took the train home, catching a shuttle bus to avoid some of the cold and rain to get back to my place. We said our farewells and Jess headed home.
I headed to my apartment, and took care of a fewe odds and ends before heading to the music venue. The performer was Daniel Nahmod, who does a sort of acoustic 'New Age/Folk' music, a bit spiritual, but nicely done. There were three songs about change and self-acceptance that could darn near have been trans anthems. It was nice enjoying the performance with several friends and acquaintances I've run across at similar events recently.
That left me pretty darn tired, so I went to bed soon after returning home.
Sunday morning I was off to attend services at my church. I had no role in the services, and no other tasks to attend to at the church for once, so this made for a very relaxed morning. We had a visiting guest minister from a church in Transylvania, a region that has had a big impact on this particular religion. There were Hungarian cultural references, and I wished my ex-mother-in-law could be there, as she would have loved hearing the choir singing old Hungarian songs!
Sunday afternoon I hosted a brunch for five people who had 'won' this in a charity auction. That was nice, at table for three hours with great conversations with friends, and plenty of good food to be had. (I took @Laurie and @Jessica there last year. I think they liked it...)
Now it's Monday morning, and after a good night's sleep I have fed myself, and now I am preparing for tonight, when I will be facilitating a queer community support group and leading a discussion on trans feminism and queer theory. This should be interesting.
