The Weekend and Stuff

When did I last post? Was it Friday? It was a good thing to get away from the computer on the weekend. It helped my right arm feel like it wasn't going to fall off. I tend to over-do the computer use at home during the week and since that isn't ergonomically correct, I totally piss my shoulder and arm off.

My weekend was fun. I am feeling so much better with the cold gone. On Saturday, after seeing clients, I met up with S and SS and we went to the Parol Festival at the Philipino Community Center in SF. SS is biracial (Philipino and Euro-American) and spent a lot of time in the Philipines when she was a child. Parol's are a traditional Christmas decoration in the Philipines - a star created from material that allows light to shine through it. They are lit from within. A part of the different celebrations during advent are barrio fiestas in which homemade parols are voted on. Usually, most of the celebration is held outside, but it was raining so it was held at the community center. It was really interesting, but very, very crowded. I got a little lightheaded after awhile. I think I'd locked my knees standing in one place too long.

After that, we headed to the Metreon to see Happy Feet on Imax. Apparently, there's been much controversy about the stereotypes of people that appear in Happy Feet. My take on it was that it was so random and strange that although I recognized the particular types of people that there was an attempt to portray, I didn't get a sense of it being offensive. It was generally good music and the animation was amazing.

We ate very late at Buca di Beppo. I have to admit that I enjoy the experience of dining there, but I've never been blown away by the food. This was again my experience. We had a great wait-staff...we even invited Jeff, our waiter, to join us in sharing favorite chocolate stories...but the food was just so-so.

There were some great pictures on the walls, though. I found some really interesting ones of big women that were just lovely and it reminded me that I stumbled onto a site that shows
photos done by Leonard Nimoy. In particular, his portraits of large women were fascinating. There is some nudity on this site, so it may not be appropriate for work.

We got home late, so we slept in late. We had left-overs for breakfast (mmmm-spaghetti for breakfast is officially my favorite!), then crawled back to bed for some playing and more sleep. We got up at 2 p.m. to go for a hike in Joaquin Miller Park. I had to laugh because every time I hear the commercial on the radio for REI which describes an "outdoor fanatic" as someone for whom "a walk in the park is a run up a mountain," I think of S. And sure enough, we were walking along a nice gentle flat path and came across a steep hill with a path leading away from nice gentle hiking and which do you imagine we took. Yep, straight up the hill. Again, I led moving at a snails pace. We did find some lovely things - a moss covered tree we got to stroke, mushrooms and lichen we could admire, the elusive blue suited bicyclist we observed from above.

All sweaty, we headed to the Chapel of the Chimes for a Flute Festival. I used to be a flautist, so I was pleased to hear flutes being featured. It was a good way to end the day.

I went home, and for a short time I read my book. I came across a very interesting couple of paragraphs in the book I'm reading about singles, by Bella DePaulo. It helped me understand why people who are so pro-marriage are against gay marriage. Bear with me, as I quote a couple paragraphs:

"In the mythology, marriage is not just one among many ways to lead your life; it is the good and moral way. If we all can agree to that, then we have a metric by which to measure our lives. People who marry can feel good about themselves and confident that they have earned universal respect and admiration. They can, mythologically, feel morally superior to people who are single.

"What happy and successful single people are threatening is not the institution of marriage but the cultural consensus on its special value. Same-sex marriage does not threaten the institution of marriage, either. The sticking point (or at least one of them) is that large numbers of Americans remain unconvinced that gay men and lesbians are the moral equivalent of straight people. To them, keeping marriage pure and sacred means keeping same-sex partners out."

I'd never thought about it that way, but it makes so much sense that that's what it's all about. Kind of gives me the creepy-crawlies.

I think that's enough of a post for today. I hope I haven't scared away the new blog-friend I appear to have acquired.

P.S. S has convinced me to try a drop-in aerial dance class tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.