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February 13th, 1999
| Warning: In the following journal entry, I'm going to gush, gloat and do other self-gratifying things. But, hey, I'm happy. | ||
| Well, the reading went fabulously. We read next to last, at Mary Anne's request, and it was a good thing. Most of the reading seemed rather violent or hard core urban, but we followed the one romantic poet of the evening. The applause after we were introduced was luke-warm (no one had heard of us -- this was a "hip" San Francisco crowd). I pulled up a bar chair to the mike (we had to share, which is not how we practiced) and we took a deep breath and began. | ||
| We were hot. | ||
| The poem is about two women meeting at a party and having spontaneous sex. It's funny at parts, and it's graphic. Mary Anne had written my parts with my "voice" in mind, and I found the lines very easy to deliver. We had rehearsed it so we'd speed up at the end, our voices in unison as we moved to the climax of the piece. The applause and cheers were enthusiastic and copious. | ||
| Oh, god! I love performing! We had people coming up to us left and right after the reading, telling us all sorts of good things. The first guy said that we were the best reading he'd heard in the three years that they'd been having My Sucky Valentine readings. (And the first duo, which I expected). Many people told us we were the best of the evening (and, considering that utterly charming, talented people like Carol Queen had read, too, I found that extremely flattering). We were told we were hot, inspirational etc. I was told more than once that I had a good voice and was an excellent performer. | ||
| Before we had read, I was leaning over the balcony in the DNA lounge, thinking, "I'm about to read an erotic duo in front of this crowd. If they like me...if they like me, this ain't Indiana, where it's easy to rise above. These writers were picked because they're well-known, talented etc. This is a very hip, very current crowd, in one of the most amazing cities in the world. I'm going to perform here. And if they like me....well, that's really good."* Boy, was tonight good for my ego. | *Of course that's not it exactly...I was nervous and excited, do you think I was taking notes? | |
| We'd started out the day (late, and that was my fault) driving into the City to go to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate park. It was raining, but not too cold, and it made the garden that much more beautiful, all drizzly, drenched and cleanly beautiful. We took lots of pictures as we wandered around, enjoying the serenity of the Asian aesthetic despite the crowds. After awhile, we went to the Asian Art Museum, which was very interesting. However, we were there only 20 minutes before I realized I was terribly hungry (having only eaten a piece of cornbread and a coke for breakfast). We'd paid $7 to get in, though, so it was awhile before we got to leave. | ||
| When we left, the temperature had dropped considerably. On our way out of the park, we stopped in the Botanical gardens to see the Fragrant Garden* (full of herbs and such that are really hard to smell when you're nose is cold). On our way there we passed the Prehistoric Garden (lots of ferns), and the Biblical garden (which reminded me of the book I'm reading now, Milroy the Magician by Paul Theroux, where the main character preaches eating only foods that are mentioned in the Bible). Someday, I'm going to have to make the rounds of that park the myriad of gardens there. Some sunny day. | * Karina really wanted to get that in on her visit, and said something about making David take her if we didn't get it in that day. I knew David really didn't want to go to the gardens, so I thought, what the hell...I'm cold and hungry, but it'll be pretty, right? Right? | |
| We ate at Axom (I think that's it), a groovy little Ethiopian restaurant on Haight Street. Sherman and Ingrid (a friend of Mary Anne's from college) met us there. It was empty when we got there, but it soon filled up. Not too long after we ordered Tej (Ethiopian Honey wine - much like mead), our waiter had the entire glass shelf collapse on him (near him, he was not hurt), causing a huge mess and a very loud crashing noise. I was so damn hungry at this point -- dehydrated too -- that it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and not start bitching at everyone.* Our food came well before we got either water or wine, and I ate embarrassingly fast. We had to nag the waiter for water. I downed my first glass of water, and finally (as we were ignored by our waiter, who never quite understood us) got up, picked up a water pitcher and filled all of our glasses. We asked several times for wine, explaining that we didn't need it to be served in wine glasses, but it was not until the other waitress returned from the store with new stemware that we got it. And that was at the end of our meal. | *At one point, someone commented that I looked so miserable they thought I was going to cry. I made some comment to placate them and kept glaring at nothing in particular. It's best to leave me alone when I'm hungry and there's nothing to do about it. Especially if you're lucky enough to have me being polite and not whining at you. | |
| Driving in the rain in the City on a Saturday night after an annoying meal, when you're running late is NOT a pleasant experience. We had Yahoo directions, but I still missed the place where we crossed Market and turned on it instead, which, if you've ever tried to cross Market Street in San Francisco, you'll know is an ANNOYING thing to have happen. It was safest just to make a box and try again, as that street has secret passages and tesseracts, I swear, and you can get stuck for days if you don't know where you're going. Anyhow, we arrived a little late (luckily it was only 7:30 when we were trying to get a parking spot near the nightclubs in SOMA), and had plenty of time to recuperate before we had to read. And that, as you know, was fabulous. | ||
| I always seem to have these exciting weekends involving Mary Anne whenever David leaves town. It's exhausting, but fun. This is also the second time I've started a new job while David was away. What do you suppose all this means? |