Catching up…
Whew, has it been this long since an update…
So, obviously, I’m back from Thailand. 36 hours after I landed, my mother arrived to start her vacation in California. We did a lot, so I’ll just bang through the highlights.
We took her first day off, to give her a day to adjust to the time zone, not to mention I was still a bit zoned out myself at this point. The next day, we had dinner at The Slanted Door, and then saw Wicked. I’m still not won over by it, and it’s not my favorite show, but I knew my mother would enjoy it, and she did. I attended a preview prior to her arrival to make that determination, as well as had her watch a YouTube clip, so a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the show, I’m just never blown away by the show.
The next day, we went to see The Hurt Locker in the movie theater, then to Loving Hut, a nice vegan cafe in Chinatown, and then to see Richard Lewis perform stand-up comedy in North Beach. He is, as always, a fascinating, funny train wreck of a show.
The next day, Saturday, I realized my tooth that had been throbbing was not getting better, but in fact was getting worse, so in advance of our flying to Vegas, I yelped a dentist in Vegas and e-mailed about getting an appointment for either that day or Monday. When we landed in Vegas, I had text messages and voice mail from both the dentist and his staff, confirming a Monday afternoon appointment.
So, we drove to Zion National Park in Utah, which is 3 hours outside Vegas. We picked a late morning flight to not kill ourselves getting to the airport, etc., but I think it backfired a bit in the sense that we got to Zion, after a one hour time difference and a three hour drive, with little time to do anything that first day. Just a quick drive around, dinner, and then bed.
We made up for our lack of activity on the next day, my birthday, by hiking The Narrows, which is an intense hike up through a river, during which the canyon keeps narrowing. By the time we got to the narrowest point of the hike, it is about 12-15 feet across between canyon walls, which shoot up for quite a long time. It was a wet, intense hike, requiring special socks, boots, and a hiking stick, but definitely worth doing.
The following day, we checked out and drove back to Vegas. While my mother checked us in to our hotel, I took a cab to my dentist appointment, and ended up having a root canal. My first, hard as that is to believe. The dentist actually came in on his day off to do it unassisted, so at times, I actually had to hold things in my own mouth to get us through it. It also took much longer than if he had an assistant. He wanted me to come back the following day, when it would happen much quicker, but I really wanted to not eat up more vacation time, so we went for the long version.
I got home with barely enough time to have dinner (yes, after a root canal, I had half a good mouth yet) at Noodles in the Bellagio, and then a cab ride in order to make it to the Penn & Teller show at the Rio, all of which I enjoyed with the delight that is vicodin. So, yes, before I even got to gamble, I was down a grand and high on drugs. I think I was living the spirit of Vegas, but clearly went about it the wrong way.
The following day, we went to some other attractions in Vegas, including minus 5 at Mandalay Bay, which is an ice bar. Meaning: the walls were ice, sculptures are ice, bar is ice, the glasses for your drinks are sculpted ice, seats were ice, and you have to rent a coat, gloves, and boots to enter. So, that was a unique thing.
Then I took my mother to see the Bodies exhibit, the one with all the sliced up dead bodies. I enjoyed the exhibit a lot when it was in San Jose, although I think the Vegas version was a little less “out there” and artistic as the touring version. This one focused more on the educational and walked you through all the systems of the body, but I think the touring version was better. Still worthwhile, since it is so fascinating in a way that reading about it or seeing pictures isn’t.
Then we made a dinner reservation at Spago for that night after we saw the Bette Midler show. Bette was, of course, amazing, and did a fabulous show. It wasn’t enough Bette, but that was expected, since Vegas really likes the shows to be about 90 minutes. They charge a lot for tickets, but once we’re in there, we’re not gambling and that isn’t really something they like. But still, Bette did the high wire act of being an amazing singer, a saucy dame, and a consummate performer. I’d seen her before, but this is definitely a big showgirl extravaganza that she couldn’t tour, so it was a unique show.
The gambling wasn’t much to speak of, seeing as I mainly lost. But I didn’t put too much in, so it wasn’t too bad.
We got back to San Francisco the following day. And if I recall properly, didn’t go anywhere that day. See, I can relax.
The next day, we went for dinner at Millennium and then to see August: Osage County onstage. I wasn’t sure about a three and a half hour drama being able to sustain our interest, but that was a useless concern. Everyone adored that show, and it is went for another hour, I think the audience would have sat there and devoured it. What a beautiful time in a theater.
On Friday, I think we just caught a movie (if anything), hung out, no major plans. On Saturday, I told my mother we were going to a café for dinner, and it was a nice place, etc. For some reason, she asked if it was just going to be the two of us, so I lied and said yes.
Of course, it was actually my birthday party at Asia SF, and we ended up having 10 friends join us for an enjoyable night of great gender illusionist performers and good food. There is a photo of me retrieving a shot glass, without using my hands, buried deep within the cleavage of our waitress. You can’t even see the shot glass in the photo. Anyway, that was a good night, and we followed-up with a quick Castro outing.
The next day was more movies and roaming around the city. On Monday, we drove down the peninsula to have lunch with family at Loving Hut in Palo Alto, and then back up to San Francisco for dinner at Tangerine and a benefit show featuring Steve Schachlin playing the piano and telling stories. It was really a great way to end the trip, since Steve is such a good performer.
The following morning, I drove her to the airport and ended both her trip and two months of my own traveling.
Since then, I’ve just been getting back into the swing of things here, which is slower than it should be. I start a short-term contract this week, so some money is coming in.
This past weekend, I attended the Outside Lands concert in Golden Gate Park and saw Pearl Jam, Jason Mraz, Raphael Saadiq, Cage the Elephant, Matt and Kim, The Dead Weather (with Jack White on drums), Tom Jones, Incubus, Zap Mama, Silversun Pickups, Blind Pilot, The National, Conor Oberst, TV on the Radio, Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, and Modest Mouse. So, that was busy, too.
Up next, doing the SF read of the draft of the novel I wrote in Thailand,starting the new gig, getting a gym routine going, and starting to write the next thing. And in eight weeks, I’m in Orlando doing the Disney thing.
