"He looked like a letter opener"

everyone: "that guy was kind of weird. he was really awkward with his lines."

friend (G): "yeah, he looked like a letter opener."

it had been six days of socializing, but it was on the fourth day, when (G) said this, that i had my biggest laugh. guy and his band were playing a few songs during music hour on a public access channel for fun and amusement. the music was fun, the host was amusing. he was very skinny with big hair, like he'd just had a blowout. he had some trouble with his announcer duties, stuttering and calling the band by the wrong name. we were told there would be a drag queen hosting for which we had been excited, but we were instead faced with this strange creature dressed all in white.

that was friday.

tuesday is when it all started with the bbq/minutemen night out in the richmond. wednesday followed with the pick up of our friend (P), deep in a nasty part of the mission. apparently this block where we find (P) is where that asshole, crack and his homies hang out. it's the heart of the crack hiss. the eye of the crack storm. one minute guy and i are picking out good ahi tuna and sesame seeds for dinner and the next we're fighting off wall-eyed human beasts in the back alley of the underbelly. we are attacked there by red-faced, swollen-bellied monsters while quickly swooshing our buddy off the sidewalk and into guy's lesbian soccer mom car, all lickity split.

thursday brought a suprise visit by my friend's 20-yr-old daughter and her cousin. i grilled 'em up some chicken and put on a locally filmed exploitation flick. (P) stayed and helped me pull words out of their shy souls. guy took a nap.

friday was more visiting with friend (A), age 20 and the aforementioned public access gig. saturday was magazine-reading, pot-smoking, park-sitting, sunshining and garden-rock searching until evening. that night guy took (A) and me out to dinner like a real gentle-man. he told me he liked taking my family out to dinner. reference to (A) as my family made me cry. she and her mom are family to me. guy's recognition was sweet and important.

sunday: brunch with (G) and wife (A/E) at the eternally happy RAMP in sf's dogpatch. the bloodies were hardy, the laughs, smartie and the walk to the ballpark for some baseball voyeurism, relaxing and fun. later guy and i got (A) on an inland train, drove home and pulled the tv into the bedroom. at 3:15 pm, we sighed at the same time and said, "well that was a long haul."

click. tv on. weekend over.