April 03, 2001

Holiday that Alison finds pointless: April Fool's. It's lame. It limps around in a valiant effort to be interesting, but instead turns out to be silly looking and not a little irritating.

But anyway.

Friday was an interesting day. I was very stoked that M would be in at 7:30pm, but also a bit sad that we had had a bit of an off week due to an icky phone conversation we had... either way, though, I was looking forward to seeing him. I left work early in order to get to the aiport in the rush-hour traffic that I was bound to hit, due to the fact that at some point on the way to the airport, you're moving away from the city (meaning you're in rush hour traffic), and made it there in what I thought was the perfect time. (I would have liked being earlier, but they had not been deplaning for long when I got to his gate, so I thought that I would catch him, since he's usually close to the back of the plane.)

So, I am standing there, waiting for him to get off the plane, when my cell phone rings. Turns out he'd been watching me from a pay phone. Aww, I love my stalker boyfriend. :)

Friday night was spent kissing, grocery shopping, and making dinner. Grocery shopping with that boy is dangerous; I tend to get things that I normally wouldn't in order to make him happy and full, like wine, brie, crackers, kettle corn, and the kick-ass salsa that I love that is so spicy that I need to drink two gallons of fluid to not set things on fire with my breath. Woo, that stuff is spicy. We basked in each other's presences for a long time, staying up really late. It was fun. I was so happy to be with him.

But the happiness was not to last.

Okay, okay, that's not true. I'm trying to keep it interesting, folks.

Saturday, we woke up and talked for a long time to one of my landlords, this awesome woman named Lisa. She and Bernie had recently returned from a trip to China because they had stuff to do here (Bernie was going to remodel Lisa's sister's kitchen) and the weather was too cold for them. It was neat hearing her talk about how they went about finding the more quaint cities in China, and talking about what they plan on doing when it gets warmer there and they go back. She also said that RP and Clickety, which are her cats, look healthy and happy, which pleased me. I know that sometimes I get mad at RP for being her kitty self, but I do adore her.

After talking to Lisa, we got ready for our trip to San Francisco, because I had bought tickets to the night tour of Alcatraz, where I had never been. Yeah, I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for my entire life, and I have never been to Alcatraz before; in fact, NBCi was the reason I went to Angel Island for the first time, for the tech picnic. The weather was fantastic, so we took BART and then walked down to Pier 39 (hiss hiss) and then went to Alcatraz. The trip was really cool -- the best part was learning about the Native American occupation of the island in the 70s, which I didn't know about, which goes to show that the Bay Area school system is sorely lacking in some certain lessons about our area's history. Sort of like how many people who live here don't now that Angel Island was the interment camp for the Japanese during WWII. Hm. Point: the trip was cool. Once I got over the whole weird feeling of being a tourist in my hometown and being one of the three people on the trip who knew what bridge was what and where Sausalito was, I actually enjoyed it.

Of course, in true Alison style, I got really seasick on the ride back. Thus, when we made it back to home turf, I was hardly hungry, being that BART isn't very soothing to someone who is feeling queasy already. We rented "What Lies Beneath" (because "Escape from Alcatraz" had been rented... dangit) had crepes at this place on the way back, then watched the movie (which distressed me; if you have seen it, you know why. I don't want to give too much away) and...

Sunday morning saw us struggling vainly with the time difference; we were one hour late to everything :) We went to see my grandmother, and my grandfather (Art) was there, for the express purpose of meeting M. (I thought that that was cool.) He also mentioned that he was going on a cruise and would miss Caroline's wedding, something that I thought was NOT cool. My grandmother was falling asleep while we were there because she was doped up on Darvoset, and my aunt was on the phone talking and talking and talking and talking and talking, which was frustrating me, because I wanted to talk to Art and Melanie and my grandma and M, and eventually, M ended up talking to her, which was amusing to me because I was wondering if his psychiatric training would pop up while he was talking to her. He is so caring and sweet when he's with people... it makes my heart go aflutter. Anyway, after visiting with Grandma, we went to get bagel dogs and then flew up to Healdsburg, to stay at Healdsburg Inn On The Plaza, this amazing little bed and breakfast that Elyssa and Brian had stayed at and then suggested to us. Our room, Garden Suite, had a whirlpool bath! Woo! It was awesome. We walked around the town for a bit and had a really great talk (this weekend was the most relevatory we've had... it's getting easier to be open with each other so we can ask questions and be less fearful of negative repercussions. It's weird that we're so much more careful with each other than I've been with anyone), went back to the b&b for a wine tasting, and finally ate dinner at a restaurant called the Rex, where I ended up talking on the phone with M's sister, who is really sweet and used to dance with the Marin Ballet (where I took lessons as a tot). In fact, her ex-boyfriend went to my high school. He had handed me the phone for a quick hello, and as she and I talked and talked and talked, he became more and more uncomfortable. She told me that she had never heard M so happy, and I got all blushy and embarassed, because I wanted to tell her that I felt the same way about her amazing brother but I didn't know how to say that to a relative. Then, I mentioned something about how cute he is, and she said, "Don't you just LOVE that dimple?!" I lost it. She thinks his one dimple is cute! THAT'S MY DIMPLE, LADY! :) We went back to our room, tried the ports and chocolate left out for the night, manuvered the TV into the bathroom so that we could watch Shakespeare In Love from the tub, and then went to sleep.

When we woke up the next morning, we had missed breakfast by half an hour, so M brought me a cookie from the cookie jar (okay, may I mention now how completely amazing he is? I can't express it. Really. Amazing. He got up and brought me a cookie while I lazed in bed. Amazing) and then ended up convincing the kitchen chick to give us a leftover eggs florentine with cheesy potatoes and a biscuit. Awesome, awesome guy. Woo. I had a headache, though, which had been with me for almost the entire weekend, so I finally broke down and took a Maxalt (UGH), which was bad later. We got dressed, checked out, and walked around Healdsburg, unhappily noticing that the weather had become markedly colder overnight. (M doesn't know yet, but it hailed there today. Lucky we got out while we did!) Finally, after touring ourselves out, we drove south, stopped at a mall to get these neato Celtic rings, and suprised my mom at her office in Cotati. Somewhere here, the Maxalt starting hitting me HARD, so when we left, I made M drive, which, although necessary, wasn't the best idea, since he's not familiar with my car, the area, or the freakish way that people drive here. Also, I was dizzy from the drugs, so I asked him to be careful, which I think made him more neurotic. Eventually, though, we made it home, in time for cuddling before the big mass dinner I had planned at Chevy's.

See, when M comes to visit, every one of my friends thinks that I should put aside a night for them to see him. Um, hello, no, he's here for the weekend (okay, a little longer this time), and I never get to see him, and he's mine, and I love him more than you do, so I get to see him. Screw you. I decided that they could all SHARE him on one night, and I'd have him the others. Unfortunately, this dinner showed me how selfish my friends are. I don't know if you recall my birthday, where Elyssa assumed that my parents were going to pick up her tab although she made everyone pay for themselves on her birthday, but the same thing happened again, with both her AND Sari. Although they asked me to invite them out to dinner, neither of them offered to pay for their parts at ALL. They expected my parents to pay for it. I thought it was totally gross. I am really really glad that my parents have brought me up with better manners -- even M commented on how tacky it was of them. Anyway. Don't be like that when you grow up. I brought dessert for everyone -- this awesome cheesecake that M and I had bought but not eaten, because we'd never been hungry enough -- and then we talked a bit and went home. M. Cute. :)

Today, Tuesday, I took M to the airport, where we had two counts of dealing with an idiot: one, where the Northwest guy didn't confirm M's luggage's final destination and then refused to give him his 500 bonus miles through some fancy (yet false) interpretation of the rules, and the second, where the guy at the International terminal food booth where we had lunch refused to validate my parking ticket because I didn't have the actual ticket (I left it in my car, far away in a parking lot that wasn't close) and he didn't want to stamp the receipt (although the parking attendent said the guy was high and I should complain). Then, M came so close to missing his flight that they had to reopen the hatch doors on the plane for him to let him on. Our goodbye was so short that I am still sort of shocked by it. Our trip was of the length that made me believe he'd never leave; I never wanted him to leave.

Bring him back!