Saturday, August 10, 2013

Space-Time Tetris

(Photo courtesy of Jilly Be.)

Scheduling a get together with Jilly Be and Shams that works for all three of our busy schedules and minimizes contact with one of the largest music festivals in the country proved to be a game of space-time Tetris (a game where you try to fit a bunch of puzzle pieces together against the clock).  We finally figured out a time and place we could meet.

Shams and I came via public transit.  Jilly Be, unfortunately needed to drive.  San Francisco is one big construction zone; we are in the middle of high tourist season.  Add the music festival, and she spent 15 minutes traversing one block in the car.

Moreover, I popped into the Asian Art Museum of SF before the meet-up and suggested to Jilly Be that she park in the (normally reasonably priced) municipal lot under the UN Plaza.  $15 flat rate special event parking that evening.  Gulp.  I'm really sorry about that.  Send me your snailmail address and I'll mail you some special fabric to compensate.

If you visit the Asian right now, you can see selections from the art collections of universally reviled CEO, Larry Ellison, and universally beloved CEO, Lloyd Cotsen.  I have to admit to having a bit of a crush on Cotsen and a fascination with Ellison.  Cotsen's collection is fantastic and Ellison has some good stuff, too.  If you are in SF, I hope you can schedule some time to visit the museum.

Since Jilly Be had already paid for parking all night, I suggested we visit the nearby and recently gentrified Hayes Valley.  I've been visiting Hayes since the 1980s, when it was just crack addicts, Richard Hilkert Books, Vorpal Gallery and intrepid/stupid people like me.  People couldn't believe I walked alone in that neighborhood.

Hayes Valley is currently lined with upscale clothing boutiques where you can see the latest from local, Belgian and Japanese designers.  I especially enjoy MAC, which stocks a large range of Dries Van Noten clothing amongst other lesser-known, but equally talented designers.

Jilly Be and I shopped until Shams finished work and could meet up with us.  Four hours flew by while we chatted, ate and drank at Caffe Delle Stelle on the corner of Hayes and Gough.  It was fabulous to spend time with like-minded individuals.  I'll be back.

Other perspectives:
In retort:
  • It's not flirting when with your own husband.  It also doesn't count when talking to gay men.  ;-)
  • I just can't watch movies or TV shows purportedly about scientists and mathematicians.  They get us so wrong, I can't bear it.  There ought to be an anti-defamation league to look after our pop culture image.
  • OTOH, perhaps it is better that Hollywood doesn't know about the really wild parties with mathematicians and theoretical physicists, especially ones involving Russians.  OMG, tell my mom that, as soon as I learned what goes on at those, I went home immediately.

5 comments:

  1. Let me specify that we SNOOP shopped (I could have easily spent some bucks, but I'm still on my 365 RTW fast) :D. Such a great time, and I look forward to your next visit!

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  2. What fun! Sounds like there is so much to do in your area!

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  3. Oh, it would be such fun to hang out with you girls. How I wish I could join you :)

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  4. TV and Hollywood portrays historians as boring old white guys or as Indiana Jones and they never get the history right. So I think the real problem is the Drama types think we're different species of human. In my IT Department, there are two historians, an archeologist, a paleontologist, an EMT, and a lone programmer. We have a great relationship and of course the people with nontraditional IT backgrounds do the best work. Plus we have great parties. Hollywood knows nothing.

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  5. Sounds like a really fun meet up. Sounds like another great place to visit too.

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