Happy Birthday America!

[gordonzola]

Oh, 4th of July. What a strange holiday. I think most of us urban folks get tired of playing fireworks or gunfire? by the early evening and just try to settle in for the night.

My co-worker Freedomcine had an international party of friends come over to watch the Euro Cup soccer championships in the morning. Unfortunately, I’m a stupid American, so I didn’t realize the game would only be an hour and a half. I was informed of this on my way over by one of my favorite cheese customers.

I usually only talk about the customers I hate because, let’s face it, that’s more fun for all of us. But there are quite a few people who I look forward to seeing every week who I know only through selling them cheese. The goth-punk mortician, the teacher who looks like Ray Romano, the chef guy who always has a big plan that never pans out, the sweet older lesbian couple who offer to set me up on dates with friends of theirs, the old woman who grew up on a farm and special orders gallons of raw milk etc.

I was walking past the new mural on Church St. when I heard, "Hey it’s the cheese guy," which I never get tired of hearing. This favored customer lives most of the year abroad, traveling as a professional photographer and when I looked at his website one day I was blown away by how good he is. I told him I was going to watch the soccer match and he said, "I tried to find a place to watch for an hour last night!" Evidently the pay-for-view folks are cracking down and bars/cafes now need to charge per person if they want to show sporting events. Supposedly they even send out people to collect the money if a commercial establishment orders up the game. Fuckers. I invited him to come with me but he looked at his watch and said, "well, it’s over now."

Oh. Heh.

I’ve always felt that schmoozing and party talk were strong skills of mine, it’s what one truly learns in college, but they abandoned me upon entering the party. I was feeling painfully shy and awkward around a large group of people that knew each other well and always gathered for soccer events. Plus they were already pretty drunk and I wasn’t. An indication that it wasn’t my crowd was that every single person who ate one of the cookies I brought, said "What’s in these?" and they didn’t mean "Are they vegan?" or "What’s the recipe?" I snuck out when I felt I had monopolized my host for too long.

I walked by the Mime Troupe show. Nothing made me want to stop and watch.

I was content to be home for the day but twomartinis convinced me to come over to her place for an evening BBQ. I told her I was feeling shy and she promised it would be a small friendly gathering. I baked more cookies because I’m a little obsessed right now and headed over to the fog belt. I ran into the ex girlfriend of my ex wife on the bus and we couldn’t pretend not to see each other like we often do, but it was actually very sweet. I work with her sister’s lover and that’s where she was heading, so I sent my regards.

I was incredibly glad I left the house because Two Martinis made amazing food. One of the guests was a friend of my Arch Cheese Nemesis but I got over it relatively quickly. Then my LJ and real worlds collided.

I know I have some issues about internet friends. No offense, but I don’t trust you folks to not be psycho until you’ve proved yourselves. And I don’t expect my LJ and Non-LJ worlds to meet without planning. Though she has an LJ, I know Two Martinis through arasay, one of my oldest friends. I’ve known Arasay so long that I even went with her to stalk the guy she had a crush on before he became her husband. Anyways, one of the other guests called a friend for a ride home and he turned out to be msjen’s hubby. I have met Ms Jen in real life because she’s a friend of defenestr8r who was my first internet stalker. In a good way.

The theme for the day: San Francisco is a small, small town.



*Just a note about the music. Whipping Boy is the album I dig out every July 4. It’s a great album but good luck finding it. Incredibly unsubtle in that early ‘80s punk way the first song is called "America Must Die". The next song is about "gunning down the President". It’s an unheard classic. I got it from a friend when she joined the Army and got rid of her records. After it ended I put on Carl Perkins.

Comments

[sanmiguelmalo.livejournal.com]

speaking of small town sf, i knew some guys in a high school ska band called the defenestrators*. lead singer was a fellow who had a full beard when he was a freshman. people always mistook him for the teacher.

also speaking of small town sf, do you randomly know someone named adam, last name the color that is the opposite of black?


*unless that's not at all a unique ska band name. i feel like maybe it's a phase all ska band kids go through: "hey! let's call ourselves the defenestrators! that's a cool, clever name!"

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I don't know Adam Opposite, sorry. The Defenestrators is a perfect ska band name.