Wednesday we enjoyed a cold but empowering celebratory march from Harvey Milk Plaza to the steps of City Hall in celebration of the ruling of Prop 8 as unconstitutional. The march was full of friendly faces and wonderful humans, and it was followed by an intimate homemade dinner with close friends. And pie.
Thursday was truly something special as Samantha DeFrance Marini came into town for her sister's wedding in Tahoe and brought together Nashville childhood friends Sarah Carroll Andrews, Eleanor Jones Murry and me. We all grew up together in Nashville, but haven't seen each other in ages. Samanatha married Lorenzo and has been living in Tuscany ever since, having a fab life with one four-year-old and two newborn twins, and planning weddings and events through their site A Tuscan Wedding dot com. Sarah and I were friends in Nashville, then partners in crime as next-door neighbors in SF for many years until she got married and moved to Sonoma. I've known Eleanor almost as long (I once asked her to prom, not knowing she was dating a guy on the football team at the time), and she too used to be a neighbor, living in the apartment downstairs from me for a couple of years between her time in North Beach and marrying (distant cousin) Dan and settling down in Mill Valley. For many years we were E-Dog, Wil-Dog and Sa-Dog. Since their marriages, I have seen none of them save once or twice, and Samantha gathered us together for champagne with her parents (whom I see often in Nashville and play host to Fun Simon) before we all went to a posh dinner at the Cafe Balboa in Mill Valley.
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Of course, as it was then, these ladies were my "first dates." I was done by 10:00 and while the drive back to the City was a slow crawl absent traffic but full of dense, dense fog, I was able to meet up with Ben whom I was unable to accompany to the SF Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay Ball (Ben's band Ejector was voted Best Band in the Bay). Text delays meant I did not have a location more specific than 'the Castro" so I started a methodical search (checking into FourSqaure at each stop just to be "that guy" and harass some friends), and stopped at Moby's when I found Donna Sachet, herself fresh back from the Best of the Bay event talking to Ryan Donovan who had just made her acquaintance.
The Ryan thing is kind of awesome. I was looking through my address book for 40th birthday invitees and came across Ryan's entry. I hadn't seen Ryan since maybe my 30th, and thought I would look him up on Facebook. We reconnected and made plans to get together and catch up on a Monday, only to run into each other by happenstance on the Saturday before. Ryan has now dropped in as a Brain Farts regular and fun renewed friend to the gang. He's been moved back to the City since May and already he's joined a trivia team and chatting up the First Lady of San Francisco Donna Sachet in bars.
The Donna/Donovan party ultimately moved to 440, where I did finally find Ben and had super happy fun quality time until far far too late. Or early, depending on which way you wind your watch.
Late night fun time resulted in necessary nap time before Full Fun Friday, which started off with a wine and cheese fundraiser for Jim Rudoff and Brent Ganetta at A.G. Ferrrari's at their Castro Street location. A.G. Ferrrari's was a wonderful host and plied up with all sorts of tasty treat, and in addition to the tasting cover and raffle sales, 10% of all items purchased during the event hours went towards the riders in The Seismic Challenge. I very much regret not taking any photos.
After wine & cheese there was cocktails and dinner, followed by a very different fundraiser which necessitated a wardrobe change: Suzan Revah's now-monthly Nasty event at the Powerhouse to benefit the AIDS Emergency Fund. I gave friend and photographer Michael Smith a ride home and look forward to what his eye caught during the night. It was an early-ish night for me and I had never been more happy to be going home alone. Sleep blessed sleep, apnea notwithstanding. I found it ironic how excited I was looking forward to being unconscious.
Celebrating so much love in the world can be exhausting.
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