The Birthday Surprise

I’ve taken this from my dad’s Facebook (yeah. Hes computer literate. Its weird.) and decided that anything I say will just sound lame, but his sounds ~awesome~. This was our Sunday.

One of the best days ever!

Yesterday my wife & I were to go to Santa Cruz to spend the day with Kate & her boyfriend. As I was waiting in the car for Lynn to get ready she came down to tell me that Jessie, Kate’s boyfriend, had food poisoning and that we weren’t going to Santa Cruz. I was greatly disappointed, as it had been a while since I’d seen Kate. I went back upstairs and made a mental list of things I would do to spend the day.

A few minutes later Terry brings me an envelope with my name & address on it saying it had just been slipped under the front door. I opened it and inside was a note asking me to come to the front door. I went, very curious, opened the door, and out pops Kate! It seems that there never was a plan to go to SC, but that they would come up and surprise me. I was handed another envelope, directing me to grab the bag at the top of the stairs and get in the car, which we did. More clues followed, which took us to Genova’s to get sandwiches, across the bridge to Golden Gate park, to where we had a picnic. After we ate it was off to downtown, where we caught BART to Embarcadero.

Clues took us to the Muni museum on Steuart, then to the Ferry Building. Sun was out, lovely day to stroll. More clues took us to 21st Amendment for a beer. Crowd was a little heavy as the Giants were playing at 5, changed from a 1 PM start. I was a bit down being so close to the game & not going when I got my last clue, which was tickets to the game!!!!

It seems that Kate, Lynn & Terry (who couldn’t come due to rehearsal) had been planning this for months. It was my birthday present from Kate. I’ve often lamented having my birthday in December because I’d never get to go to a ballgame on my birthday. Kate planned all this so I could do it once. In addition to the tickets they had smuggled my Giants jersey & one of my ball caps with us. Put those on & down to the park. We made our way in (getting the free trading cards!) and went to sit in our bleacher seats. As I was making ready to sit in my seat the woman next to my seat said that I couldn’t sit there, as it was taken. I looked at her and it was my sister Toni!!! She was also in on the conspiracy!

The day was nice, the Giants won and I had an incredible surprise. We laughed and cheered. Even Lynn, who is not fond of baseball, had a great time. Shows how much she loves me by coming to the game!!

It’s a birthday I’ll not soon forget. I am such a lucky man to have my girls!

My dad’s birthday is in December. He will be 50. Hes probly one of the best dads ever and he totally deserved this. I love you Daddy.

Fears (IM ALLOWED TO AFRAID OK)

I have two main phobias.

Well, I have a lot of phobias IN GENERAL  (I MEAN COME ON WHO ISN’T AFRAID OF FORGETTING TO LOCK A PUBLIC RESTROOM DOOR AND BEING CHARGED IN ON WHILE YOU’RE PEEING OR SPIDERS IN YOUR FOOD OR RACCOONS WASHING FOOD ON YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP) but I have two MAIN phobias.

And they both hit me last night.

Erica scored a bunch of tickets to the SJ Giants game so we piled (all two of us) into her car and drove to San Jose and met up with some of her friends. I  mentioned in passing how I hated and feared mascots as one of her friends pointed out GIGANTE, the SJG mascot – a GIANT ORANGE SNARLING  GORILLA I SHIT YOU NOT HE IS TERRIFYING!

Lookit this guy! Don’t be thrown off by his mildly quizzical look! HE WILL KILL YOU WITH HIS BARE GIANT ORANGE HANDS!

So Gigante in all his terrifying and giant un-glory is a few sections over gettin’ his groove on (as scary as he is, dude can dance. I can’t dance in a CHAIR let alone in a giant orange gorilla suit in front of dozens of baseball fans) and I’m all “GOD I HOPE HE DOESNT COME OVER HERE *beer chug*”.

AND THEN HE DID

AND HE TOUCHED ME

FROM BEHIND

And as I shrunk away from his poking, there were literal tears streaming down my face.

And everyone with me was like SHES CRYING OH GOD THIS IS SO EMBARASSING

And then I started rocking back and forth and humming to myself.

With snot and tears running down my face.

And on my hands.

It was disgusting.

Then Erica comes back from wherever the hell she had gone and I cried on her OHMYGOD NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN HE TOUCHED ME AND WOULDNT STOP

And she said “SUCKER.”

—

First and foremost I would like to point out that I am not the only person to who is afraid of snails. So there’s that.

However. I am terrified of them.

Logically I understand it’s a fucking snail but a certain reoccurring dream in which GIANT SUPER FAST SNAILS EAT MY FATHER IN FRONT OF ME (The first time I had this dream I was 3 and it was VERY traumatic and LONG and I still have it) has kind of made it hard to be ok about them.

Yesterday it rained a lot.

And snails come out in droves after a rain.

And it was dark when Erica dropped me back at my house.

Do you see what I mean now?! THEY ARE AN ARMY OF SNAILS! THEY WANT TO EAT YOUR FLESH AND SUCK ON YOUR BONES AND BUILD CATHEDRALS OUT OF THEM!

I touched a lot of snails with the bottoms of my shoes.

I was not happy.

I don’t think they were either, but of the two of us, I was in the position to freak out.

Also: EWW.

A Glorious Weekend

you know those weekends? Those days that make you sigh, weeks later, over the fun and fulfillment you had and felt?

I had one of those weekends.

It started out lazy, cuddles and breakfast at Zachary’s with Jesse. We both had the Mess (and we both forgot to bring the Tapatio from home).

It was a nice lazy breakfast followed by a rush and moment of panic at the Greyhound station when my bus pulled up before Id picked up my ticket.

A boring, quick and cold ride later, I arrived in Oakland about 20 minutes early. My mom picked me up from the station and we went to Chef Edwards BBQ. Neither of us had been and we both ordered the “Piggly Wiggly Pulled Pork Sandwich”. Holy shit guys it was delicious.

Then off to the Fox Theater for the show my mother won tickets for. The Fox was recently redone and its gorgeous. It has a lot of the old details and some new stuff too. Just amazing.

Paolo Nutini is a Scot. He is a young, hard to understand, musically eclectic Scot and he was adorable. I had never heard of him and my mom knew one song: New Shoes

He is an awkward kid to watch sing though. He plays guitar and you can tell when he doesnt sing because his arm doesnt know what to do with himself.

Still, we had a really wonderful time!

It’s always great to be able to spend time with my mom ALONE. Mostly, I have to share her.

The next morning, my Dad, my sister and I headed to the city to see the SF Giants play the LA Dodgers. We’re hardcore giants fans and had been trounced the day before so we were really hoping for a win.

The game started out foggy but got better as the day went on.

We were silly and had an awesome time, plus the Giants beat the Dodgers pretty well so that was a bonus.

headed back to Oakland on BART and my mom drove me home (she offered!)

Jesse came over later that evening and we headed to bed.

It was one of those weekends that just leaves you glowing for weeks. I love spending time with my family and got to do a lot of that this weekend, doing things we really enjoy doing.

My dad and I have always been super baseball buddies; my mom and I have always loved talking just the two of us about nothing and everything; my sister and I have always loves being siblings.

Plus we ate a lot of delicious food, which is always great!