as always, i was amazed by the beauty of the city but it isn't just the city itself, it is everything else...people seem genuinely happy, the collage of cultures mixing, being able to hear 6 different languages in one block, even the grimy dirtiness of the city adds something to the charm of SF. ahhhh to move there - soon, soon. if what was discussed actually happens - trouble will be a brewing.

the hotel we got was great - a nice old building, just off union square. the extra tall celings and winding hallways added to the SF feel of it. I think that the hotel must have expanded into a building behind the initial hotel because our room was on the 3rd floor, but after arriving on the 3rd floor we had to go up a half set of stairs - into a different part of the buildings. but the hotel isn't worth describing as we didn't spend much time there. soon after arriving dan, estelle, shannon and I grabbed a GREAT thai lunch - i'm not a big thai person, but this ish was the bomb. cheap, fast, spicy & damn good. i can't remeber what it was called, but it is like 110 Powell (or nearby). I definately recommend! From there we hoofed it up nob hill and ended up in this hotel bar called something like the big 4, named after 4 major railroad tycoons - VERY dark, VERY swanky, VERY old SF money. pretty cool place, there was a sign from 1910 or so saying "$10 Reward - Lost Wife". It then goes on to describe this lady, "one gimp leg", "was at [somename] instution, is unbalanced at times" - was hilarious. I recommend the bar just for that sign.

next stop - some mexican restaraunt happy hour on the way back to the hotel. it was cool, but i wasn't really feeling the place that much - got a beer and dustin appeared and ordered some kamakazis - good move big d! - jeez, i think i overuse & misuse the full dash, but i love it and will continue to use it - speaking of puncuation, i'm reading this book "Eats Shoots & Leaves", it is aboug grammar and punctuation - i'm a bit pissed off because i've learned that one of my biggest pet peeves is actually considered okay and that you can write it my way (the correct way) or the wrong way, that the difference is just stylistic and neither is wrong - for example:

That is Luis' motorcycle. (the correct way IMO)
That is Luis's motorcycle. (apparently also correct)

it is cool though because the author does go into a wonderful diatribe about apostrophes being used incorrectly to pluralize things - this is my other pet peeve with the apostrophe and people use it (especially on the internet) ALL the time. I also hate misuse of they're. i can deal with its/it's and which/witch but for some reason i read they're differently then there/their. when i'm reading it really makes me stumble.

back to the city - after mexican happy hour (now i remember why i was dissapointed by the place, the salsa they gave us sucked) we chilled in the hotel room for about an hour until tony and c(h?)rystal showed up. walked through chinatown (did a restaraunt bar), north beach (did the bar in so i married an axe murderer). i met some cool people who were tossing napkins out the 2nd floor window of the bar that they wrote "what is your american dream?" and having people yell their answer up to them. very good question for the 4th. the rest of the crew gave me shit for hanging with the strangers, but that's what i do...

we walked to the embarcadero and snuck onto a pier to watch the fireworks. thanks to the fog and a pier building we couldn't really see crap, which was dissapointing, but that really is what the 4th usually is anyways. it is like new year's eve, people put a lot into the 4th and often it ends up being a crazy (in the bad way) nightmare of drunk people, families trying to stick together and the invariable police/fire/ambulance racing to protect/serve/save...

walked to market and had a great walk/talk with the shan-d & d-shafaded. hopped on F (someone was a DG...guess who?!?). jumped off just before castro starts to get good and hit up lucky 13. had a great time there - i was rawked at foozeball by dan. the best part of lucky 13 was when this dude called shannon a bitch. normally this isn't exactly something good, but dustin and I shot enough dirty looks his way about half an hour later he came up and apologized - HOTT. Stumbled to some karaoke bar didn't get to sing, drank more - stumbled back to union square hotel. met and hung out with more strangers in the lounge - had to head up to the room (which apparently made me miss smoking the pot with the strangers) to passout/makesureiwouldn'tpuke/piss (not necessarily in that order).

oh yeah, the wedding was GREAT! my second cousin (my dad's cousin) - age 43ish, married this lady pretty yoga instructor - age 25ish. they've been dating for about a year, and on the outside, seems like trouble, but in all honesty they seem like they'll do well together ::crosses fingers::

i got to meet the NY side of my family (my dad's aunt and family) and no one tried to kill eachother (my dad hasn't talked to his brother in like 13 years, my 2nd cousin's mom and dad went through a crazy divorce and don't talk and my great aunt doesn't talk to one of her sons) and actually i had a great time. the ghey runs in my family - my uncle brought his boyfriend and my 2nd cousin brought her girlfriend. also one of my cousins seems to be an expat, living everywhere but the US and the cousin that got married did the expat thing between undergrad and med school. sounds similar, yeah?

alright - time to get into my summmer reading - anyone got any suggestions?