Apr 15 2013
Birthday City
First things first: happy birthday to Miss Jessica, who turns ten today. Ten, folks. Double digits! We are having a family barbecue for her on Friday, since I am currently in San Francisco. Megan told me that she called Jessica last week to ask her what she wanted for her birthday dinner, but Jessica was so distracted by the fact that she had just gotten a load of books from the Bookmobile that Megan gave up on trying to talk to her. Jessica handed the phone over to Erica and scampered off into the land of books.
It was a lovely drive to the Land of Civilization this morning. The ocean was a deep blue, frosted by white caps, giving way to the ancient redwoods, followed by the rolling hills and vineyards of the Valley. The trees were a haze of translucent green leaves, and the grape vines were unfolding their leaves hopefully in the spring sunshine.
Filming of Need for Speed has concluded, so there were no traffic delays. I dropped off welcome gifts for Aaron Paul and his co-star at their hotel at the beginning of the filming, but I didn’t get to meet them or even see them, which seems kind of unfair since I was the only person at the jobette who knew who they were. Even Megan and Rob never got into Breaking Bad, so I was alone in my star-struckness.
Before leaving for the City, I enrolled in Fast Trak, which automatically deducts from your credit card the $6* toll for the privilege of entering San Francisco. Apparently human beings have been declared obsolete by the Bridge, except for the tireless painters. It was odd to drive through the toll plaza without stopping.
Now I’m at the modest motel in my not so modest former ‘hood, listening to the Leafs game and waiting for my Thai food to be delivered. Tomorrow I’ll get up bright and early – well, early, anyway – and head downtown to the Four Seasons for the annual conference.
*I remember being incensed when it went up to $3. Once I didn’t have the cash when returning to the City from visiting my sibs. I had to pull over and go into the office by the Bridge to write them a check.