The week prior to Ashley's conference in Denver was excruciating as he had to assemble and coordinate assembly of swatchbooks of archival material for a workshop. Then he was off and Theron and I held down the fort. Theron helped plan the dinner menu. For instance, one night we had Rice A Roni, fried eggs, and sausage. He thinks his new job should be as the recipe-a-nator.
Friday I picked him up from school, drove directly to LAX, where we picked up Ashley at Terminal 7, put most of his luggage in the trunk, then headed to Terminal 6 for our flight to San Francisco. Our friends Kati and Geoffrey are in the States (from London) right now because Geoffrey's documentary, The English Surgeon, was in the San Francisco International Film Festival. Ash and I watched the film today at home and it is so beautiful. Really no wonder it is receiving such high acclaim. It won top prize in the Canadian Festival Hot Docs, last month. We had hoped to have dinner with them Friday and breakfast Saturday, but Geoffrey and Henry, the surgeon, had a busy Q&A session after the screening and Kati and I couldn't make our cell phones cooperate with each other. She says she can send and receive texts with her sister in Finland, but couldn't get anything from either me or Geoffrey. When she's complained before she's told "Well, it should work" and that this is the British answer to everything.
We stayed right off Union Square at the King George. We had a really nice little room with a very bright and cheery bathroom. Looking out our window at the rooftop across the street we saw what appeared to be really big dogs. I thought, oh look, sheep, ha ha, because I didn't have my glasses on, but then we heard bleating.
It's very funny because Ashley thought he was having a real vacation, getting away from the roosters that keep him awake in Echo Park. Those sheep were up kind of late.
The next morning we had breakfast with Kati while Geoffrey and Henry were being interviewed, then we went back to their hotel for a little visit.
Now I'm going to show something very embarrassing that I will call From 80's to Ladies. I'm making this first picture small because Kati hated her hair even back then, and the picture doesn't have to be any bigger to see mine - it can be seen from space.
Helsinki 1985And now...
23 years and 75% less hairIt was a sweet but short visit as they had to start driving north. Theron shook hands with the men and told Henry, this brilliant neurosurgeon, that he looks like Alfred the butler from the Batman movies. Henry graciously accepted this observation as the compliment it was intended to be.
We had a super fun time in the city. I haven't been there in so long and sometimes I forgot it wasn't New York. We went to SF MoMA where there are some fantastic photography shows up and then we actually spent a long time in their store which is the very best museum store we've ever been in. It was so good that we even went in the one they have in the airport and spent even more money.
We went to Chinatown.
We walked and walked and shopped and shopped and then we took the Bart to the airport. It was just a short trip, barely a day all together. If it weren't for the opportunity to see Kati and Geoffrey I don't know when we'd ever have arranged to make the trip, but we'll be going back. The flight is inexpensive and only takes an hour. A terrific time was had by all. And now it is back to real life again.
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