Jen and I had a whirlwind weekend. Running on just 9 pints of blood, I’m surprised I’m not more tired today.
Friday night we whisked off to a really fun birthday party for Ben at his and Jess’ place in Alamo Square. I drove around for nearly 20 minutes looking for parking. When I finally settled into a sketchy spot on Divisadero, I was so ready to be done circling that I went a bit too fast right into the curb and scratched off another section of my passenger-side wheel (at the back). I have to learn to stop doing that! I’m still not used to this whole having-nice-wheels-on-my-car thing. Regardless, the party was a blast. We hung out mostly wilth Katie, Jeanine, Isaiah, and Enoch, who, in true E-Dog form, arrived to the party a full hour after Katie arrived and said that she thought she had seen him wandering around outside before she came in the building (I still don’t know what he was doing for that hour). We met a few of Ben and Jess’ friends, which was a cool experience. I finally met Ben’s older brother Chris as well.
Saturday we did some unpacking and cleaning around the house, then headed out to explore Larkspur. Due to crowds and construction, we weren’t able to access our local dog run in Piper Park, which was the first dog park in Marin County. (As of this morning, I’ve still not seen it, since the whole park was closed today for road work!) So we continued on to San Rafael and the Field of Dogs. That night we got all fancied up and headed to the wedding of Jen’s coworker Joe and his now-wife Jennifer at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club. The service was really beautiful and brought a few tears to my eyes. It was a sure-sign that I know I won’t be able to hold it together when Jen and I get married next year. I will cry. I know it already. We had a good time and even danced the polka. After the wedding we headed to Treasure Island for another carload of goodies.
Collecting goodies from TI proved to be the theme of the weekend, as we did it again Sunday afternoon after freeing ourselves of three boxes of Vassar Club archives at Jeff’s place in the city and before meeting up with dad for some food at the Emeryville Public Market. The original plan was to hit Ikea to pick up a new TV stand or entertainment center. After seeing the heavy traffic flowing directly toward the massive blue-and-yellow structure, we momentarily had decided to do it on a weekday when the place isn’t as nuts. But we ended up going as planned.
Of course, even after proclaiming that we would run in, find a small TV stand to match our Ikea coffee table (whose style of wood is apparently last year’s model since it seems to be the only piece of furniture that color — even though they still sell it in the store), and run out again, we ended up staying there upwards of an hour and going through several decision-making cycles. What we came out with was a monstrous $400 entertainment center/bookcase/wall unit (new to the Ikea line) known as the Amiral (in oak veneer).
The thing is a beast and it’s a small miracle we were able to load it in the Scoobie (a true testament to the power of sport wagons; as Jen said as we drove down the freeway practically balancing the three long boxes on our heads, “Anyone who says they need an SUV is full of shit!”) on top of a bunch of stuff from TI that already took up a good deal of space — oh, and a new matching coffee table, too. I chronicled the moment and may even send the photos to Subaru (I think this feat is comparable to loading a calf into an Outback Sport, as shown in a recent issue of Subaru’s magazine). With the help of just one neighbor, we managed to unload the boxes at home and even began the 37-step assembly process last night. I think we made it to step 2. Hopefully it will be ready to go by the end of the week.
Today is mine and Jen’s 11-month wedding reversary.
