In other news, the people at work made some calls and sent some emails (to the effect of "Adam is sick and needs to see a doctor today! Move it bitches!) and my insurance was activated instantly yesterday morning. Apparently, they received my paperwork but were taking their sweet time activating my coverage.
Once I was activated though I was able to see a doctor and get my beloved Z-Pack in an hour. I was amazed. I'm on the road to recovery! Yay!
So yesterday after work I was feeling like utter shit. My condition worsened through the night when eventually I woke up around 2AM with a temperature of 102. One more degree and you're supposed to go to the hospital.
I took an Aleve and Brad woke up and helped me look for doctors on the interwebs. I called one and left a message telling them my temperature and other symptoms, blah blah. With the way doctors are these days I didn't expect to get an appointment but the voicemail that I got the next day was totally priceless and indicitive of our broke down health care system in the US.
"Hi Adam, I'm calling from Dr. Blah Blah's office. I got your message and I can't get you an appointment for today but you can call me back and we can schedule an appointment for you in a couple of weeks. You may want to call your insurance to see if they reccommend any urget care."
Okay, okay. I got the standard, "we can't see you until you're dead in the gutter" line. That one I expected. What I didn't expect was for the receptionist to suggest that I should call some underpaid phone operator at my insurance company, who's probably halfway across the world, so that they can make a judgement call on my health. What the fuck!?
The Aleve worked and my fever has gone down but I still feel like shit. Progress, not perfection. I'm sure I made better decisions about my health than a southeast asian phone operator would have for me. Staying home sick is worse than being at work sick, IMO, so I made it in to the job. Incidentally two other people are suffering from the same thing I am.
Brett penned a great post about his reaction to the movie "Wall-E," and I have to say that I was also really affected by this movie emotionally. I don't know if it's the movie plus the affect of a pride celebration hangover, but today I have been really depressed, not to mention drained of energy.
Wall-E struck a chord with me mostly because of the irony that a lonesome machine longed for contact with another while existing on a trash infested, abandoned Earth. All the while, humans were floating in space getting fat, and were completely ignorant of their surroundings or one another. I thought the leitmotifs of "Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" from Hello Dolly! were brilliant choices. Both songs are cheesy, trite, and hackneyed (I know because I performed them my sophomore year in high school), but the simple themes in both are often ones that make us smile and feel connected to one another, whether it be loved ones or strangers. In our world of technology and consumerism these simple pleasures are the most fragile, and when we begin to lose them, we begin to lose ourselves and our care for who and what is around us.
The levels that one can peel off from Wall-E range from ecological to sociological, and I'm glad that the shock of the magnificent desolation in Wall-E has caused Brett to pause and think about his consumption and and his interconnectedness to humanity. I hope that other adults react in this way, and more importantly I hope a generation of children are compelled to feel the same. Wall-E was the little engine that could, and he saved us and our planet in a movie but we all need to be a little like Wall-E if we're going to survive.
So, think about what you consume, and where it goes when you're done with it, and think about the people you love and strangers around you. Because if we don't, we're alone, in a world of junk.
Another pride has come and gone and once again Brad and I celebrated with our friends in the City. The weekend was full of great fun and great time with friends, I'm exhausted but it's a good exhaustion.
We started out the weekend at one of the oldest gay bars in the City, Cinch. Dan suggested the place since it was out of the Castro and we could go someplace off the beaten track. It was a great suggestion, and the entertainment was deliciously edgy. We even saw a unicorn!
Here we are with our cocktail waitress whom we called many names ranging from Margot Kidder, Tootsie, Sally Jessie Raphael, Linda Lavin, etc. She was a bit loopy but fabulous!
Saturday we had our party which went very well. Pink Saturday party is much more fun watching from a window up high. Everyone stayed for a long time so that's always a good thing. It was nice to have old friends over to our new place. Kalvin and JR came over and brought a friend who is also a sometime contributor to GayGamer.net, PixelPoet. The next morning I got a flood of SMSes thanking me and Brad for a great party.
Sunday Brad and I woke up early at headed to the parade.
I got a great photo of Cindi Lauper.
After the parade, we headed over to Civic Center for the festival. There was a really cool with by this guy who makes figurines of Sci-Fi geeky characters our of junk. Here is Moby with Wall-E, aptly sculpted out of junk. The guy running the booth said they're not supposed to sell these but he had them anyway. Incidentally we saw Wall-E afterwards, LOVED IT!
That's about it. It was a fun, whirlwind weekend. I'm glad that this week will be a short 4-day one. Brad and I are planning a day trip next weekend to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and Santa Cruz. I cannot wait!
Pride has arrived! It's going to be really different for me and Brad experiencing all the festivities as residents of the city rather than visitors. We're looking forward to it and we're even hosting a small get together of close pals at our place on Pink Saturday. We certainly have the place for it with our bay window looking right down Castro St.
Jimmi is coming into town to join the mayhem. I'm excited to see him again, he's really one of my favorite people I've met through blogging. The last time I saw him he was drunk and I surmise that he'll be pickled most of this weekend as well. The only absence that pains me is that of Darin, it will be weird not having him here. I tried to coax him out here but the flights were just not cooperating. Fuck you Bush and your illegal war!
Tomorrow night we're slated to head to a bar called Cinch. Not in the Castro, this place resides on Polk street in the area of Nob Hill. I've heard that Polk street has a lot of good bars and restaurants so we're excited to try this place out. In any case, the Yelp reviews of Cinch are fantastic! My favorite is one where someone said they saw "a tranny on a 4x4 stage destroying a TV with an axe." Sounds awesome!
Sunday was a day of great accomplishment for us.
First off, we finally got our pictures and artwork up on the walls. Our walls are plaster and thus, cannot be nailed into or they might crack. I had some trepidation about hanging our stuff from the picture rail (thanks for the correct name Homer) as some of our stuff is quite heavy. Eventually I got over it and began to trust in the strength of the picture rail, the brackets, and picture hanging wire.
Our place is totally put together at this point.
The other accomplishment was that we both got some much needed new shoes! Brad's been walking on a pair of Converse that he got in Australia over a year ago, needless to say his feet have been killing him. Converse have basically no support when they're new, over the course of a year they are virtually nothing. I was due for a new pair of shoes as well. Brad got the Merrel's this time, I got the New Balance.
The weather in this city is bizarro. Last night and this morning it was miserably hot outside and in our apartment. With all the sunlight we get in our place in the morning it was nearing 90ยบ in our apartment. Box fan was going but it seemed absolutely futile. We didn't even make coffee and opted for ice tea that we made the night before instead. Around 2 it started cooling off and when we got back from the gym the apartment wasn't so hot.
So, our landlord lives above us but he's out of town for a while and his friend, Pat from across the street, is watching his place for him. She's definitely your garden variety San Francisco eccentric. The craziest thing about her is her need to clean. Brad was talking to her and apparently she can't sleep so she cleans, constantly. She was nice enough to ask how late was too late to clean because she didn't want to keep us up. We told her 11 was a good time to call it quits.
How constantly does she clean, you ask? Well I wonder if the shellac on the floor will be in tact when our landlord comes home to his place because she vacuums the place at least three times a day. It's insanity. She told Brad that she didn't want us to think that she's a "tweaker" but she behaves very Ellen Burstyn a la "Requiem for a Dream." The odd thing is I find it a bit charming, like it's part of the experience.
After some lunch we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and head over to Dolores Park to take in the views.
We were having a lovely time, mellowing out on the lawn until this annoying group plopped right in front of us. Everyone else around us was totally mellow and relaxed and enjoying the park until this group came along and started cackling with one another, very loudly, about how fucked up they all were on shrooms and other shit at this house party. There is nothing more annoying than grown men trying to one up each other at how fucked up they got on various substances at a party. Grow the fuck up. You can get fucked up on whatever you like, I don't give a shit, but I don't want to hear about it when you're sober because quite frankly it's boring and annoying. I love to watch Patsy and Edina on TV, they're a riot, but I don't want to know them in real life, you feel me?
It didn't ruin our park visit though. It was time to go anyway, so we picked up camp and walked along the top of Noe Hill to Castro and headed home. Tonight we're going to try out our first Mission-style burritos. We haven't had Mexican food since we left Dallas and we need some desperately!
I finally got a MUCH needed haircut today, and it looks great if I do say so myself.
Thanks to the graces of Yelp! I booked an appointment at Joe's Barbershop with Joe. The Yelp reviews were spot on, the place is great and Joe is a master of hair!
This cut couldn't have come at a better time, it is HOT in this city lately.
Internet has arrived at our home in San Francisco. We thought the day would never come but it has and we are grateful for it! Eighteen days without internet at home is about all I can take.
This weekend we'll probably go on another urban adventure. I'll be more reliable about posting photos and everything now.
It's good to be back in the virtual world! I'm off to gorge myself on Yelp, Flickr, and FaceBook.
Mrs. Garrett doing body shots!? Catherine Helmond is a dead ringer for Cynthia Nixon. This is gold.
