Went on a fun field trip to UCSF today.  The highlight was Charlie's comment about my driving there.  "It's you and Aaron?  That's like the blind leading the lame."

 Aaron: "Which begs the question...Who's blind and who's lame?"

I did get to drive all over the city, which I've never done.  Went from our office down in SoMa up to pick Charlie up in the Presidio, through Golden Gate Park to the UCSF Parnassus campus, back to the Presidio and along the Marina, stopped on Union Street to get some gelato, dropped off Aaron at his apartment in Pacific Heights,  then through Chinatown and back down to the St. Regis on 3rd and Mission to pick up Liz and John, drove a ways into the Mission to get around traffic to Tres Agaves down by the ballpark, and then stopping by North Beach to say hello to the Weeblies.

4am wake up call this morning to get on my flight back to Oakland - wasn't so thrilled at the time, but it got me back to California at 9am!  Not that I was functional at 9am...got home, had a snack...and promptly passed out on the couch.  I could almost agree with Liz that it should be Friday again, but John was right when he said we'd be dead in a month if we kept doing this over and over.
Had a lovely mini-vacay/weekend getaway to Charlottesville that involved a lot of fantastic wine and food.  I'm now a pro at wiffle ball.
Now I'm planning my social engagements for the week...tomorrow I'm crashing the honeymoon and grabbing some fantastic Mexican food with Liz and John.

A Recap of this past weekend's festivities:
Wednesday - 9am flight from Oakland to Dulles in under 5 hours.  Off the plane and straight to \$1 Miller lites at Clarendon Ballroom with Ledia & friends
Thursday - early morning pickup from Elizabeth, a few errands and possibly the best roast beef with horseradish sauce sandwich I've ever had, then to the airport to pick up Miss Mia, happy to be off of her flight from Perú.  Rebecca drove in early in the afternoon and we went shopping in Georgetown to get some things for Mia.  John was off at work, so us girls had a pseudo-bachelorette party at a Mexican restaurant down the street.
Friday - lunch at Hard Times (again) only this time I was instructed to get the Coney hot dog or whatever with the chili on top.  Yum.  A few more errands including the minor crisis in picking up Elizabeth's wedding dress in Georgetown and carting it to her parents' house in Chevy Chase...then dinner at a Chinese restaurant with the whole wedding party.  Many glasses of wine later...Rebecca and I head off to Liz's parents' to sleep.
Saturday - planned 9:45 departure to Charlottesville didn't happen as expected, no fault of mine.  Rebecca, Mia, and I hopped into Liz's hybrid and drove down, arriving around 1pm, after a stop at Bodo's Bagels.  (Apparently a must-do in Charlottesville.)  Rolled up to the Clifton Inn, where a bunch of people with French accents offered me lemonade.
Rebecca and I settled into the Carriage House, raided the cookie jar in the kitchen, and headed off the pool.  Liz jumped into the water with me, but we didn't stay too long because afternoon tea started at 3:30.  After some tea and snacks, we walked through a path (trying to avoid the poison ivy) down the farmhouse where the groomspeople were staying.  (Groomspeople because there were three groomsmen and one groomswomen.)  After a few practice pitches and much beer, we all jumped into an organized game of wiffle ball.  The game ended up being rather short so a bunch of us could head back to our rooms and shower before the rehearsal. 
Rehearsal dinner was a poolside barbecue with the best fried chicken and cole slaw ever.  After dinner, my BFF Lauren came over with her friend Drew.  We all drove over to the farmhouse again, which I now fondly think of as the bottomless pit of really, really good wine.  The night ended early for us girls, calling a very calm Liz in her room to reassure her that everything was going to be perfect the next day.
Sunday - Liz came over at 8:30 in the morning and the four of us sat out on the patio outside the Carriage House and had breakfast and mimosas brought to us.  The poor girl bringing the champagne glasses on a tray in one hand and the ice bucket in the other hand dropped every single champagne flute one by one as she walked across the lawn. 
Liz left for the Boar's Head Spa before the champagne was cold, but fortunately we found John wandering around nearby to partake before Mia and Rebecca and I could drink all of it.  We caught up with Liz and mom as we were going into get manicures.
Back at the Clifton, Liz had her first real panicky moment when they discovered her dress needed to be ironed, but Mia ushered her back to our place with some cocktails and lunch and all was okay again.  At one point Elizabeth asked me to check if there were any big black clouds outside.  It was sunny on both sides of the house, but I could definitely see one coming towards us from the north.  I told Liz it was nice and sunny out.
Once we got the green light from Liz's mom that the ironing fiasco was over, we headed up to Liz's room in the Main house to get ready.  She went to shower, and it started to get cloudy and drizzle.  Fortunately, Liz takes long showers and had no idea.  (I admitted to lying to her the next day.)  The Clifton staff dried off the chairs and she never noticed.  It was pretty chaotic and I took a lot longer to get dressed than I thought I would.  Between the ironing of dresses and photographs and champagne, there were people in and out constantly.
I don't ever cry at weddings, but this was evidently the one exception.  I actually can't remember what the trio was playing because I was so busy trying to discreetly dab at my eyes.  The whole thing - from Liz walking down the aisle, obviously trying not to cry, to the moment of of silence for John's dad, to John and Liz reading the vows they had written was making everyone a little sniffly.
Fortunately, that was soon over.  After a few of the usual formal photos, we were on the deck for the cocktail party and more champagne!  Chef's baby kept staring at me so I played with her for a bit (I think Chef's real name is Scott), even though I generally avoid small children.
Dinner was on the front lawn - Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes and Lamb Chops.  Omg.  SO good.  Plus wine pairings with everything.  (Actually there were two red wines with the lamb...not sure exactly how that works.)  Then dancing and more wine...and now I need to get my dress dry cleaned.  I hope they can get red wine out of silk.
Down to the farmhouse again, then back up to the pool and jacuzzi late into the night.
Monday - Apparently no one could figure out how Rebecca and I had so much energy on the dance floor the night before - but during breakfast we had obviously run out.  I was almost too tired to eat my eggs benedict (also best I've ever had) and bacon (and anyone who knows anything about me knows I LOVE bacon.)  We all jumped back into bed for a quick nap before heading back to DC late morning.  Mia and I hung out while Liz and John packed for their honeymoon, then tried to get some shut-eye before the cab came to take us to the airport at 4am.

If I were in California right now, I'd be rolling out of bed..it's only 9 am here in DC.  I'm at Liz's, waiting for Mia's flight to come in so we can go pick her up at the airport.  I haven't seen her in a year and a half...since she's been in Peru with the Peace Corps.
Last night I hung out with Ledia and her friends - we went to the Clarendon Ballroom, but unfortunately Burnt Sienna wasn't playing.  It was pretty hopping for a Wednesday night - might have something to do with the one-dollar Miller lites.
Now I'm trying to think of something profound to say at the wedding...perhaps it should be in haiku form.

I'm so bad at it, I know I'm going to forget something important.  Say, my bridesmaid dress.  I at least remembered to pack my liquid toiletries into a baggie, although the bag looks like it's about to bust open.
Back in 6 days, hopefully with some great photos.  Hopefully I will also avoid checking my work email but I'm kind of neurotic and might just have to.

are the ones where I don't have anything to do.

I spent Saturday wandering down Telegraph Ave with a friend.  I'm so off the academic schedule already I didn't realize it was graduation time at UC Berkeley.  Should have checked ahead - it was a bad day for street parking.

The real kicker of the afternoon was people watching at the Orinda BART station.  There was a couple sitting in their car, waiting for their limo to go to prom.  The dude was wearing a white tuxedo with purple vest and tie.   I suspect that the  get-up actually revolved around his matching Nikes with purple swooshes.  His date was a well-fed little girl wearing a very tight, very short, matching purple dress.  I had to cover my eyes when she climbed into the stretch limo.

Sunday I caught up with college Lauren and Elizabeth on the phone mostly to plan for this week's upcoming festivities.  I ran some errands as well - got Lauren a book for her 24th birthday that I've been trying to find EVERYWHERE.  Bought a great wedding card for Liz and John: the front reads, "two become one," and the inside says, "it's the simple.  it's that beautiful."

Under that, I wrote, "It's also the name of a classic Spice Girls song."

"Mississippi doesn't have Physician Assistants, sometimes called Physician Extenders.  I don't like using that phrase.  It sounds like a sex toy."

So says a very distinguished individual during a somewhat distinguished lecture.

So a spam filter bounced back a document for our upcoming conference that my coworker sent off to the attendees.
It even tells you which words triggered the rejection, so she had to go back and search for the three words because we couldn't figure out why they were in the file.

We realized that it was all based on information from the speakers' biosketches:
1) One speaker used to work in s e x ual assault prevention.
2) One speaker's last name was B l a c k.
3) One speaker graduated c u m  laude. 

Seriously.
So wrong.

So Aaron, my partner in RFID crime, sends me a daily haiku to summarize our work at the end of the day. 

This one originally showed up on my cell phone at 8 pm yesterday and my cell phone screen is too small to accommodate the full length of line 2, which made it appear like just an angry statement about being at work so late.

It's funnier now that I noticed the 5-7-5 theme.

TS Eliot
April is the cruelest month.
Eliot was wrong

Here's mine for tonight:
Concord BART station
Whoops, not where I want to be
Overslept again.

And fun, unless it's your teenage neighbor kid in his ginormous SUV following you down a windy road for 3 miles. 

Or when people  parking before the baseball game overflow into my company parking lot, obstructing my escape from work on a Friday afternoon.

It's only Tuesday, and my brain is fried.

Despite what the news is reporting, last week's inferno that melted the I-580/Hwy 24 interchange, the only direct route home to the East Bay from SF, is totally wreaking havoc on my life.
I am not a morning person.  I am especially not morning person when morning is the ungodly hour of 6 am, which is when I now rise and shine to secure a highly coveted spot in the covered parking garage at the Walnut Creek BART station.
This afternoon was worse - of all the times to have delayed extra-short trains running...it's this week.  I ended up smushed inside a car with no A/C and my head in some dude's armpit.  I glared at a lot of people who were invading my personal space and then almost fell over when the train slammed on the brakes going into Rockridge.

On a happier note, I chatted on the phone for a bit with my SPH buddy Ledia, whom I'll see in two weeks when I fly out to DC.  I also caught up with Liz, my college roommate who is getting married in Charlottesville Memorial Day weekend.  I still need to gain 5 pounds to fit into my bridesmaid dress, but I'm starting to think it's a lost cause.  (It was also a lost cause 6 months ago when I said I was going to this, but I was trying to be optimistic.)  Need to get details on our plans the day before the wedding...will I be needing to make an appointment at Zaza to get my nails done?  Hopefully my work buddy Mac will come along and get his usual "Man"-i-cure.