North Beach

Drove into the City so M could check into her hotel. We hit gay pride parade traffic. Union Square. Chinatown. North Beach. Same old jaunts but I never get tired of it and, most importantly, neither do my guests.

North Beach is SF's Italian neighborhood and I'm in heaven when I am there. Yep, it's all about the language and the accent. Keeps my Italian dream trip alive until I make it to the real Italia. Anyway, we sipped coffee while we people watched in the warm afternoon sun along with continuous girl talk.

Where are you?

Me (10:50 AM): I'll pick you up. No, silly, it's not a bother. See you in a about an hour.
Me (12:10 PM): I can't find you. Which baggage claim? #1..okay about 10 feet away see you in a few seconds.
Me (12:15 PM): Hmmm. Are you sure it's baggage claim #1?
Me (12:30 PM): What airport are you at?

Yep, I went to the wrong airport. She was waiting at SFO and I was a OAK. We finally met at 2:00 PM. Hadn't seen her in 2 years, but it seemed like it was just the other day. She was here for the JavaOne conference...part of the geek deluge. ;)

We lunched in Oakland and spent the rest of the day in Berkeley. Talked until the wee hours of the morning.

Crash

Excellent. This movie is about truth. Truth that people either don't know, don't talk about or don't want to believe. That's always the case with race though.

We explored some of the scenarios we've had in our own lives. Some of mine...

I've walked into stores and received extra attention. Not the good kind. The type of attention that screams they are waiting for me to steal something. It does not matter that I may out earn every person in that store. I am part of a minority and they chose to apply a stereotype.

I had a high school teacher scoff at a Spanish Literature advance placement course. He thought the school offering such a class was a terrible waste of time and resources, but most importantly unfair. He thought that Spanish speaking students taking this class was a joke because we spoke Spanish at home. He could not understand that speaking Spanish and reading/writing/thinking in were completely different things. We had not been taught formal Spanish and that is what made it one of the most difficult classes. Of course, this was not the argument for the English Literature advance placement course even though most of the people in the class spoke English from day zero.

When I was in college we lived in what I guess you could call a blue collar neighborhood. It wasn't the 'hood by any means. One of my classmates came over for a visit. His visit was quite lengthy; it was late when he decided it was time to head back. My friend (6 foot, 220 lb) asked me to walk him to his car! All these years later, I can't believe it. I walked him to his car after laughing hysterically and finally realizing he was not kidding. He was not exposed to blue collar neighborhoods. He grew up in white collar suburbia. Was it his fault? No, of course not.

And the latest one...finding out I'm usually the only minority friend in certain people's circles is downright sad, specially in California.

My Indian coworker expressed his knee-shaking fear when he accidentally wound up in Oakland after dark. Why? Because Oakland is predominantly black. Has he ever had a bad experiece with black people? No, not at all.

The idea of the salad bowl (or was it the melting pot) is great, but in reality the mixing of so many differences is not so great. You'd think the growing pains would be over but they are not. Stereotypes persist. Fear of the unknown is strong.


Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
It took me a few days for it all to sink in. Then came the disgust. I kept up with the headlines when it was on the front page, but like everything else it wittled away to the next big news story. Hearing actual brokers talk about sticking it to California and the subsequent laughter. Damn. Where was the sense of right and wrong? Could it happen again? What about the people who lost so much?

Calendar Girls

The surprising thing about Calendar Girls was that it's true. Middle-aged women did participate in the making of a 'nude' calendar to raise funds for a Leukemia charity. That idea is still raising money to this very day. Too cool.

For years I've thought having an elegant nude portrait of myself would be cool to look when I was 75 years old (assuming I made it to that age). The plan was to get this done at 30, what I thought was going to be my prime age. Didn't happen. Where would I exhibit a portrait like that? In my living room? More like nowhere, I'm shy. This movie brought back the crazy idea.

And it brought back another memory. I have a picture of a boyfriend from a past life. It's not a nude, but it might as well be. I don't know where it is, but it's somewhere in the apartment. Hope nobody ever finds it by accident. If I find it first, it needs to be shredded.

My Life Without Me
Didn't like this one. I found it extremely drab. Yes, she is going to die and she is coming to terms with that but still. Before I saw this movie, I had it in my head that I would not tell my family should I be diagnosed with something drastic. A few years ago my mother's best friend husband died. It was a shock. He had cancer and did not tell anyone. Not supposed to judge, but that is an extreme case of selfishness, which brought more questions and hurt after his death on top of the regular old grieving process. Not fair. If I am diagnosed with something drastic, my family and friends will know.

Honey
Watching the dancing scenes was okay...that was about the only okay part in the entire movie.

Bubble wrap

It's my new "yoga" as of a few hours ago. If I need to zone out, all I need to do is reach for some bubble wrap.

We watched the Michael Jackson verdict on CNN. Not the greatest use of company time. I was surprised with the results. I didn't think I was leaning one way or another as far as his innocence, err, guilt... But I obviously expected a guilty verdict, else why would I be surprised.

"Stop and go" This was the phrase used by a woman who was having intimate relations with her ex-husband who is married to the secretary he left his wife for. Karma, baby, karma. It's a little weird listening to someone a little older than my own mother use the words "stop and go" to describe her liaisons.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

I can't get over how beautiful Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie are. Of course, I knew they were, but seeing them both on the same screen made it clear in case I had any doubts. These two are simply stunning. It's almost like the rest of the world got beat with the ugly stick. ;)

The film was quite enjoyable. Chuckling could be heard throughout with the hardiest laughs coming from the couples. We've all been there...long term relationship where the excitement has faded.

Spanglish

I recall reading fabulous reviews about this film, but after seeing it I fail to see why the critics liked it so much. I fell asleep for a few minutes and that doesn't happen to me. (It happened once before with Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Stupid movie.)

The premise: A Mexican housekeeper (and she wasn't even Mexican!...pet peeve of mine) starts working for an American family.

The housekeeper's daughter got on my nerves. The wife got on my nerves. The lack of backbone of the husband got on my nerves. Why was the son even in the film? How the housekeeper and husband managed to fall for each other....


I spent the day touring Alameda with a friend where, if things go how I want them, I will be moving to soon enough. I don't want to live through another hot, almost humid summer. I want to live in an old victorian with wooden floors. They are few and far between, but I am going to try.

Gandhi

Come to find out I have been mispelling Gandhi all this time. I always thought it was spelled Ghandi.

I had not seen this 1982 masterpiece. Maybe because in 1982 my mother took me to see E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial four or five times at my pleading! And that was also the year of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Mom only took me twice to see Star Wars. Goes to show you my love for movies started at a very young age...8. And probably younger than that. Saturday morning matinees.

I could not have appreciated Gandhi then. It is a great movie. It educated me to a degree. I knew about Gandhi, but I didn't know about Gandhi. Does that make sense? (Note: Read a book on Gandhi)

The most powerful scene for me was the scene at the salt factory. Row after row of non-violent people walked to the doors even though the people that had just walked before them were beaten terribly. I don't know that I have that kind of courage and conviction in my beliefs. I discussed this scene with a friend. He thinks it was overdramatized. Maybe. I don't know. But as Americans all we have to do is look at news footage of non-violent, civil rights workers a mere 50 years ago. I can only hope and pray that when I am put to the test, I show the same courage.

The Longest Yard

Chris Rock and Adam Sandler in the same movie...easy choice. I went to watch this even though I am not a real football fan. I'll usually jump on the bandwagon during playoffs or a Super Bowl if there is the presence of a real underdog.

It was funny. I thought it was going to be funnier, but I got some laughs out of it. One of the funny things was hearing the men react to the body blows. I should see the original movies from the 1970s, another Netflix queue addition. I have over 300 movies on that queue so one more won't hurt.

During high school years, I'd go to football games because everyone else did. I had friends on the team, the cheerleading squad and the band. It was also a reason to be out late. Late was 11PM in those days. The tension during the games against our main rival was crazy. That was backintheday simple fun.

I remember watching a Super Bowl one year (my mom is a fan) where a player's lower leg broke during a play. They kept replaying it in slow motion and you could see the exact point when it broke, where it broke and dangle. Sick. That was enough football watching for me.