Late Summer Days. And Nights

This is my least favorite time of the year. On one hand, the transition from late summer into early fall makes for a beautiful season, and in San Francisco, September offers some of the best weather on the calendar. But on the other hand, the days are getting shorter, and nothing really interesting happens until the holiday season.

So as I am wont to do, I make the most of what these months have to offer. Case in point: I'm off to Hawaii in a week. Yay! Back here at home, I'm filling my free time with fun, and this last week was no exception.

I snapped this little cell phone photo of myself with my friends Nina and Onkar on Friday night. Well, technically, it was Saturday morning. What had started as happy hour at Osha in the Financial District with Frances, Zeeshan, Dean, Joel, Zaineb, Nina, Onkar and myself turned into an evening music and cocktail party. We took the party from the FiDi to a Western Addition apartment, and while the others took smoke breaks on the balcony, I took charge of Onkar's iPod. Like me, Onkar is a huge music fan, and he has tastes similar to mine. So there was a lot to choose from among the 4500 songs that fill his little music player. We drank, ate snacks, chatted and sang along to the tunes. (Okay, it was mostly me singing along, but whatever.)

But wait, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. A whole week's worth of fun preceded our Friday night music party. Last Sunday afternoon my friend Erin and I went to see the Giants beat the Rockies as the two teams battle for a spot in the playoffs. It was Stanford Alumni Day at the game, and even though this proud Brown University graduate did not attend Stanford (Erin did), I was a good sport and cheered for the Giants among the Cardinal faithful. On Monday I met Denise for cocktails at the bar at the Fancy Gym. Yes, the Fancy Gym has a bar; it's that fancy. It was there that I discovered bubble gum flavored vodka. You read that right. Actually, Denise had discovered the bubble gum vodka a few weeks ago when she and her boyfriend Paul went to a movie premiere in L.A., but the Fancy Gym bar has it. Yum.

On Tuesday Sober Nixon had a little open mic performance in Alameda. It wasn't our best open mic showing, but it was okay. By the way, Ho, our bass player, is trying to get Sober Nixon on the bill of a real show in early October. We'll see if that pans out. Open mics are fun, but a real club show would be that much more fun. I stayed in on Wednesday night and then met Kurt and Terry for more socializing after work on Thursday.

All of that wore me out for the weekend, and I spent most of yesterday relaxing and napping with just a workout, laundry and some other housework to break up my dozing. But the fun kicks into high gear again this afternoon when I get together with Christine for our regular gossip session. Then it's Heidi's birthday party tomorrow night and a possible recording session for Sober Nixon on Wednesday. We have to record some songs if we want to be considered for any shows next month.

And after all that, I'm that much closer to Hawaii. Again, yay!