Make Mine Mike

I’m finally getting around to writing about meeting up with Aimee, Leese, Stanks and Varla in San Francisco Fourth of July weekend, but by now, they’ve all written full accounts of the Bay-area blogger convention. So here’s just a few more pictures and scattered details:

I woke up that morning, terribly hungover from the wedding the night before. Didn’t wanna make a bad first impression, but I was so tired. I looked at my face -- ashen, dry and droopy, and thought, "fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke."

The person I was most anxious to meet was Aimee, simply because I had already met the others before. And I had to witness that infamous cute snort! she makes when she laughs. Actually, people from Sausalito down to Monterrey could hear it.



Aimee is lively and friendly and has a great smile. The first moment we met, she started chatting away. I discovered later from her blog that she was nervous, but it seemed so natural. Not frantic or babbly, just mellow and straight-forward. I found Aimee much more laid-back than she comes across in Blogland. Maybe that’s what happens when you don’t have emoticons. Though I’ve decided to start using them in verbal conversations, too. Winky face.



Her daughter Emily is adorable. I always wondered if I had a kid, would I post about the li'l punk a lot? Now, that I’ve met her, I don’t know how Aimee doesn’t write about Em everyday.



Leese and Stanks were cool as ever. All their moving and big changes with the home, family, work... had ‘em fairly crazed -- but maybe it did help Leese look like she’d lost weight since last Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to them that much. Nor their little tough guys, Jake and David. But one of ‘em was an excellent high-fiver and the other did a a kick-ass dolphin impression: "ih-ih-ih-ih-ih!" If it didn’t get the attention of any marine mammals, it sure woke up the ones at the family restaurant. (We glared back at ‘em: Too bad, you want quiet, go dine at Nob Hill or something.)

Their daughter Nia used to live in Vegas. I used to practically live there myself, so I asked what she thought of Sin City. But being a teenager, she didn’t focus on the casinos or the housing boom or the best buffets. She sweetly told me about the important stuff: "Well, like, the kids out there, like, in high school... they’re, like mean!"


Is this post over yet? No? Wake me when it is.


The thing about Emily that won everyone over wasn’t just the red hair and cute face. She was engaging with the adults, playful with the other kids, and even seemed to have fun entertaining herself. Remember when simple things like pigeons or piles of sand seemed fascinating?



Finally, just like last January, I always feel comfortable with Varla. We talked about her wacky friends Spaz and Culito Bonito, her job, life, everything. I had called her late that night as my friends and I wanted Varla to come out and recommend a cool bar in her ‘hood , the Mission District. I was glad she didn’t get the message, ‘cause it was probably at some ungodly hour and I surely sounded inarticulate. Speaking of drunken fools, that day, while Aimee and Leese were shepherding their kids, Varla was sweetly mothering me, nursing me back from my hangover. "You need more coffee? How about water? Know what might help? Chocolate! Doesn’t anyone want any chocolate? We’re in Ghiradelli Square. What the hell did we meet here for?!"