Friday, after saying goodbye to Meecha before she went to school, Corb and I hit the town, so to speak. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with bright sunshine and high 60's-mid 70's. Not a cloud in the sky. Completely atypical SF. First we met a mutual friend, Alison, for breakfast in Berkeley. Alison has been at UC Berkeley on a fellowship which is running out at the end of the semester, right about now, actually. I met Alison at the QueerDisability conference in 2002. She was one of the organizers along with Corbett and a handful of others that I have developed friendships with.
After breakfast, we headed into the city and parked at Fisherman's Wharf . I never thought of myself as a typical tourist and tend to avoid all the tourist traps and usual places. I've always liked the side roads, alleys and places that draw more local people. I just sit and watch, listen and learn. For whatever reason, this day was different. We didn't do everything tourist, but it was definitely NOT my typical avoidance of said traps. We hopped on a ferry to Tiburon and Sausalito, strolling around each place for a while and enjoying the sights. Corbett found something she'd been looking for in each place - a bed/lap table at a thrift store and a gadget with clips and magnifying glass for working on jewelry. After we got back into the city, we walked around for a while, finding a museum dedicated to old, some VERY old, mechanical toys and games. You know, the kind where you put in a quarter, squeeze a handle, and it tells you how sexy you are...or you put in the quarter and turn a handle to see a flip-card movie. We played skee-ball, each winning one game...basically we had a blast just being silly. Dinner was Joe's Crab Shack (it was crab season YUM) and afterwards, we headed to visit Laura and Robin, other mutual friends and organizers of the queer disability conference. They, too, are leaving the Bay area soon and moving back to Colorado where they can afford to live. Robin is an attorney and has been looking for a job for months. She's got CP and NOBODY is willing to hire her. Sure, she can get a shitty job in an ILC (independent living center), but she's done that before and she's a fucking ATTORNEY! Why should she have to settle for a shit job at minimum wage just because she's a crip? Bullshit. It's not fucking fair.
We got back to Corbett's house late and she had to spend time on the phone arguing with the nursing home that a friend is in. The friend was just transferred from a hospital where she was on high doses of pain meds, all approved and necessary, and the nursing home wasn't giving her the prescribed dose, saying she's drug seeking. Again, BULLSHIT. Corbett has power of attorney for this friend and it was an ordeal talking to the friend and the nursing home, trying to get a straight answer and proper meds. It finally worked itself out, but oy!
Next morning the hotel had arranged for a town car to pick me up from her house and take me to the airport...I can get used to this. The flights home were better - I slept for most of it - and I got home around 11:30PM.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm on the right, Corbett's on the left. For the record, the light is on the word "Wild".
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