Head towards the music!

       This weekend, I headed into the city on a Thursday evening so that I could catch a fundraising event at one of the VSers placements. Chelsea Weaver works at Global Exchange, which is this place full of people that care a lot of about a lot of different issues, ranging from fracking to Palestinians to Wall Street. It was pretty varied, and it was interesting to see what at least one of my new friends does every day.

        Back at the house, it was Jonathan's birthday. He's one of the VSers as well. We had green velvet cake (Alyssa and Nora ran out of red food coloring so they used blue and yellow; and they didn't have enough cocoa powder so they used hot cocoa mix. It tasted pretty good, a little dense, but definitely edible.

the cake matched their shirts!

creepy, creepy Alyssa

oh look!  Turns out it's GREEN!

        Friday was spent sleeping in a LOT. It was also the opening day of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. So I wandered down Haight Street for awhile and found a pair of corduroys, and two Banana Republic shirts from Goodwill for like $15! I don't like the Banana Republic business on principal – who even names their store that?! It is so inconsiderate! But I'm pretty sure that if I bought their shirt at a thrift store that benefits other people, then maybe it is ok. The shirts were super cute. I also saw a man with a cat on his shoulder and a cardboard sign reading “Pay homage to your kitten dictator.” Then I hopped on the 71 bus to the Park, trudged through sand paths under eucalyptus trees, and followed the sounds of steel guitars and super mellow vocals until I reached the festival. There were like a million people there, with 3 stages, and a whole lineup of artists. People watching was a blast. There were some really strange characters in attendance.

this is part of Golden Gate Park

selling headbands with big flowers on them

IT'S CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW!!!!!  Complete with rum and a coconut!

Jesus stopped by with a few choice words for corporate Amurrika

       On the way home, I hopped off the bus at Haight St. again because it's a pretty cool place. I bought some patterned socks for $3 from a trans guy with a five o'clock shadow and violently purple eye makeup. That was a new experience.

        Back at the house, we were expecting the Fresno unit + LISA PENNER!!!! to arrive that evening for the bluegrass festival. So we had some birthday wine and played Catchphrase and waited for them to arrive. Once everyone got together and we were moving in the same direction, we headed towards a gay bar in the Mission district to celebrate Jonathan's birthday. It was a pretty loud place. I have never been to a club or a bar before, especially not a gay one, and so it was very different from things that I have experienced before. I think I accidentally told a gay guy that Alyssa and I were talking to that I was a homosexual. Oops. To be fair, it's hard to distinguish between “homo” and “hetero” in such a noisy environment, where it's too dark to lip-read.

        The next day, we all went out to Hardly Strictly. We decided to walk, which was a bit of a hike, a little over 2 miles, I think, but it was a nice day with nice company, so it was fine. Once we reached the park, we found a place to spread our blankets and enjoy the sun, picnic food, and card games. Within a few hours, the place had FILLED UP.  I have never seen so many people all in one place at one time, and that includes FFA National Convention.

        At 445, the Head and the Heart were scheduled to play at a different stage, so around 400, some of us (Greta, Jonathan, Greta's friend Megan, Aaron, Sarah) went over to secure some seats. After a lot of climbing around on the hill near the stage, Sarah spotted a big piece of green down on the lawn in front of the stage, and went for it! And that's how we got pretty good seats to a free Head and the Heart concert in San Francisco. They played “Rivers and Roads” at the very end, which made me cry because they had played that song at my friend Seth's memorial service last year. But I'm glad they did, and it was really cool to hear it live.

OMG THE HEAD AND THE HEART 

  

       Then we had a 2 mile walk back, during which I educated Chelsea about all the different kinds of Mennonites and where they came from, starting with the Reformation and ending with Leninist Russia.

On Sunday, I headed back to Oakland to help with a fundraising presentation at a Catholic church (yay Catholic calisthenics!). And Don Petronilo made soup with chicken hearts, livers, and necks in it. I ate it and so far, have not regretted doing so. He also told me that the Spanish for cabbage, which is “repollo,” translates to “re-chicken.” He is a funny guy.