wednesday was a great day!

i spent a large part of the day formatting text into html. that was kinda boring.

but the good news is that i am finally listed on the cyborganic credits page!

almost better than getting paid. so cool.

i took a lovely run up to twin peaks, but could barely breathe, and when i returned, my allergies were so bad that i could not stop coughing.

caleb and tricia told me that sometimes allergies do not kick in until a person's mid-twenties.

so, maybe john's allergies were not all in his mind?

nah ...

the best part of the day: the evening.

i spent a fabulous evening hanging out with old friends from college, two of whom lived in los angeles the one year i lived in los angeles.

we used to hang out on the venice boardwalk together, or sit out on the roof of danno's apartment building (danno being one of these friends) (and i hope that they don't mind that i am naming names here!) right on the beach, overlooking the water, and the sand, and all of the crazy beautiful freak-people who hang out in venice.

it was a great year.

we all went to the paradise lounge, which is this dark, loud, smoky and gritty spot in san francisco to hear mark's new band play.

mark is a fabulous musician, who used to specialize in 1920's jazz, if you can believe that one. he gave me guitar lessons for a short while in los angeles, and also introduced me to excellent bands like the royal crown revue, a band of great-looking 20-somethings who played only twenties swing to crowds of swing-dancing members of the well-dressed los angeles 20-something set.

once mark and i were walking down the street in venice, and we actually saw the artist formerly known as prince, sitting on a stoop across the street, with an attractive woman. can you believe it? it was definitely the artist formerly known as prince.

the artist formerly known as prince noticed us noticing him, and put his finger over his lips, mouthing, "shhhh".

that is just one of the millions of fabulous stories from the magical year that i lived in los angeles, near the beach, hanging out with danno, and mark, and ultimately, with john.

there are too many old stories to relate from back then, so i will describe tonite, a recent story, instead.

we were all sitting at a table near the stage, mark, and veronica, and danno, and justine, and myself, and i at first thought, look! i am spending an evening with non-geeks for once!

but then i took a closer look around the table. mark now programs in C and is easily reached by email. justine builds web sites on a freelance basis, in addition to freelance writing, and banjo playing in her all-female bluegrass band.

geeks!

danno is a civic planner, and veronica works at an immigration law firm, and that is cool too.

mark's band was great. they played precisely the kind of 70's funk-hip-hop music i love to hear.

and justine and i noticed two people dancing who, strangely, were out of psynch with the beat of the music, but somehow in beat with each other. they were gyrating in that incredibly annoying self-absorbed overly-self-conscious way.

i told justine that i was convinced that these two were investment bankers or lawyers taking a night off on the town, and thinking to themselves, "i am so grunge! i dance to sacrophiliac!"

i also had a chance to tell them about a few of the fabulous things i have learned since i have had the pleasure of hanging out with so many wonderful northern california geeks.

i told them: there is this thing called "hedonism" and this guy "robert anton wilson" and people are "polyamorous" ... and they had not heard of these things. they loved hearing it though, i think, and now they might even attend some thursday night dinners at cyborganic.

and they told me about bad bosses, and new apartments, and living together, and upcoming bluegrass gigs, and freelance money, and about the fact that three mutual friends live right across the street from me.

i ended the night in the usual way, of course ... hanging out with my great new friends on the icb.

what a great evening! it is could not be any better to be back.