| Punks |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|02:36 pm] |
My brother from the east coast is in San Francisco for a work-related class this weekend. As a break from schmoozing at the conference, he met me and my parents for dinner yesterday.
I left early for the city--it is quite a drive--and arrived early. After finding a parking space, I was reluctant to leave it to drive to my brother's hotel, so I phoned him to walk a few blocks to meet me in Chinatown.
While waiting I got to try some Chinese-sourced teas at one of the tea shops there that gives samples. A little discomfited that one of the teas was 'milk tea', which it turns out is made by watering tea plants with reconstituted powdered milk, which of course is the major product tainted by melamine in China. Vendor didn't tell us how the tea was created until after we'd sampled it, so I was rather pissed. Wouldn't have drunk it if I'd known as it seems highly likely that powdered milk destined for fertilizer use would be that unfit for direct human consumption, such as the melamine contaminated stuff. Don't know if plants can uptake or even possibly concentrate melamine that is dissolved in water.
Had some difficulties finding my brother, and so when we met he was pretty pissed off. We got hot tea at a different tea shop while waiting, though it was record hot in SF at the time.
My parents had phoned that they were parked on the freeway in post-game traffic near Candlestick park. I told them to call when they reached the city and come meet us in Chinatown.
Well, they didn't do that, instead parking their butts in the hotel for awhile, which had been the original plan, my mom tossing back a few drinks (which invariably turns her into the Wicked Witch of the West), thus wasting more time. Finally we called them and my brother got even more angry.
Anyway, with much pissed-off-ness all around (much of it my fault for deviating from the initial plan of meeting in the hotel lobby, due to the screwed up arrival times), we piled into one car and went to Coit Tower, and I of course forgot my camera. My brother got pics though, so that was okay; I got pics there last August when writing that travelog fanfic that I'd posted at VEOH (that I may patch up to archive here). That chilled us out a bit, but not much. Dad's almost deaf and so the car conversation was all shouted so it was hard to tell if people were angry or what.
My brother made reservations for dinner, but it turned out not at the restaurant we expected--at a different one that some friends at the conference had recommended. And the reservations weren't until 8:30 pm. All I'd had to eat was two eggs and two bacon at 8 am and some strawberries at mid-day, plus the tea.
So after Coit tower we went back to the hotel to have drinks in the lobby until our reservation.
Riding the escalator up into the lobby, I'm there with my cane, trying not to be bugged by the general level of floating hostility within the family, and some random, attractive well groomed young black guy of about 18 years in normal (not 'gangsta') clothing, riding the down escalator and thus facing me in the other direction as he approaches, reaches over the railings where they cross in the middle and points his finger at my forehead from about a foot away, moves his thumb like kids do to indicate pulling the trigger on a gun, and says 'bang'.
I turn and lean over the rails behind him and say angrily, "What's YOUR problem?!?" He turns around, leaning back like now suddenly he's the one who's scared, sheepish grin, "Nothing, nothing..."
Meanwhile my ever-supportive family jumps on me, "What are you doing, why are you bothering that guy?" as if I had just randomly started yelling at someone on the escalator without cause. That gave the guy time to flee without me being able to engage hotel security (which I think would have been appropriate follow up given that there have been 8 random shooting rampages in national news in the past month and this is a teenage punk who apparently thinks it's funny to 'shoot' random strangers.)
Finally between being yelled at by my brother and parents I'm able to get out *why* I blew up at the kid, and suddenly my mother is all, "Well you did the right thing, I was behind you from the beginning." WTF? Denying that she had yelled at me for verbally challenging the guy. As revisionist about recent history as a GOP pundit. Crazy-making.
Carrying a cane makes gangsters and wannabe gangsters view one as a target. I've had kids in the same general demographic (teen males) run by deliberately kicking the cane out from under me in an attempt to 'trip' me. But never mimicking blowing my head off. I felt I had to react for two reasons--force him to recognize my 'personhood', and make him realize I'm not 'vic' (a target/victim) just because I carry a cane and he'd better think twice before picking on the disabled.
So then we go to the bar and I have a virgin pina colada (I don't drink), which utterly blows my 'low carb' diet, but I'm starving. Mom cocks back two or three chardonnay, while my brother has a couple of mojitos. Dad had one of something, as he'll need to drive later. The whole time mom talks trash about my other brother and nephew's miserable trip touring college campuses last week.
We have to wait something like an hour in the bar before we can go for the food. At first I thought it was an 8 pm reservation, then 8 comes--turns out it's 8:30. I suggest we rip off my brother's arms and eat them like drumsticks. Could have eaten earlier if we'd gone to the original restaurant as planned.
I'm told the restaurant we went to was good. At that point I was so hungry I sucked down whatever was put in front of me so fast I have little to no idea what I ate except that it was vegetarian, because it was 'family style' served Vietnamese food and my brother is vegetarian. There were rice and noodles involved.
Noisy environment made conversation difficult, which from my perspective at that point was a good thing.
Then I had to drive home, arriving after midnight.
So. A fun time was had by all.
Yeah. :\
add: Mom says she didn't start drinking until we were in the bar after Coit tower, and that she had only two Chardonnay. |
|
|
calm
anxious
