a weekend in August

August is pretty much one of my either most favorite or most hated months of the year. we are coming to the close of August so i thought a little tribute to one of my three trips this month could be a nice posting. 

my birthday is in August. and this year, instead of sitting in 100+ heat in this sticky state of Texas, I got to go back to SF. the trip was both fun and happy and poignant and sad and emotionally and physically exhausting. first i will introduce you to the poignant, sad, draining part of the trip...

i went home for my Aunt Martha's memorial. it sucked. well, no, the memorial didn't suck. the memorial was actually awesome. my mom put together an amazing party after the church part and the church part was very beautiful. the sucky part was i actually had to face up to the fact that Martha is gone. and while she has been gone for over a month, being here in Texas means i didn't have to really deal with the fact that she is gone. but being in SF brought it all home for me. and honestly - death sucks. and death that comes so suddenly (car crash for those of you that don't know) is really really on the top of the suck-o-meter. with all that said, you can see where the sad and poignant and draining parts come into the weekend.

the good part about the whole thing is the family decided to have the memorial the day AFTER my birthday. which meant that on my birthday i was able to do the following:
* Renew my California (yes, CALIFORNIA!) driver's license
* Get the grey hairs gone by my dear friend and the only person who will ever touch my hair, Emil Besson
* Whip up some tasty treats for the memorial
* Go out with my closest and dearest friends and family in SF for a lot of wine

and here we go into the happy, fun, yet physically exhaustive part of the weekend. there were 14 of us who all met up on Friday night in the Mission at a tiny little wine bar and truly enjoyed ourselves. at least i hope y'all did, because i know i did. seeing your faces on my birthday evening made this one of my best birthdays ever. i truly enjoyed your company, the conversation, the laughter, the surprises and the tremendous amount of love pouring around the table. i don't remember all of the evening, but i do remember that i didn't do anything terribly stupid. i did remember to put on my flip flops to walk to the car (instead of the heels). and i did drink the coconut water that Annie gave me before i went to bed. i think without that coconut water, i may have not been able to function as well as i did on Saturday (and i was barely functioning!)

i do hate to say it but in my old age - my liver cannot take the copious amounts of alcohol consumed between August 9th at 6pm to August 12th at 7pm. seriously. i just can't do that anymore. i used to be able to down a 12-pack without a hangover. but now, the consequences are too difficult to endure.

despite the fact that i was pretty much hungover from Saturday to Tuesday, i had an amazing weekend full of friends and family. i got to see the people whom i love most in the world (minus a couple). i got to enjoy their company and laugh and eat and i even got to catch a phenomenal Giants game. bottom line? it was an amazing trip and i wouldn't change a thing. thank you to all of you who participated, including you Martha. you would have loved every minute of it.