I walked with the Oldest Cat and the Youngest Kid. We went to the neighborhood café, we walked along the ocean (not for long – the cat disapproved), and I photographed the flowers. It was warm, beautiful, and restful.
I went to SF with Oldest Kid and found an easy place to park in the Mission. We strolled through Balmy Alley together and they appreciated it as much as I could possibly wish :). There were paper cranes and butterflies all over, which is not usual.
We continued to Medicine for Nightmares, which has more books I own than any other bookshop I’ve ever been in. There we played Exquisite Corpse (game where each player writes down a line of a poem on a paper going around the table, but sees only the line written by the player immediately before them in the circle) with very nice strangers. I was in my “exotic hilarious” persona and it went over well.
It was an open mic, so we read poems (Help for them, Lexapro and Future for me) and had some very kind praise from multiple people. The host asked where we’re reading next and said he might join.
One of those people kindly told me about an SF tradition (over 16 years, apparently) – the 16th and Mission open mic on Thursdays at 10:30 pm. One of those days.
Overall an incredibly good and well-spent day.