So way back in January, Mary Ann decided to put a “Welcome to California, Meghan” party on the calendar so I’d be forced to move here or face Facebook shame.
Little did we think I’d be here a month before the party took place!
I looked forward to the party all day, and was in a cheerful mood since work was just awesome on Friday. I had a productive morning, and then my colleague and I needed to go up to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a project we’re working on. Before our “field trip,” we biked up to grab a bite at Mondo Caffe, where I had a phenomenal smoked salmon sandwich with dill mascarpone (!) spread. Can I tell you once again how awesome sitting outside to eat is?
Parking our bikes near the Yerba Buena gardens, we explored the outside space a bit, then went into the venue. Needing some creative inspiration, we headed into the galleries. I highly recommend the current exhibit Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well. The installations are fascinating and it changed my perception of China a bit, as I was surprised to find that such challenging art could exist in a country I generally associate with censorship. I loved how much of this art sprang out of stories from the artist’s life and highly recommend catching this before it closes in June.
The only thing that was a disappointment about the field trip was that somewhere along the line I lost my Grovecraft bicycling knit cap. My colleague asked if I wanted to go back to the restaurant or the museum to look. However, since the piece de resistance of the exhibit was Waste Not, about the artist’s mother’s hoarding (the patterns formed reminded me of both the psychological explorations in the book Bee Season and the art created in the film Wasteland), I opted to accept that my hat has just found a new place in the universe. After purging so much stuff from my life to move, I’m okay with losing things every now and then. And things are never really “lost” when you think about it, they’re just starting a new life without you.
When we returned to the office, being Friday and Giants Opening Day, there was a little “beer thirty” break in the common room. I sampled an Eel River Organic Amber and bonded with my co-workers. It was a pre-Welcome to CA party because I didn’t invite all of them until that morning. I hadn’t wanted to be the weird new girl and send party invites to people I barely knew. So I guess I’ll just have to have a 6 months in California Party one day.
Oh man, I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle a Six Month party. I can’t give you the full recap of my fête, mainly because I was too busy fêting. I met many of Mary Ann’s lovely friends, and then Ingrid arrived with the second wave of people and more bottles of wine. Mary Ann and I also looked damn adorable in our matching new dresses. But I don’t think anyone took a photo! MAB was the hostess with the mostess too, making delicious asparagus risotto and transporting a lemon cake home from Beaverton Bakery.
I was having such a good time, I allowed myself to be convinced to watch the “Friday” video despite my moral issues with a 13 year old’s unwarranted fame (but seriously, it’s just so awful). Then there was some fancy whiskey. My head hurt Saturday.
Thank you California for welcoming me. I guess I”ll stick around.
The lovely Mary Ann welcomes me to Cali.
Brew to Bay 
I saw “Song Dong” at the MoMA in September 2009. I thought it was fascinating!