oh, to be home

saturday was an epic san francisco day. while spending the afternoon lolling about in the sun (and rather cold wind) on "homo hill" in dolores park, as it is affectionately known, i witnessed something that, i'm sure, only happens in this city. a guy was wandering around offering happy chocolates to the sunbathers. i watched him make his way around the hill. then, i noticed something sparkle, something glint in the sunlight. the tell-tale copper bowls of the happy truffle guy. a smile spread across my face as i watched him set his two beautiful sets of bowls on the ground. it was good to know that he's still around. i then saw the happy chocolate guy stop at the same spot as the happy truffle guy. from a distance, i watched the happy chocolate guy buy a bag of happy truffles from the happy truffle guy. fabulous kizmet. ah, to be home...(you get the idea...)

later that evening, while walking to meet my friend for a drink at cafe flor in the castro, i caught sight of two sisters of perpetual indulgence (www.thesisters.org/) kneeling on the ground, talking to a 7 year old girl and her mom. i just had to stop and watch this interaction. if you know the sisters, you can imagine the mixture of fear and complete fascination they might inspire in a small girl. well, this girl was doing this dance around her mom, peeking out every few minutes from behind her mom's legs. the sisters were just wonderful. they were telling the girl that they had been giving blessings to lots of kids all night and they wanted to give her a blessing. she wasn't too keen on it. but they kept talking. telling her about their magical little box of blessing glitter. then they offered her something even more special: an angle pin that she could name for herself. they offered it to her, but she declined. she agreed to let her mom take it for safe keeping. she named the angle Julia.

when the mom and daughter departed, i had to tell the sisters what an amazing little interaction that had been for me to witness. i just felt this incredible surge of pride and total joy at the idea that here are these incredible people who "promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt and serve the community." they just rock. and i told them as much. we chatted for a minute, and then they opened up their magical box and blessed me with a mixture of glitter, sand from the temple of isis and holy water from notre dame. it was a gift from their sisters in Paris. and then they gave me a red boa feather from Paris. it was ridiculous and wonderful. we hugged and kissed and i was on my way.

later at cafe flor, after a glass of wine with my friend, i walked inside to get another drink and was caught with my mouth agape at the gaggle of trannies in the corner, perhaps celebrating a birthday. apparently, it was a latina trannie fundraiser event at the cafe. who knew? the ladies were fierce. my friend called them mean disco balls with asses. and only in the best possible way. they were well endowed, to say the least, in every direction. and their outfits were, well, almost not really outfits at all. just little scraps of nylon strung together with rhinestones and gold lame. fabulous.

if that wasn't a day to remind me why i live in and love this city, i don't know what is. and today, at city hall, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who have been together for over 50 years, were married in the one of the first same-sex weddings in California after the supreme court ruling. these sisters are in their 80's. it's good to be home...