Friday, April 06, 2007

off to indulge in some art

This afternoon we're driving to Santa Cruz, where we'll be staying a block from the boardwalk. The main purpose of the trip is for me to take a workshop with Roberta Lee Woods, an artist I've admired for ages. The Sober Husband will be escorting the Fashion Girls to the boardwalk while I do some art.

There's another trip on the horizon: we got the notification yesterday that we won a spot at Camp Mather, the dacha for the middle class of San Francisco. The city owns a parcel of land up in the Sierras, where our Hetch Hetchy reservoir is located, and the little cabins built for the workers who constructed the railroad and dam were long ago dedicated to summer visitors. City residents can enter a lottery and win the right to pay for a week's stay. Last year we spent the happiest week of Lola's life at Camp Mather, where the Sober Husband and I made asses out of ourselves by leaving a cooler to be mauled by a bear and bitched about the overwhelming wholesomeness of it all. This year the ever-ebullient Joyce and her toddler, the Baby Violet, will be there the same week (also presumably her Kyle McLachlan lookalike husband). My plan: drink nonstop all week, and Joyce has signed on to this. The children were so excited to hear about the return to Mather that their screams of joy must have been audible in the well-appointed, tasteful homes of gay men for blocks around. Iris Uber Alles is lording it over her little sister mercilessly because Iris is old enough for that immensely consequential Camp Mather coming of age, graduating from donkey rides to horseback rides. The Sober Husband is not ready to sign onto the constant mild intoxication plan and has not yet formed a coping strategy for this week of wholesome family fun and fresh air.

5 comments:

hughman said...

oooo... morning mimosas! brunch bloody marys! afternoon highballs! wine with dinner! brandy before bed!

now that you've been there, you'll be much more prepared and be one of those people who thinks everything is old hat. wish i were there for the family dance!

Joyce said...

OK, important points: how will we be able to have ice for our cocktails? also, will we have blenders? we should have a signature drink for every day, like on a cruise.

Anonymous said...

sick with envy. SICK! I tell you!

Kim

Steve said...

I so enjoyed reading about Camp Mather last year that I cannot wait to read about it again this year!

Rand Careaga said...

I used to live a block from the Boardwalk about 25 years ago in a rather grim old Victorian that was rented out by the (furnished) room. My furniture included a king-size bed, on the mattress of which was sewn this alarming legend: "Sanitized for your protection at Bud's Secondhand Warehouse, Santa Cruz, January 1958" (swear t'God). Fortunately I removed to more congenial digs the following quarter. By the mid-seventies, alas, I was shaken loose like many another recent USCS graduate, unable to find decent employment in town. It's still a lovely place to visit...