1) SOLID sleep, six continuous hours. And then more sleep. A happy way to begin the day.
2) Uncertainty about the day resolved with a brunch invitation from a Published Author friend. As it happens, the brunch location - Delancey Street Restaurant on the Embarcadero - was close toSpear Street, where all the Pride floats were staging. So my plans crystallized, I suited up in "full canonicals," and sallied forth to see San Francisco Pride.
3) I could not leave Embarcadero Station without someone complimenting my on my white suit and rainbow bow tie. :-)
4) And blessedly, Spear Street began right at the exit of the station. It didn't take long to realize that San Francisco has remembered what Boston, and even New York, have forgotten: that Spectacle is an important element of Pride.
5) Of course, having a corporate budget to fund all that Spectacle helps. And there they all were: Gap, Facebook, Uber, Google, etc.
A favorite sign in the Google contingent: In a world of Cheerios, be a Fruitloop!
6) It is one thing to be a man between 60 and 70 years old with a, shall we say, rounded figure, and to wear a red leather minidress with heels, no stockings, and a white shag wig, but it is QUITE another to wear all that with the four-inch wig label visible from the back. Get it together!
7) Much more to my taste were two ladies in their Sunday best from the 1940s, wearing signs fore and aft proclaiming CHURCH LADIES FOR GAY RIGHTS.
8) I made it to Delancey's early and sat writing at the bar until my friends arrived. They described the place as "one of San Francisco's best kept secrets," and I'm bound to say they were right. Superb coffee, and one of the very best bacon-cheese omelettes I've ever consumed.
8a) Of course, avocado helps.
9) We covered a wide range of topics of brunch, from publishing to San Francisco, bicycling, airBnB, opera, and the general topic of Change.
10) And then, a return to the madness and gaiety of Pride. We three proceeded back down Spear Street all the way back to Market, the official starting point of the parade.
10a) Finally, a celebrity I'd heard of: Guy Pearce!
Guy Pearce wearing a boa!
11) After my friends left, I lingered for over half an hour watching the excitement, and then retreated back to Delancey's to enjoy a couple mimosas at the bar, and to write about ten pages.
12) The Civic Center - gritty, colorful chaos! And as a result, I began walking in the wrong direction, but by Sixth Street I'd figured it out.
13) Not all crop-tops are equal.
14) Mine Host, happily, was home. We are enjoying the Pride festivities from up here on the 27th floor, where they are very much audible and visible.
15) Must try to figure out a NAP before dining out in the Castro.
