A Thursday Holiday

Yesterday, the company gave us the day off in honor of Cesar Chavez. Most of my coworkers took today off as well. They thought a four-day weekend made more sense than coming back to work for a day. Like an April fool, I wanted to be different, so here I am in the office, the very lonely office. Actually, I'd rather be here while it's quiet. It's a rare opportunity to work without interruptions.

What did I do on my holiday? Nothing productive and I don't feel too guilty about that. As Calvin once said, "Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless." The same goes for holidays. If you find yourself working on your days off, you're doing something wrong and need to find somebody to teach you how to use them properly.

Yesterday morning, I took BART and MUNI to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I read for part of the trip, which is a dangerous thing to do while riding on an unfamiliar bus, especially one with a poor public address system. Every announcement was, "Next stop, Hurgle-splishy-wick and Brmmph Street, exit to the right." I ended up getting off at the wrong stop. Fortunately, it wasn't far from my intended destination.

I was in the city to have lunch with M. With some time to spare, I went to a coffee shop with a green mermaid logo and wrote for a while. For lunch, we ate at Kiki Japanese Restaurant and I had the salmon and rock 'n roll (unagi and avocado) combo. If you ever eat there, check out the walls. They're painted with colors I'd describe as cheddar cheese and lavender. Depending on which wall you're facing, the effect is either nauseating or soothing. The food was standard, but reasonably priced.

In the afternoon, I roamed around Golden Gate Park. One of the most serene spots in the park is the National AIDS Memorial Grove. It's a beautiful sunken garden and an ideal place to enjoy the sun, read a book or be alone with one's thoughts. Before leaving the park, I paused to watch four older gentlemen lawn bowl. I don't know anything about the game (sport?), but when I grow up, I'm going to learn how to play.

As afternoon grew into evening, we took a stroll along the sands of Ocean Beach. It's difficult to explain, but the ocean has a way of calming and motivating me. It was rejuvenating and the perfect ending to a Thursday holiday.