a family reunion & more

deery-lou.
i had to say goodbye to the cheerful fawn. her plastic wrapping was starting to fall apart exposing my money in all its nakedness.sigh…you've definitely been good to me. and now on to the real business…

i'm on my 8th day of vacation. where has the time gone. it feels like i just got here yesterday. coming back to sf has definitely been heartfelt. its such a great city and i have such great friends that its going to be hard to say goodbye on sunday. more on that later. its been a week or so since i've last posted so i figured i'd do a bit of catch up. let's go back in time. the date is july 27 and i had just arrived in atlanta after a 10 hours flight from seoul to sf ,then a 4 hour flight from sf to atlanta.

atlanta, ga
my uncle, who happens to be my dads twin, picked me up at the airport and took to their house. i hadn't seen my aunt and uncle for three years so it was nice to play catch up. my parents arrived shortly after from arkansas. i stayed up til 3 am talking to my mom and aunt. the next day my sister and her family came over. they were staying at my sister's friend house who lived about 20 minutes away. i couldn't belive how big my nieces and nephew had gotten. the twins [paige and davis] are now 3 1/2 and baby morgan is 18 months. we sat around the house talking and playing with the little ones. midafternoon we packed up and headed for the pool where we spent the rest day frockling in the sun and water. the children loved the pool. later that night some cousins stopped by after dinner. i didn't last long since jetlag was finally getting to me. i passed out around 10:30 pm. this boy was T.I.R.E.D.

saturday was our big family reunion at the pool. i got to meet cousins i didn't even know existed. we bbqed, swam, and just relalx. it was great. you often forget how nice it is to be with with family. i think my living abroad has made me appreciate the time i spend with my family now. i got to learn some interesting informaton about my family. my great-grandfather iwan duranowicz came to america in 1910. my grandfather bogdaw came in 1913 with the rest of the family. he was only 7 years old. upon arriving in america they changed their name from duranowicz to duran. they were originally from uhryniw [or uhrynow], galicia. at the time it was considered part of austria. it definitely great to learn this information. when i get back im definitley going to research it a bit more.

saturday night i met up with an old high school pal sherri. she lives about 45 minutes from my aunt and uncle. we went to downtown atlanta over to a section called east atlanta. we hit a few bars in that hood doing a vodka tonic tour. 3 bars, 3 different tastes, and 3 different prices. the most expensive drink happened to be the worst tasting one. we opted to go back to the first br which had the best best vts. you know that there would be such a difference. they were having scary-oake there so we found a place to sit upstairs and made fun of the talent. i'm telling you some of the song choices were B.A.D.

on sunday the family gathered again at my aunt and uncles. the day was hanging around sitting pizza, etc. i helped my nephew and cousin build a linkcoin log house. it lasted a whole 30 seconds before my nephew decided to play godzilla and destroyed the whole the thing. hat night my sister and i went out for some one on one time. we went to the 3 dollar cafe for dinner and beers. it gret to be able some time with her. its hard when you're only back for a short period of time. parts of you feel guilty for not getting alot of time together but thats life. i'm just happy we got to spend some time together. i think we both really needed that. i will say this though. my sister is doing an excellent job raising her children. i'm so proud of her. her children are absolutely fantastic and adorable. and i'm not just saying this because i'm their uncle. well maybe i'm a little biased but i can be. on monday everyone started to head out. first my sister and her family left for florida. then my parents heading back to arkansas. lastly, i was taken to the airport to head off to san francisco. it was a great 5 days. there's even talk about having another get together next year. we'll see…

san francisco, ca
i arrived in sf shortly after midnight. my whole time schedule by this point is completely wacked. it doesn't help much that i've kept my watch set on korean time. thats enough to make one go crazy but at least my ability to do math is getting better. misty, derek, pevil, and ted were all there to greet me. what a great welcoming. trying to leave the airport turned into a seinfeild moment. we couldn't find misty's car. we end up in garage g at the international parking then realized we needed to be in domestic parking. we tried to get on the red train to parking but it was closed. we treked over to the blue drive where we waited and waited and waited. no sooner were we on the escalator heading out when a train was approaching. we quickly ran down the escalator that was going up and jumped onto the train. it was liek the gods were against us. for awhile i thought i might be spending my vacation in the actual airport. alas we made out and before i knew it i was in misty's apartment gettting reacquainted with the kitty i left behind. i was so happy to see my little princess. she looked healthy and happy which made me feel good. its always hard leaving behind friends, pets, family, etc. i had a hard time leaving my cat behind but i knew she'd be taking care of and she is.

on tuesday morning kate, misty, and i grabbed some lunch in misty's hood. i forget where we went but it was quite yummy. misty lives on clement street which is like a "mini" chinatown. so before we actually had lunch we stopped for some pork buns. after lunch we went to target so that i could stock up on supplies. then it was dinner at happy garden for some delicious chinese food. later that night i met my friend adwag for some drinks at the pilsner. i love adawg. she makes me laugh. we chilled there for quite a bit then i jumped in a cab and headed back to misty's. wednesday was filled with more errands. before heading the my storage unit, mist and i stopped in at taqueria el buen sabor on 18th and valencia for ground beef burritos. oh how i missed thee. i use to go here on a regular basis. let me tell you its still out of this freakin world delicious. with full bellies we headed to the storage unit to take care of business then it was off to haight street. we spent most of our time in giant robot. hi! t-shirts and toys! what more could a boy want. then we popped into kidrobot for more toys. what a perfect day. around 4 pm misty dropped me off at the bart station. i was heading to concord to see my friend scott and his twin boys. what cuties they are. they about 6 months old and i just wanted to squeeze their little chubby checks. i was lucky enough to have one of them spit up on me. the must have liked me. i got to expereince being a parent for the evening by bathing one of the boys. i couldn't believe how well behaved these boys were. they harldy cried at all and slept through the night. kudos to scott and heather for being fab parents. once the boys were in bed scott and i sat on his deck eating pizza and drinking cocktails. my friends are amazing. it was great seeing scott, especially now as a dad. i'm so happy for the both of them and wish them all the best. i have a feeling their uncle e with spoil those two boys.

i took the bart from concord into sf earlier on thursday morning. i got to the city by 9 am. this was by the far the earliest i had been up and about. mmisty met up with me around 10:30 am or so and the two of us spent the day shopping. we were out of control. everytime i turned around we were both buying something. it was just like the good old days. we had lunch at betty boop diner. they actually had a betty boop character outside waving to people. from there we went to chinatown and then back to misty's pad. around 6ish we met up with pevil and ms. b at the zeitquiest for vodka tonic pints. yes, i said pints. i spent a birthday there once getting completely ripped on vt pints. its bad. after two pints we picked up d and made our way to rayko photo center. my friend rebecca was part of an exhibit being held there called three cubed in sf. she's currently working on a series of photos of independent movie theaters in sf called left in the dark. the work was amazing. so different from her stuff in the past. i was quite impressed with it and with her. after browsing the gallery and having some photos made in a old time black and white photo booth we all headed to the lexington club to end the evening. i use to visit the lex alot with my co-workers when i worked at j.a.b. it was good to see that some things never change: the mission lesbians were still mission lesbians. got to love it.

its now friday. today i got a dinner at pevils then its off to the eagle where i told people to meet me. should be some good times tonight. i'll let you know how it goes…

to be continued…

be well.

p.s. pictures will be coming soon!