I couldn’t figure out if Vanessa had left when I woke up. Her bag was still in the living room so I assumed she was still at home, but I only saw her when I went to the bathroom and she was on a phone call for work. It had originally been cancelled so she wasn’t happy to be on the phone. I showered and made myself a spinach omelette for breakfast. It was so quick and easy cooking in a kitchen again. I offered V one, but she had to get off to work so she was out the door around 10am. The apartment to myself again, I took up my position at the desk and opened my laptop.
Last night, I invited Rob to join me and a couple of friends from Joshua Tree in Yosemite for the weekend. I explained we’d be climbing and somehow we got on to the topic of Snake Dike. Before long, we were pretty keen on the idea of climbing it on the Sunday. My job today was to research the route and see if it was feasible for us to do it. I read every review on SuperTopo and Mountain Project, understanding the approach hike, each of the eight roped pitches, the 1000’ scramble to the top and the descent hike. It was going to be a long day and we needed a few pieces of gear, but apart from that, I thought we’d be able to at least give it a shot together.
After lunch, I put all my info together in an email for Rob to read and he called me once he got it, reading through each line with me. By the end of the call, we were both on the same page – keen as mustard, though not taking the top 50 classic route too lightly and willing to outlay some dollars for the gear that would get us to the top. Not wanting to wait until tomorrow, once my research was done, I walked down the street to the closest REI.
The streets were abuzz now since it was knock off time for everyone in San Francisco. People rode on all forms of transport to get to where they needed to be, most in a hurry as I walked at a glacial pace. At REI, they found me the set of wire stoppers I was looking for and I splurged on a nut tool also, thinking that if I had a set of nuts, I wanted to be able to remove them from the wall so I could keep them. $160 poorer, I walked out of the shop with some shiny new bling.
I made a last minute decision to stop at Safeway on the way back for a few things I needed and I struck gold at the reject shelf. Everything was 50% and I got most of the things I wanted off it! I’ll always be a dirtbag. Loaded up, I walked back to V’s place and by the time I walked in the door it was time for me to leave again. After doing some organisation of my new climbing gear and having some dinner, I walked down to the closest BART (train) station. It was further than the Caltrain but I was going over to Oakland on the east side of the bay this time. Kaila had bought tickets to a show at Yoshi’s, a Japanese bar with a music venue on the side reserved mostly for Jazz musicians.
Out of the five of us going, I was there first which is predictable since I was the only unemployed attendee. I sat at the bar and drank a Stella as I watched the Del Potro vs. Federer match. Vanessa walked in half an hour before show time and Kaila let us know another girl, Anna, was already inside. Beer in hand, we got our tickets and went into the venue. After a bit of looking around, we found Anna and I realised I’d met her back in January in Tilburg when I was visiting Alex. We got to talking straightaway and she told us that she’d handed in her notice at Tesla that day. Woo! High fives all round, we commented that the two people running late to the show were Tesla workers.
We were huddled around a small table, but for some reason, one of the workers came round and asked if we’d like to sit in a booth. When he came over, we all thought we were in trouble for reserving chairs for late people so it was a pleasant surprise! The lights went down at 8pm and the show started. Ottmar Liebert is a Spanish guitarist that according to Kaila can easily fill a stadium in Europe but here we were in an almost private setting drinking beers and having sushi delivered to our table. Ottmar, his basist and drummer immediately had us engaged with their beautiful sound. The drummer had my attention. He had a small kit with a hodge podge of elements and barely used sticks to hit anything, instead using only his hands. That talent paired with a head of curly brown hair pulled back into a man bun and I was hooked.
Kaila and Flo arrived a couple of songs in, sat in the booth and we got some beers and food to come in their direction. Flo and I desperately wanted to talk since we hadn’t seen each other in a year and we managed a few whispers, but were hushed by Kaila so didn’t get much catching up in. The band engaged us over the next hour, playing flamenco music, Spanish tunes and Bob Marley songs. The room was in rapture and we took every chance we could to cheer them, especially after the drummer’s solo in which he completely lost himself. They played for a good hour and a half before the lights came up and we moved out of the venue. It had been a wonderful show, but now we could talk!
Flo used to live around Oakland so he directed us to a bar down the street where I got a round of drinks and we sat outside by a false fire. The warmth was welcome on the cool night. We sat around talking until we finished our beers and I thoroughly enjoyed the catch up, especially with Flo. Of course it was mostly Tesla talk, but we chinwagged in a cheery manner and without bitterness.
It was midnight before we called it a night, late considering it was a school night! There were hugs all round as I wouldn’t be seeing Kaila, Flo or Anna again, I was go glad I’d got to see them. Vanessa drove us home this time since I was too tipsy to operate the mini. Another short drive home, Vanessa asked me about the card games I usually play with Dan and I explained some of the rules to her.
V was straight into bed again and rightly so, I was too.