Groove on the Rubble

It’s official. Susie, Tim (her current roommate and our mutual friend) are now the owners of record of 3431 & 3435 22nd Street (at Fair Oaks and two blocks from Mission Dolores Park). We’re stoked.

It’s a two-unit building, built in 1959. The building has a giant two car garage and a giant flat roof that we’ll outfit with a giant roof deck. (Britton’s dad has already volunteered to head up the construction crew.) Each unit is about 1200 square feet, has two bedrooms, one bath and a formal dining room.

We’ve got a bit of work to do that we’re hoping to get done quickly (e.g., new roof, exterior paint, windows). I’ll post some before and after pictures on Flickr when I’ve got ‘em.

At long last, we’ve set a date and a place. We’re getting married on October 13 at St. Patrick’s Church in San Francisco. Woo-hoo!

I just made the best decision of my life (displacing the previous best: moving to San Francisco) and asked Susie to marry me. She said yes. We’re getting married!

I’ve known for a long time that Susie is the perfect partner for all of life’s adventures. Our personalities, perspectives, dreams and quirks fit together like puzzle pieces. I figured her trip to India might offer a perfect moment to ask her to marry me, though I didn’t have any real plan on how it’d go down.

First, I needed a ring—nothing fancy, just something symbolic that looked like Susie—so if and when the opportunity arose I’d be prepared with some nuptial hardware. I asked my go-to gal in India, Vrinda, to take me to a good jeweler so I could find a Susie-looking silver ring. We scored one at a little shop in my neighborhood. I was giddy as a schoolgirl about it and looked at the ring about a thousand times before she arrived.

It was hard for me to contain my excitement once she arrived and I think I tried to convince myself that every locale and event provided the perfect moment I was after.

“Yes, the crowded airport at 4:00 am is perfect. It’s symbolic of our arrival at a new life together.”
“Breakfast is the perfect time! After all we’ve eaten a lot of eggs together. Nothing says ‘I’ll love you forever’ like eggs and instant coffee.”
“After she gets out of the shower will be perfect! It’ll be like we’re getting a fresh, clean-smelling start on the rest of our lives.”

You get the point. It was hard for me to wait.

Alas, I managed to hold out knowing that we’d be going to Matheran, a little hill station atop a mountain a few hours east of Bombay. The plan was to get away from the hustle and bustle of Bombay and spend some quiet time being in love, shopping for cute, native things and hiking around in the forest.

We hired a car and a fragrant driver to take us on our three-hour journey to Matheran. The drive was fun. We saw a lot of Bombay as we went east across the city and then saw lots of interesting rural scenes—like a couple on a motorbike with a couple of chickens flapping in the breeze.

Our driver scaled the narrow mountain road up to the entrance of Matheran while Susie locked the doors and clung to my leg. She was a little nervous about the winding and the narrowness and the height.

Matheran is a lovely place where no cars are allowed. Everyone gets dropped at the gate to the town and can make their way on foot, by hand cart or by horse. Immediately we were asked if we needed a porter or some horses to get us and our stuff to our hotel. We clung to our pride and decided that we weren’t some chubby Americans who needed to ride horses or have people carry our stuff a few kilometers to the hotel. Come on. We’re better (and more fit) than that. We ended up taking the very long route to our hotel and wishing, perhaps, that we hadn’t been so firm in our convictions.

We finally arrived at the Verandah in the Forest, a lovely, restored Victorian-era house tucked away in the forest just near Charlotte Lake. I got us a suite at the back of the property, because that’s how I roll (and because it was the only room left).

We toured the town with a local cable guy, met some interesting folks, ate good food, drank some whiskey, met some white people, had our photo taken a least a half a dozen times, and scored Susie a tailor-made traditional garb. (If any of you go for Indian food with her in San Francisco, I have a sneaking suspicion you might see her don it.)

On our final day we set off on a horseback ride on some rural trails to see the sights. Our guide was a former jockey named Hamilton and our steeds were Brownie (because he was browny) and Hank Panky (because I thought that’d be a funny name for him). We were a little apprehensive about riding horses because many of them looked scrawny and overworked and we didn’t feel comfortable contributing to that. Our innkeeper convinced us that Hamilton was on the level and his horses were up to the task, so we set off to see the sights on the backs of Brownie and Hank Panky.

Stop one was cool. Stop two was also cool. Cool enough in fact that we decided to shoot some footage of the valley below, which somehow turned in to me doing a little soft-shoeing at the edge of a cliff. Stop three was magical. It was a very quiet cliff that stretched out over a quaint-looking farm town in the valley below. We decided to have a sit for a while and nurse the powerful thirst we worked up bouncing around the trails.

We started chatting about the scene sprawled out before us, which transitioned into talking about how much fun we were having, which transitioned into us getting mushy and talking about love. Ah ha! Here was precisely the mushy the moment I was after. It went something like this:

David: “Susie, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Susie: “Me too.”
David: (Taking ring from pocket a little clumsily due to a clammy hand) “Will you marry me.”
Susie: “Really?”
David: “Yes, really.”
Susie: “Really?”
David: “Really. I swear. Will you marry me?”

The rest of the details are a bit of a blur, but I know there were some hugs, kisses, laughs and not a dry eye in the house. I think there were also a couple of birds wheezing as they flew by due to the smog from the valley below.

So that’s that. Susie and I got engaged in Matheran and we’re both totally giddy about it.

We’ve not yet selected a date or location, but are working on that as we speak. In fact, there is a spreadsheet in my inbox from Susie that I need to review and comment before close of business tomorrow. Seriously.

The comedic geniuses of Killing My Lobster have done it again. The comedy musical “Faces The Music” is back at the ODC Theater on Friday, January 5 to Sunday, January 21.

Audiences loved it (I saw it twice and laughed my face off both times). Critics loved it:

“Critics pick! Laugh-out-loud skits…Faces the Music–a purely musical extravaganza with singing, dancing, and a four-member live band–hits its marks…It’s funny stuff, and the songs are catchy, so go check it out.”
-Laura McCaul, SF Bay Guardian

“Gleefully entertaining…hilariously off-kilter. The show-stopping spiritual about the Mission burrito raises [the show] to true cult status.”
-Nathaniel Eaton, SF Weekly

Check it out. You’ll be glad you did.