Anti-communication

The trend in instant messaging, texting, emails allow us to alienate and insulate ourselves from others, and put up barriers to real communication.  At the same time we push ourselves into chat rooms and social networking sites, we invite closeness without being close. The barrier encourages bullies, allows them to be hurtful anonymously. And without face-to-face communication, misinterpretation of words can cause inappropriate to vengeful behavior.  And what about blogs?  People rant on about all kinds of things that could come back to bite them down the line.

A Surprise Ending

The night we attended the San Francisco Opera was not free of incident.  Although we found a place to park on a street very close to the opera house, which I thought was a bit of a miracle, my husband  thought it safer to park inside a nearby garage, and so we did.

We walked to a restaurant around the corner with a contemporary decor and casual vibe.  The movie Amelie played on a huge screen, with subtitles, no sound. We had a ‘squashy’ meal - butternut squash risotto, a delicious butternut squash salad with Brussels sprouts, plus sides of diced butternut squash and toy box squash in a tomato sauce.  Everything was excellent, as was the opera,  The Magic Flute -- exquisite voices and orchestra, gorgeous costumes and set.

Afterwards, we walked to a nearby bar that many patrons had for some unearthly reason given a high rating on Yelp. Those folks really need to get out more. I asked for vodka up with olives, and the server brought over a dish of olives and nuts.  I asked for a twist instead and received vodka with a twist AND olives in the same glass.

The night was clear on the walk back to the car. But when we arrived at the parking garage, we quickly realized that it had closed and our car was locked up inside. An über picked us up minutes later, and a lovely gentleman from Alexandria, Egypt took us home at a cost of $150. We retrieved our car the next morning.