My Morning Visitor

Many mornings, I see this hummingbird feeding on the purple plant outside my window. I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know what kind of plant it is, but I think it's in the sage family.
It's a real treat to watch it zip from one spot to another in an instant, then hold that position no matter what the wind is doing.
I also bought a three foot tall rosemary plant at the Farmer's Market last week. And I picked up two sage plants from the West Coast Green Building conference.

OPERA IN GIANTS STADIUM
I went to see the opera Samson and Delilah at Giants' Stadium last night, it was simulcast there from the opera downtown a block from where I live. I was super excited about the idea of opera for the masses, and also getting a chance to see the ball field (the only other time I've been to a baseball field was for the closing ceremonies of the Gay Games in New York in 1992). But, I'm afraid to say, opera just isn't for me. I've only heard it on the radio before, and I figured that having the live action would help make sense out of it.
But, the live action was deadly slow. There's only so much emotion you can display while belting out a song loud enough to overcome the orchestration. And the story line was soooo slow. I'm sure it's a great story, but it just couldn't hold my attention.
I also figured that seeing the sets and costumes would be pretty. And they were, but not anything novel or exciting. I guess it's tough to compete with television and movies, who have all the time in the world to set up and frame each shot.
That said, if they did it again, I'd go, because who knows? It might grow on me.

CLASS
It's been up and down. I'm realizing just how much work it is to do it right. I'm really getting comfortable with the students, which is good. But now that I'm designing their first test, I'm realizing all the things I haven't taught, or stressed enough, to be able to ask them questions on it. So there are definitely some things I will do differently next semester. I've used all historical studies, but haven't really pushed them to see how well they understand what's going on in them. I guess I'll get a sense of how well I'm doing after grading the tests.

SAN FRANCISCO LOVE FEST
Right outside my window, as I write, the San Francisco Love Fest is going on. A parade of dance floats (clubbing music, not square dance) are coming down Market Street, and turning at the Public Library to head in to City Hall Plaza. So, there's a huge jumble of beats and people whistling and carrying on coming in through the window. I just love how many fun surprises there are in this city. Tuna and I will go down and check it out soon. She's always been a party animal.

FOLSOM STREET FAIR
And that's not all the festivities this weekend. There's also the Folsom Street Fair, a daytime raunchy gay and sexual fetish bazaar that happens a few blocks south of here. So, the city is filled with guys dressed (or undressed) in leather. A bunch were at the opera last night, of course! I'll go take a walk through and have my eyes opened. And Mark invited me to a party afterwards, which I'll go to. I mean, why not? Oh, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are getting together with members of the order from other cities tonight beforehand, so I'll go meet up with them. I don't see myself becoming a Sister, but they are a super fun bunch of folks to hang out with.

DINNER WITH MICHAEL
Finally got together with Michael, had him over for dinner in my messy, tiny apartment. I was a little star star struck at first because he has written one of my favorite academic books, Smearing the Queer. But we had a really interesting conversation about a wide variety of topics, some about the role of social marketing in gay men's health, a fancy term for advertising campaigns about health, rather than about commercial products. Also about the role of the internet in promoting both sexual freedom and sexual health. He's built an interesting website called dotMEN to address some of those issues.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to working with him more, and also getting more involved in the gay men's health work that's going on out here.