The City by the Bay, the Emergency Room, and other adventures

This past weekend I made an absolutely fabulous trip to San Francisco to meet up with my sister. She is there on business this week, and a month ago she called me and said, I know you just went to Paris, and probably spent a whole year's vacation budget on that trip, but is there any chance you could bop down to San Francisco for a girls' weekend? And I said: Does a bear have hair!?

We had a fabulous time, and everything went like clockwork. Our flights arrived within an hour of each other, right on time. Priceline came through at the last minute with a decent hotel that was, if not reasonably priced, at least manageable when split two ways. The weather was spectacular. The food was scrumptious. I managed to buy myself a pair of earrings - which may not seem like a big deal but bear in mind that I own absolutely no earrings, all of my jewelry having been stolen four months ago, and my holes were starting to close up. But if you're just going to own one pair of earrings, it becomes a momentous decision. I am pleased with my choice, a white-gold-and-black-pearl combination that is so flexible, I may never need another pair.

Anyway - My sister has posted her pictures so I'll just send you there to check them out.

Moxie had never visited San Francisco before - how is that possible? - but even I managed to do some new things in my 48-hour whirlwind visit. Like take the streetcar across town and back, hanging on for dear life while standing on the running boards. Most cities would have stopped letting people hang off the sides of those things long ago, because seriously, it is not that safe. But god love San Francisco for refusing to jettison tradition for the sake of liability paranoia.

The trip was only slightly marred by the fact that my brother-in-law (Moxie's husband) broke his wrist over the weekend, and was forced to navigate the emergency room and adjustment to one-handed living while all alone. Having some experience with broken extremities myself - it's kind of a hobby - I feel for him. But he's plucky.

And then it got even weirder when I got home and Enrico promptly sliced off the top of his thumb while making dinner. So we got our own trip to the emergency room. Enrico is fine, the thumb will grow back, and nothing had to be re-attached. But to do that story justice, I'll have to blog about it another day. I'll just leave you with this little tidbit of dialog from our car ride home from the hospital:

"So what do your discharge orders say?"

"'You have lost the tip of your finger...'"

"Well that's not really accurate. You didn't lose the tip of your finger, you cut it off."

"Of course I didn't lose it! It's right here in my pocket, wrapped in gauze. I thought they might want it. I know exactly where it is."

Gotta go now. Enrico is going to remove the high-tech battlefield clotting gel from his thumb.