Turn of the Calendar

Finally, posting about my holidays, back home in San Francisco area. I realize I don't have a day-by-day list of activities, but here are the hilights : Flew out on a Friday afternoon & arrived on... Friday morning (actually, calculated that door-to-door travel was almost 21 hours)! That evening - lovely reunion w/ Bonnie when she got home from work, lots of emotion flooding in... Saturday 18th, we checked out the Ragged Wing Youth Ensemble, which was very impressive work. Sunday, did brunch w/ Jacobs & Ann, then went to Shotgun Players in the evening (Salt in the Wound, a followup to 'Salt of the Earth' which we saw last summer - adaptations of Odyseey & Iliad, respectively. ) Monday and Tuesday caught lunch w/ friends from Tippett. Wednesday (22nd), my sister Rebecca & her beaux Rob came up for Xmas. Went to a few touristy spots around town - Fisherman's Wharf, Jack London, Telegraph Ave; also, caught True Grit (with Rob's fave, Josh Brolin). Xmas Eve, went to a special event as we usually do ( Bonnie was a champ with arrangements!). This year's event (after dinner at Parc 55) was : Kung Pao Kosher Comedy festival, a tradition of bringing Jews and Asians together on the eve of a Christian observation (in fact, one of the comedians was 'Viet Jew'). Very fun and funny night, even ran into some friends - Dani was there w/ his girlfriend, and Lisa Fay was running sound for the show!
Christmas Day was a fine celebration, great gathering with folks, and calls with distant family... that night, went and saw "The King's Speech." Sunday, Becca & Rob went up to Muir on their own, Bonnie and I had down time, but we grabbed dinner with them that night. Then, Monday with Bec & Rob on the drive back south, I went with them to the San Jose Tech Museum, we caught the Body Worlds exhibit, then I took the Amtrak back that evening. The next few days were getting stuff done around the house, and catching lunch with some folks during the days, and then evenings with Bonnie.
Then for New Year's - it was another exciting excursion - "First Night" in Monterey! Streets were closed around town, and set up with stages, vendors, various activities. Also, some of the rooms and halls in the Convention Center had performances. We got in early afternoon on NYE, checked in at the hotel a few blocks from downtown, walked around a bit and caught the opening ceremony featuring Aztec dancers and Taiko drumming! Quite a range of performers, including youth orchestras. Other highlights were : folkie Heather Waters, nerdcore hip hop MC Lars, and, of course, Mambo at midnight to bring in 2011 (well, I sorta danced). Hopefully 2011 holds much more good news than 2010 did.
Drove back up the next morning, and ready to prepare for our NY Day dinner. Scaled back from last year, but still great catching up with some friends. Then Sunday, the 2nd - my last day in town. Very stressful, and emotional, and lots to do. Stopped at the calendar sale at Pegasus & had to return bogus windshield wipers to Kragen), had some time to stop at Aidan & Anna's engagement announcement party on the way to the airport. Then settling in for the 12-hour flight...