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SOTU drinking game, 2008 - 2008-01-27
little light - 2007-12-19
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2003-10-31 - 9:21 a.m.

i'm crashing at the circle-r ranch in san francisco. i'm not the only one, either. everyone here is pulling together for a big halloween party this evening. but i'm planning a chess game.

this morning i'm waiting for fedex to come with my birth certificate. i almost completely freaked out yesterday when the consulate told me my temporary passport from berlin wasn't proof of citizenship, and that i would need to find my birth certificate or an old passport before i could get a new one. i need a new passport to get into canada for my chess game on sunday. meaning that as of 2pm yesterday, i had about 26 hours to try to get proof of citizenship overnighted to me here in san francisco. fortunately, after many frantic cellphone calls, my mom agreed to overnight my birth certificate to the circle-r this morning. if she hadn't been organised enough to keep it in a safe place, i wouldn't be going to canada tomorrow.

planning for vancouver is going pretty well. the canadians are really enthusiastic, and i even have a friend from san francisco who now lives in seattle playing the role of a black bishop. i lost my chess master, tal shaked, to a scheduling conflict, so gretchen and i will have to pull something out of our hats as far as the chess game itself. i'm heading to vancouver a day before the game so maybe i'll have time to run into some chess players. but overall, after a few dropouts and such, we have almost all roles filled.

i was able to get in a long soak at the japanese bathhouse yesterday, which calmed my nerves considerably. after, gretchen and i were invited to dinner last night by fellow f'logger courtney utt. i was bowled over by her hospitality, charming home, and sheer unavoidable photographic talent. looking at stacks and stacks of her prints and lab proofs, it made me for the first time more curious about film photography. her work coaxes angst, exhiliration, resignation, and joy out of empty hotel rooms and reflections in store windows.

happy new year!