sweet and sour

last night, we ate some dinner with sleepyhead cheryl and the postman. cheryl is over from the americas because the postman expedited her delivery. for this, we are grateful.

they met at burning man. now cheryl's in melbourne. ah. young love. it does warm the cockles so.

eating veggie food we did the goss and got to know the postman some. discussing life back in san francisco, the contrast between what's acceptable in melbourne v. sf comes into contrast.

cheryl went to a wedding where some woman with a three-adjective name decided a thong and a fishnet shirt was the right attire in which to dance. with the family present. here in melbourne, malawi's labmates get uncomfortable if she says something uncouth, like say, "penis." and they're biologists. different standards, i guess.

we talk about burning man and the hippie-rave-dance-cult and self-improvement-newer-agers and man, does it all seem like mass insanity from this side of the world. sure. i dig a big fiesta. i like burning man. (or i did last time i went). i even like some self-improvement-newer-agers if the self-improvement part makes me feel itchy. but boundaries, people, boundaries. if someone showed up to my wedding in a thong and a fishnet shirt i would have soiled myself.

now, i suppose i don't really know what this wedding (or this family) was like, but it seems from far away that the old "time and a place" rule applies. as if san francisco is so permissive and alternative that a segment of the genpop has stretched the bungee beyond its elasticity. can one spring back from that? i wonder what ms. three-adjective would do if she had to spend a month in lansing or worcester; would she telescope back into herself while dr. who music rattled her head? or would she just keep on keepin' on and face the consequences?

on the other hand, i have to admit that of late i've found melbourne to be, well, dull. i try to start up things, but they never quite take off. film night, say, or a writing group. people show up. it's nice. but nice is two alert levels below what i'm hoping for. i'm hoping for enthusiasm. i'm hoping to build a mad band of goofballs who will come up with weird things for me to be part of as well. two years in, it hasn't happened. and that's dull.

we think about the future; is ours in melbourne or in san francisco? will we eventually find the enthusiasm here or will we move back and just be careful which weddings we go to?