Grandpa D Turns 90

So, I can now disclose to you the secret project which had been causing me so much angst in my last post, and which I have been referencing for a month. I was asked by my mother in August if I would be willing to put together a slideshow full of pictures of my grandfather and grandmother for his 90th birthday party. I used iMovie to create it (and I now consider Macs to be just as crappy as PCs, but more difficult for me to use). In total it took 25 hours, but I would have been able to do a better job if I had been able to take more time.

Anyway, the results of the slideshow come later in the story of my weekend, the story of which begins on Friday. So on Friday I drove to Berkeley to pick up Cindy so the we could visit Masa and take him to Alcatraz. Cindy showed me a little more of Berkeley, we got some sandwiches, and she kindly bought me a tapioca pearl drink. Then we drove to San Francisco. As expected, we became lost, finally finding Masa after an hour and a half of searching, and reaching the boat to get to Alcatraz at 3. Here they are at fisherman's wharf.
Few people are ever prepared for my photos, which I tend to prepare when they are not looking and snap as they look at me. Photos of me are always the exact opposite, as I pose like a 10 year-old in every picture I possibly can. I am rarely caught off guard. Here is another posed picture, taken at Alcatraz.
Alcatraz, by the way, is less fun the second time. I was also feeling a little sick to begin with, and cold wind blowing through stuffy, moldy cells did not help this. I probably rushed Masa and Cindy a little but, which was too bad. But the audio tour just takes so long, and it has all these crazy sound effects that are supposed to make you feel more like you are actually in the prison, but I mostly was distracted by them. Well, we finally left and went to Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder and crab. Both the crab and the soup was good, but the crab cost $18. While that is a lot less expensive than the last crabs I had, it was much more delicious. Here is the guy that worked in the crab stand.
And of course, afterwards we went to Ghirardelli square for some expensive, delicious ice cream.
With our day concluded, we took Masa back to Noel, who he was staying with, and said our goodbyes. We then drove off with his dictionary, contacted him, returned it and said our goodbyes again. As I drove Cindy home our conversation suddenly got really deep, really fast, and she was able to show me another way that I can look at my life up to this point. "Being shy in high school gives you the advantage now because you are more familiar and patient with shy people and their way of thinking." was the gist of what she said.

And then I drove to Napa. A day passed. I am not really sure what I did for that day. I spent some of it with my cousins.

Well, so then Sunday was Grandpa D's birthday. Here is Grandpa D with one of his gifts, a HUGE bottle of sparkling wine.
For most of the party I found that I was going around visiting with my close relatives, since I really don't know any of my grandparents' friends.
So the night went on. Dinner was nice, and Grandpa seemed to be having an alright time. However, I think he has never really liked having parties in his honor, and I imagine a huge celebration for his 90th birthday would normally only have made him feel old. However, then my sister and female cousins performed a hull for him, which everyone enjoyed and grandma called for encore. And then I set up my slideshow.

My Grandfather is a stoic man. My mother tells me that she has only seen him cry once in her entire life, when my uncle Steve passed away. Well, when the slideshow finished my grandfather was crying.

After that, for the rest of the party, my grandfather seemed 19 rather than 90, as he danced with my grandmother to the songs they listened to when they were young, and at the end of the night he went to bed in the happiest mood I have ever seen him in.
All the work I did on that slideshow was worth it.