I thought today was going to kind of suck, because I had to go into work. Instead it was an awesome bo bawesome Saturday!

There was a comic convention going on next door to our training facility, where I was working, complete with people in full-on stormtrooper outfits. Amusing to see them pop in to Smart & Final for sodas.

I got to leave work at noon, and as I sat in my car eating lunch before ducking into the BART station at Lake Merritt, I listened to the most bittersweet, touching story on NPR. Gene Cheek was a boy, living with his single mother in North Carolina in the 1960's. His mother develops a relationship with a black man, first in secret, and eventually becomes pregnant and has Gene's younger brother. Gene's negligent, alcoholic father, as well as the rest of their family, rally and testify against his mother in a custody case, when he is 12 years old. Incredibly, they claim that his mother is "unfit" because she has this mixed-race baby, yet are quick to say that they themselves are unfit or too busy to care for Gene themselves either. Even more incredibly, the judge makes the mother choose to give up either the baby or Gene. At this point, Gene elects to leave his family and is placed in foster care. I'm sitting there, tears streaming down as I stuffed face and thought about the incredible sacrifice that this 12-year old boy made. The whole story is told in interview, between Gene himself and Ira Glass. Gene has written a book, The Color of Love : A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow South, and you can also listen to the radio show here.

With tissues stuffed in my pockets, I headed to San Francisco to pick up my runner's bib for Bay to Breakers. At the expo, I saw Wayne Vierra, an American sumo wrestler whom I saw on a documentary on PBS last year. I remember this one scene, where he's sitting, practically doing the splits, twiddling his thumbs and speaking softly, being struck by how graceful he was. Anyway, I geeked out and got a picture with him. He'll be in Oakland next month, at the World Sumo League Tour.

On the way home, I made a pitstop at Nordstrom Rack and rounded out the suparfun day with two pairs of frickin' cute shoes. And a $4 sweater. Evar-body jealous of my shoes! (I'm not reveling in the generation of jealousy, but in the affirmation of my good taste, really.) Now I just need something to wear them to...