Dinner with the Fastest Dogsled Team in San Francisco

Dinner with the Fastest Dogsled Team in San Francisco
Including

Patricia “Patti” LaCava: stylist, bobsled runner, dog lover. “Dogs pick up fear on your breath. The lump in your throat emits pheromones. So if you are afraid of dogs, just eat a breath mint.”

Chris Akuna: carpenter. Enjoys Dungeons & Dragons. “It keeps your Fridays and Saturdays free, because no one will date you.”

Nathaniel Galipeau: high school student. “When Nathaniel is older and I need money for college tuition, I’ll sell off the punk rock”, his Mom says, looking at the wall of record albums.

August Fey: works at Virgin Mega-Store. Recommends Foamy the Squirrel. “Go to illwillpress or Google it.”

Dinner was Jiffy cornbread and really good chili, just like home. There was green salad, rice, sparkling water and soda. For dessert August had brought home cupcakes from Citizen Cupcake, monster chocolate rocky road affairs, huge summits of marshmallow on top.

Dogs are Patti’s passion. She works as a foster mother for them, as she finds appropriate homes. She also is involved in dog sled racing in the Sierra Nevada’s. Her wooden sled stood in the living room, so she gave me a demonstration. “This is your snow hook, it’s the most dangerous thing on your sled.” It is basically a big hook you throw in the snow to slow yourself down.

Chris took me through the loft space, explaining the many additions and improvements he has made. Being able to go into a strangers home and getting “the Grand Tour”, (people always call it that) makes it very easy to get to know them. That is one reason why this project works so much better than my first attempt, when I took people out to dinner at a restaurant. When you are asked about your life, it opens you up. When you have your things around you, it gives you very personal stories to tell. The point of this trip is for me to get to know strangers. Its something that takes trust. I really enjoyed this family. There was a lot of life in the house, with the animals and the people. You would never expect it, all of them living in an industrial loft space down an alley tagged up with graffiti, on the edge of the Spanish speaking part of San Francisco.

But why would a woman who has five Huskies and a bobsled in the living room of her Mission District loft in San Francisco be traditional? And Chris, her partner, he was an ex-rocket scientist with Lockheed-Martin turned carpenter. His past life showed through in his handyman projects, such as the staircase that operated on a pulley system, like a castle drawbridge. Why,you ask? Because if the staircase could raise eight feet up in the air it made it easier to get to the record collection.

This is what happens when rocket scientists fix something around the house.

They were a lot of fun. Patricia was the matriarch. Her son Nathaniel was 15, and in a private school. August was a 22 year old friend of the family who was going to City College. She had moved in a few weeks earlier. I never got all the dogs and cats names down, but they were all healthy, friendly, and beautiful. Probably because she fed them raw meat from the butcher.

The best thing about this group was how spontaneous they were. I was originally scheduled to go eat with Mal Sharpe, an old time comedian, this evening. but he got the flu. So five hours before dinner time, I called Patti. She was fine with me stopping by with Clark and his video camera, Jon and his funny hat, and our NEW INTERN with just a few hours notice. I’m glad it worked out.

Patti is a stylist who works with Mervyn’s a lot. She saw my phone number in the catalogue while on a shoot and had to call the number, since she recognized it was an Oakland area code. After dinner, Patti got out her “book” which is photo-industry speak for portfolio. She is a seamstress. The world of photography is full of specialized fields. There are people who make a living styling beds. That’s it. Fluffing up the blankets and pulling them back just right. Patti showed us a magazine ad clipping where a woman and a man are half in-and-out of water.

Patti told me, “I weighted the cloth so it would move underwater. They did some other shots completely underwater, and had a different model than this one. The underwater model wasn’t that pretty, but underwater, she looked incredible. And it was just the opposite for this woman.” She said, pointing to the white-smiling blonde exploding from the tropical pool, who apparently becomes misshapen underwater. The underwater model was also able to hold her breath for a very long time. A natural born underwater model. Very rare.

We all have such amazing quirks. Really. I love it.