On Friday evening May 6th, I climbed the steps of an old convent turned artist colony to attend Visionaries & Revolutionaries, a monthly salon hosted by Bobby Fishkin, a theater and technology savant, who, like myself, enjoys good conversation.

Bobby has a knack for gathering wildly diverse people in interesting settings, and getting them to spill about their boldest visions. That's basically describes the salon's format. Everyone who shows gets two mintues to share a vision or revolution they've imagined or are actively working on.

I find it a tad intimidating, especially when you're sitting next to a former cosmonaut or the inventor of a desktop gene printer that costs $500. Then again, it does call out a boldness in you that might otherwise lay dormant.

This, my second meetup with the group, was not only notable for the interesting people, but also the weather – we froze our asses off. The convent sits high for the city, and has no wind break from what is at turns a foggy or windy city.

This was made worse by meeting on the roof. Some complained about the conditions. With the two fire pits and the stiff, chilling wind coming off the Pacific ocean, I thought it the perfect, if uncomfortable, setting for a salon in San Francisco.

We came out of the wind into the chapel on a lower floor for more conversation after sharing our visions and revolutions, and I stayed out later than planned. The salon was an appropriate prelude to ShareSF, Shareable's unconference about urban sharing that kicked off the next morning. I worried that the salon might tire me, but it energized me instead. 

Mother's Day followed ShareSF. Our friends Kim and Brady, also new parents, had a brilliant idea for celebrating it. We shared a long, leisurely two family picnic in Duboce Park, an tiny island of verdant civility in San Francisco. The Harvey Milk Recreation Center, which sit at the top of the park, has a great quote from its namesake in big letters on the outside of the building that literally hangs over the scene and evokes its simple nobility: "The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods." 

We lunched on soft cheese, olives, cold cuts, French bread and champagne that we picked up at a charming, local deli. It was a perfect way to celebrate Mother's Day. And a nice hack on the typical Mother's Day restaurant brunch, which can come with long lines and a big bill. We had nothing but open space, sun, and good company on the common.