I am alone
Joy left today. I went with her to the airport in the late morning and saw her off. We had a really nice time on our roadtrip and it is definitely a bit strange now to be on my own. The things with which I am familiar are beginning to drop off the map one by one as I get ready to leave on Tuesday and head to Hong Kong. I'm in the hotel lobby working on a computer in the business center. I kind of wanted to go to dinner somewhere, but getting around this town seems like such a hassle compared to New York. I'm trying to decide if that is just because I don't know it as well. I'm trying hard to give SF the benefit of the doubt. I'll see what I can turn up in the next few days.
We started off yesterday with a trip to Fisherman's Wharf, one of the many touristy areas of town. The view of the bay is nice, if you can catch a glimpse between the maze of clam chowder and San Francisco keychain stands. Hm, a license plate with my name on it for only $5 you say? I'll take 40 of them! We went to Ghirardelli Square which is nearby and Joy acquired chocolate for a few friends back home. Next we finally caught one of the famous SF cable cars up a more than daunting hill and went to Lombard Street which I thought Joy might like. She hasn't been here for over 10 years after all. For those who don't know, Lombard is the insanely twisty and reasonably famous San Francisco street which attracts from all over, particularly Asia on that day because I swear there must have been 300 Chinese and Japanese tourists all over it when we arrived. I first saw Lombard street from the top around midnight on my first trip to SF some years ago. It was kind of an accident and it was quite late so therefore completely empty. Me and my friend Daniel decided we had to race down it on foot. If you're in SF and don't want to vie with other tourists for pictures, I think this is the best way to do it. I think looking back now, it was the most fun I've had in all my trips to San Francisco.
Anyway, Lombard St, exhaustion, back to the hotel, over-trendy and over-expensive Thai restaurant for dinner simply because it was near the hotel, and then rest and sleep. I felt a twinge of a cold coming on so I've been overdosing on vitamins and juices and smoothies and that sort of thing, and of course my diet is all vegetables anyway so hopefully that contributes something. Joy had a cold for a couple of days on our roadtrip and I've been praying to not get it. I may take a decongestant before the planeride on Tuesday night just to avoid my head exploding on takeoff.
As a related aside, I once flew with a cold from Boston to Indianapolis with a layover somewhere in between. I distinctly remember it being one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. I really thought my head was going to blow off my shoulders, and it hurt enough that at least it would've been a relief to me, if not to the passengers sitting next to me quite as much. When I landed at the layover airport, so much pressure had built up that I was almost completely deaf. I could literally not hear the announcements being made over the loudspeaker about the connecting flights. Maybe 20 minutes later my right ear popped and it sounded like a wormhole opening up in my brain. My left ear chose not to pop slowly over a period of 4 days or so. The moral is take Sudafed before you get on the plane if you have a cold.
Anyhoo, I'm on my own and kind of drifting. I spent a few hours working on my vegetarian site tonight from this computer, fixing some things and uploading a few pictures. I still have a bunch from recent stops which I will get to eventually. Tomorrow, I'll be meeting up with Ian sometime in the afternoon and staying at his place til my flight. At this point I'm kind of done with SF and ready to move on to more interesting territory. A good exercise in patience though and spending more time thinking about where I am than where I am going.
We started off yesterday with a trip to Fisherman's Wharf, one of the many touristy areas of town. The view of the bay is nice, if you can catch a glimpse between the maze of clam chowder and San Francisco keychain stands. Hm, a license plate with my name on it for only $5 you say? I'll take 40 of them! We went to Ghirardelli Square which is nearby and Joy acquired chocolate for a few friends back home. Next we finally caught one of the famous SF cable cars up a more than daunting hill and went to Lombard Street which I thought Joy might like. She hasn't been here for over 10 years after all. For those who don't know, Lombard is the insanely twisty and reasonably famous San Francisco street which attracts from all over, particularly Asia on that day because I swear there must have been 300 Chinese and Japanese tourists all over it when we arrived. I first saw Lombard street from the top around midnight on my first trip to SF some years ago. It was kind of an accident and it was quite late so therefore completely empty. Me and my friend Daniel decided we had to race down it on foot. If you're in SF and don't want to vie with other tourists for pictures, I think this is the best way to do it. I think looking back now, it was the most fun I've had in all my trips to San Francisco.
Anyway, Lombard St, exhaustion, back to the hotel, over-trendy and over-expensive Thai restaurant for dinner simply because it was near the hotel, and then rest and sleep. I felt a twinge of a cold coming on so I've been overdosing on vitamins and juices and smoothies and that sort of thing, and of course my diet is all vegetables anyway so hopefully that contributes something. Joy had a cold for a couple of days on our roadtrip and I've been praying to not get it. I may take a decongestant before the planeride on Tuesday night just to avoid my head exploding on takeoff.
As a related aside, I once flew with a cold from Boston to Indianapolis with a layover somewhere in between. I distinctly remember it being one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. I really thought my head was going to blow off my shoulders, and it hurt enough that at least it would've been a relief to me, if not to the passengers sitting next to me quite as much. When I landed at the layover airport, so much pressure had built up that I was almost completely deaf. I could literally not hear the announcements being made over the loudspeaker about the connecting flights. Maybe 20 minutes later my right ear popped and it sounded like a wormhole opening up in my brain. My left ear chose not to pop slowly over a period of 4 days or so. The moral is take Sudafed before you get on the plane if you have a cold.
Anyhoo, I'm on my own and kind of drifting. I spent a few hours working on my vegetarian site tonight from this computer, fixing some things and uploading a few pictures. I still have a bunch from recent stops which I will get to eventually. Tomorrow, I'll be meeting up with Ian sometime in the afternoon and staying at his place til my flight. At this point I'm kind of done with SF and ready to move on to more interesting territory. A good exercise in patience though and spending more time thinking about where I am than where I am going.
posted by Dan at 11:02 PM
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