I’m now sitting in my upper west side apartment in Manhattan, having touched down sometime on Sunday evening. I’m only now beginning to re-adjust to the pace, responsibilities, and lifestyle I left behind last May. And though I’m glad to be back, there’s no denying I’ve left a bit of my heart in San Francisco.
The last two weeks have been such a whirlwind of friends, old and new, that I never found time to write about it, which is really too bad because there are so many stories to tell. Instead, for a number of reasons, I give you another series of vignettes/ annotated itinerary:
Saturday, August 19th – Paid way too much for a cab from Oakland Int’l Airport to Manu & Karen’s SoMa loft; walked right in, then walked right out to catch another cab; this time I was on my way to a dinner at Senses restaurant with Christie, someone I’ve known since elementary school! After a group dinner with Christie and some of her girlfriends, we hopped into yet another cab destined back to SoMa for a house party with more Accenture consultants than I’ve encountered in my life.
Sunday, August 20th – Bill Borgida, a dance instructor I’ve known for the good part of the last decade but with whom I never manage to stay in touch, happened to be in town. He suggested we hit Glide Memorial church for some permeating gospel music at the non-denominational house of god (they even accept atheists, so I was OK). Manu, Karen, Bill Borgida+1, and I did our best not to cry from the beauty of the music. I almost succeeded; Manu was no where close to keeping it back. That evening, I made my way to Noe Valley to check out the apartment I would start subletting come Tuesday. The apartment sits atop a hill, on the way to which one must traverse a number of hills; the view was well worth any shortness of breath. Later, I helped Karen make delicious 3 cup chicken for dinner.
Monday, August 21st – I had lunch with Sonia at Mochica, a pleasant and warm restaurant strangely situated near the Harrison St. freeway entrance. No word from WellCall, so I didn’t go into work. I did, however, start feeling antsy around 4 PM, and decided to get my feet into Caren Cadile's hip hop/tap class. When I got back to SoMa, Manu’s weekly poker night was just beginning. A shower and a change of clothes later, I met a handful of strangers with whom I couldn’t have foreseen how much time I’d be spending in the next couple weeks. My first impressions were as follows: Keawe (mischievous and charming), Kirk (quiet, but present), Matt (funny and ebullient), Mark (self-assured and loyal). Nicole was also there, and she was (as always) a hoot. After chips had been won and lost, everyone took a turn at Karaoke Revolution. For my part, I led the back-up dancers. Later in the night, I tried my hand at karaoke and guitar hero with Manu and Karen, but we’ve all promised not to talk too much about it. Mostly for my sake.
Tuesday, August 22nd – Trekked over to the Castro for my first day of in-person meetings at WellCall with the EatWell Team. As per par, most employees were in flip flops, bare feet, and/or t-shirts. Later that evening I made the move to Noe Valley, to my little piece of individual freedom on the hill. Sadly, my first dinner was microwave popcorn, and I burned the first bag. I nearly followed my urge to veg a bit, but instead I rallied around 9:30 PM in order to make it to the Verdi Club for drinks and dancing. Had it not been for a conversation with Allen earlier in the day, I might not have been able to find the energy to go, but once I did I was rewarded with old faces, a band I knew well, and late night drinks. On second thought, I’m not sure if those late night drinks were such a reward, but they were fun for awhile. Kudos to Steve the bartender, probably the greatest barkeep I know. A genuine gentleman and a mean mixer of double shots. I poured myself into bed around 5 AM.
Wednesday, August 23rd – Wouldn’t you know it, I had a late morning meeting at WellCall. Thankfully it was a one-on-one meeting with the programmer, and it lasted all of half an hour. I managed OK despite my nagging hangover. After my meeting I had lunch with Jeff at Samovar. And, again despite my hangover, I manage to have a perfectly lovely time catching up with my old friend. Jeff seems to be quite happy in his life, and I am exceedingly glad to see it.
Thursday, August 24th – I spent the day in Sonoma and Napa Valley wine tasting with Gretchen. That was an all day kind of thing that drastically cut down on the amount of sleep I was able to steal, which set an excellent precedent for my remaining days in SF. I had dinner plans with Megan. Wow, what to say about my friend who is now a mommy-to-be. We used to carpool with Claudine just about every night from the East Bay to SF in order to dance. That was wayyyy back. Anyway, she took me to Le Colonial, a restaurant with an upstairs with atmosphere, attractive lighting, live music, and plenty of old friends in vintage garb. I saw Jenna – we were on the same dance troupe once upon a time; Joel, someone I don’t know how I know, but I’ve likewise known him for ages; Johnny Blue Jeans, another someone I don’t know how I know (and I haven't a clue about his real last name), but I guess these familiarities develop when you go out every night for several formative years; Martin, someone Jenna knew; Cari Seiss, who looks exactly as she did 10 years ago (flawless); and a few others I can’t place. Later that evening, we hit 920, where Lavay Smith (another band I hadn’t seen in ages) was playing. I’m just sad I didn’t get a chance to have a chat with them. I think there was late night food somewhere; must have gotten into bed around 3 AM?
Friday, August 25th – Though a “visitor,” I somehow found myself back in the cruise director’s seat. I coordinated a movie outing to see Idlewild, a feature length music video. After the movie, all my plans were for naught (clearly, I was out of practice). The bar in the mission I had proposed had been replaced by the lure and proximity of the blues band downstairs. After one drink, plans were fizzling left and right, and a smaller group of us ended up at my Noe Valley apartment for drinks and a Zippo & Duraflame fire. I believe it was Iris, Kirk, Todd, Ria, Gretchen, and myself. What an interesting evening that turned out to be.
Saturday, August 26th – I wish I could remember more of Saturday, but the truth is that I simply can’t. What I recall is that this is the evening I met Gretchen’s long time friend, Elronn who I’d heard so much about. We all went to the Dog House where I was greeted by an unfamiliar face at the door for the first time in years. Seeing as I used to help run the event, that last detail was somewhat disconcerting. Chad (who is one of the original founders and still runs the event) joked with me later that they barely even knew him around there, either. After dancing, we went to a familiar tacquiera. It was a spot that we’d been going to since I had been dancing in SF about 10 years ago. Funny how some things don’t change.
Sunday, August 27th – Dinner was with Joel at the south Indian restaurant of recent raves, Dosa. After dinner we headed over to Swig where there was a live blues/funk band. We met up with Nicole, Catrine, and some Dutch lindy hoppers (amazingly, they remembered me from a workshop I’d taught near Amsterdam a handful of years ago). It really is such a small world.
Monday, August 28th – I stopped by Drinking Liberally at Zeitgeist. Justin (Drinking Liberally’s founder, and my once downstairs neighbor in Hell’s Kitchen) was in town, and this was a good chance for me to see him and have some interesting conversations with other like-minded liberals. Unfortunately, not much of that was in my future: I was running late for Manu’s poker night, so I had to cut out early. The poker night, the second time around, was a lot more comfortable for me. I’d seen Kirk out dancing during the week, and I recognized everyone else from the previous week’s game.
Tuesday, August 29th – I had my last WellCall meetings with accolades and advice from everyone. In the early evening, Chris and I went to rhythm tap class with John Kloss. Dinner was a repeat at Dosa, with new company: Keawe, a vegetarian southern man with hippie parents, and a very unlikely dinner companion. I was supposed to be having dinner with Justin, but plans fell through.. more on that later.
Wednesday, August 30th – Another tap class with John, and a ride home with Maki, a very sweet linguist who coincidentally is a recent TC grad. That evening was the re-opening of Cat’s Corner held at Savanna Jazz in the Mission. I was surprised at how many old friends I ran into that night. I hadn’t even considered that I’d see some of the faces that I did, but all the encounters were good ones, and I’m glad I made it out even though I was feeling a little under the weather just before leaving the apartment.
Thursday, August 31st – I spent the afternoon at WellCall making social/networking calls on the health coaches and the CEO. All of the talks were stimulating, and I was encouraged to check back with the company when my graduation time came near. To celebrate, lunch was in the sunny and quaint backyard of a French bistro on 24th street. In the early evening I went to one last tap class with John, who graciously made me his guest for the evening, then a group dinner at Bocce Café. We went to 920 Special afterwards. I’d had too much wine. I think I was trying a tap slide when I fell directly on my tail bone. All of this, right in front of Joseph Wiggan (young tap phenom with a misleadingly sweet smile), which as you can imagine, felt fantastic. He, of course, couldn’t have been nicer about it.
Friday, September 1st – I managed to make it down to the Embarcadero for an abbreviated lunch with Justin. What is funny about that is that we’d been trying all week to meet up for a dinner or lunch, but something kept coming up. It was finally getting down to the wire, so we set up a Friday lunch only for Justin to have to attend a lunch presentation that was supposed to the day before (and was the reason we rescheduled from Thursday to Friday). Anyway, this kind of thing kept happening, so I shouldn't be too surprised that our lunch was cut short. He got out of his meeting at 1 PM, and we had a quick bite before I had to meet with Larry Kushi, a well-known nutritional epidemiologist who is guest lecturing a class of the same topic at my school in the fall (I'll be his TA; class starts this Friday!). Larry and I had a long chat, and I was floored by how someone can be so brilliant and humble at the same time. I’m very much looking forward to working with him. I had dinner with a friend in Berkeley that evening; combine that with a foreign film, and some good music, and you have the makings of a very lovely evening.
Saturday, September 2nd – John Kloss and I met up for coffee and a dance exchange in the afternoon. He taught me the BS Chorus (which I think I’ve learned, but it’s never stuck), and I taught him the basics of the swingout. I spent some time walking around downtown, bought some silver jewelry at the Embarcadero, then searched high and low for clam chowder in a sour dough bowl. Well, let me tell you, I remember it being tastier. Instead of being delightful, I felt a little sick afterwards. I went home feeling less than spectacular, and kept falling asleep on the train, to boot. While I meant to pick up the apartment a little and get some laundry done, all I had the energy for was a quick disco nap before coordinating yet another group dinner. Dinner was shared tapas among 12 people at Esperento Tapas in the Mission. I’ll just say this now – I love tapas. I love getting a taste of several dishes. Dessert was a rich chocolate mousse. After dinner we had to walk all of half a block to Revolution Café where there was a four piece jazz band playing Django. I stayed to dance a few, then headed home around 1 AM to pack, and eventually catch a cab to the airport at some ungodly hour.
Sunday, September 3rd – I stayed up all night, then had to scramble for a cab at 5 AM. I promptly passed out on the plane, missed all the snacks, and was starving all the way across the country. Though I’d been eating out a lot, I don’t recall eating very much during my two week’s visit. Maybe I was replacing food calories with alcohol. In any case, as soon as I was headed back to New York, my appetite could not be stopped.
It’s now early Wednesday morning, and I feel like I haven’t stopped eating since I’ve gotten home. The good news is that there are plenty of delectable choices in this city. Fred has been a good sport and taken me to some of my favorite local restaurants. In fact, he’s been a good sport all around – putting up with me missing San Francisco, my luggage being left untouched for two days, and my blogging at 4 AM instead of cuddling up next to him. I must go attend to that now.
I ♥ SF. I ♥ NYC.
