S.F.
I never sleep well during a full moon. I was up a little after 3 this morning. I had the spent the evening in a tearful funk. Went to bed with my book as soon as the boyfriend got home from his gig. There's just too much happening all at once--and I was starting to feel I was being churned about in some sort of surreal, incestuous vortex. (This town is WAY too small.) I won't bore you with details but suffice it to say that I was feeling a tad low.
So when I got up and walked out to the living room and saw the landscape lit up like a movie set by the moon, I felt better. I also felt in need of some inspiration. So I started reading blogs and journals...and then I started checking out some of the links on some of my favorite sites. Much linkety-blinkety-link later, I found this site. And felt this: "Ahhh, the City..." I typically don't miss it--after all I've been gone from the Bay Area for a long time--but I've noticed lately that I've had a craving for it. Truth be told, I don't think it's really that I'm missing the City so much as I'm missing who I was when I lived there. Not that it was all good--it wasn't. But I think I'm missing the best parts of me from that part of my life. Because those are parts that I have yet to totally reclaim. And they've been AWOL for awhile...
So in the spirit of S.F., here's a tiny snapshot of what my life was like there, lo those many years ago...
* I lived in a second-floor Victorian apartment. I used the dining room as the living room and the living room as my bedroom. It worked well unless you happened to have a trio of drunk guys singing a cappella on the corner at 4 a.m.
* I used to work here. But not at this location--at the old location on Green Street that has a plaque of Philo Farnsworth out front. (Yes, infomercials...so shoot me.) My favorite lunch spot was a window table at Hunan where I could eat my favorite noodles with peanut sauce.
* I also worked here. And not at this location either. When I worked there we were in the same building as KNBR along the Embarcadero. That's where I was when the '89 quake hit. My employer (the big pooh-bah there, but then he was one of five partners) lived in the Haight about 10 blocks from me. He used to drive me to and from work. Sounds nice, but it was really his way of making sure I'd show up on time. It astounds me how well I performed in that job since I often got blasted at lunch.
* I got sober (big surprise!) in San Francisco. A.A. saved my ass. S.F. has to be if not THE, at least one of the best A.A. cities anywhere. I was a meeting whore for the first two years. It's been a long, long, LONG time since I've been to a meeting. I know it's supposed to be Alcoholics Anonymous, but anyone who knows me knows I'm sober (14 years now). I still have friends I met in the early days of those meetings.
* I saw a shitload of live music here in the first three years it was open. National acts, local acts, lots of friends performing...you could have found me there, easily, three or four nights a week. I was deeply saddened to learn that my dear friend Robert Johnson who had been the doorman passed away. I have fond memories of sitting in the club after hours nursing a last-call drink before Bob would give me a lift home. (We lived on the same street, although miles apart.)
* You also could have found me here--in its original incarnation, before they remodeled and expanded the space to include upstairs and the space next door. I used to go see my friends play here. (Anyone remember the Dinos?)
* Ehiopian food, anyone? I'd often stop here after the Thursday night North Beach A.A. meeting to hear some of my oldest friends play. I heard some great jazz in this club.
Are you getting the idea that aside from a day job, my life revolved around music? Duh. Gee, it's so amazing I'd end up with a musician... Music is and always has been a big passion. It's one of the things I miss most about the mainland--going out to hear live music (that I like). And jazz? Forget about it!
* I never cooked (and still wouldn't if I didn't live with someone...I barely do now) so I always ate out. Often I'd walk over to the Haight to have breakfast here or here. Breakfast out is one of my great pleasures in life. Can't wait to get back to it in the good ol' U. S. of A.
I could go on, but work beckons. Although that was really my life in a nutshell: media-related job, lots of drinking, tons of live music and gluttonous amounts of food. And I miss all of it (except for the drinking).
So when I got up and walked out to the living room and saw the landscape lit up like a movie set by the moon, I felt better. I also felt in need of some inspiration. So I started reading blogs and journals...and then I started checking out some of the links on some of my favorite sites. Much linkety-blinkety-link later, I found this site. And felt this: "Ahhh, the City..." I typically don't miss it--after all I've been gone from the Bay Area for a long time--but I've noticed lately that I've had a craving for it. Truth be told, I don't think it's really that I'm missing the City so much as I'm missing who I was when I lived there. Not that it was all good--it wasn't. But I think I'm missing the best parts of me from that part of my life. Because those are parts that I have yet to totally reclaim. And they've been AWOL for awhile...
So in the spirit of S.F., here's a tiny snapshot of what my life was like there, lo those many years ago...
* I lived in a second-floor Victorian apartment. I used the dining room as the living room and the living room as my bedroom. It worked well unless you happened to have a trio of drunk guys singing a cappella on the corner at 4 a.m.
* I used to work here. But not at this location--at the old location on Green Street that has a plaque of Philo Farnsworth out front. (Yes, infomercials...so shoot me.) My favorite lunch spot was a window table at Hunan where I could eat my favorite noodles with peanut sauce.
* I also worked here. And not at this location either. When I worked there we were in the same building as KNBR along the Embarcadero. That's where I was when the '89 quake hit. My employer (the big pooh-bah there, but then he was one of five partners) lived in the Haight about 10 blocks from me. He used to drive me to and from work. Sounds nice, but it was really his way of making sure I'd show up on time. It astounds me how well I performed in that job since I often got blasted at lunch.
* I got sober (big surprise!) in San Francisco. A.A. saved my ass. S.F. has to be if not THE, at least one of the best A.A. cities anywhere. I was a meeting whore for the first two years. It's been a long, long, LONG time since I've been to a meeting. I know it's supposed to be Alcoholics Anonymous, but anyone who knows me knows I'm sober (14 years now). I still have friends I met in the early days of those meetings.
* I saw a shitload of live music here in the first three years it was open. National acts, local acts, lots of friends performing...you could have found me there, easily, three or four nights a week. I was deeply saddened to learn that my dear friend Robert Johnson who had been the doorman passed away. I have fond memories of sitting in the club after hours nursing a last-call drink before Bob would give me a lift home. (We lived on the same street, although miles apart.)
* You also could have found me here--in its original incarnation, before they remodeled and expanded the space to include upstairs and the space next door. I used to go see my friends play here. (Anyone remember the Dinos?)
* Ehiopian food, anyone? I'd often stop here after the Thursday night North Beach A.A. meeting to hear some of my oldest friends play. I heard some great jazz in this club.
Are you getting the idea that aside from a day job, my life revolved around music? Duh. Gee, it's so amazing I'd end up with a musician... Music is and always has been a big passion. It's one of the things I miss most about the mainland--going out to hear live music (that I like). And jazz? Forget about it!
* I never cooked (and still wouldn't if I didn't live with someone...I barely do now) so I always ate out. Often I'd walk over to the Haight to have breakfast here or here. Breakfast out is one of my great pleasures in life. Can't wait to get back to it in the good ol' U. S. of A.
I could go on, but work beckons. Although that was really my life in a nutshell: media-related job, lots of drinking, tons of live music and gluttonous amounts of food. And I miss all of it (except for the drinking).
posted by Marilyn at 6:15 AM
1 Comments:
Full moons mess me up good, too---( maybe that's why I've been borderline psychotic all week) Who knows-- but isn't it funny how our former life looks upon reflection years and space away? Ahhhhh.
Post a Comment
<< Home