I Left My Heart In San Francisco

As a wee teenager I took a trip to San Francisco with my parents. I thought it would be funny to post that old journal here and compare it to my most recent stint in the city by the bay. I was so much funnier back then-- I guess because I was reading a lot of Woody Allen.

For a long time I thought I was a silly girl. Maybe a bit of an individual just breezing through. For a long time I even thought I was an original. Then I took a little family vacation. 

San Francisco was lovely. I saw a dirty homeless man sitting on the corner of Haight and Ashbury offering his services. His services were none I liked to partake in. He wanted to massage feet for money, only women's feet. I kept walking.

Everywhere I looked there were scores of interesting people to gawk at. There were people drinking, smoking pot, being silly. I know handfuls of people back home who participate in all of the above. But they do it bad. They dont do it interestingly like these people do. They do it because they can. These San Frans do it because they are unique. Unique pot smokers. 

This is when I realized everything people do here is different. I am only different in the "I want to be different" kind of way. 

My favorite part of California was riding the city busses everyday. Not shopping, not spending, not eating, not relaxing, but riding. 

I liked that I almost fell down everytime the bus started. I liked that the crazy man across from me told everybody that "if this bus could just go a little faster, it could open up the doors and it would probably fly." You are probably right crazy man. Probably right. I liked being the square in a town full of crazies.

Ohhhh to be 16 again. 

Well this time I loved San Francisco just as much. This time I appreciated the very neighborhood-y feel of the city. It is so divided, a little 7 mile track of pocketed cultures. The entire city feels very lived in, like a great pair of jeans that have bounced around from place to place. Even as an outsider walking the concrete I immediately began to feel my feet sink in and I could imagine a giant sigh escaping my lips, an "ahhhh this feels good." I didn't take many pictures at all, in fact I'm surprised I even walked away with this many. I'm not very good at remembering to snap some memories, I typically find myself more lost in the place, forgetting to document anything. 

Next vacation destination, Chi town in November!