Via San Francisco ...

Dear God I miss San Francisco. I stopped reading for a second to check my mail, which inevitably turns to looking at other things on my computer. I guess subconsciously I don’t want to read about construction contracts. Subconsciously. Either way I started looking at some last-minute pictures I took of SF and, to be blunt, it rocked me. Damn I miss it. I miss just about everything about it. I miss how I would complain about it. I miss the horrid smell of the Haight when it was warm and how I wanted to shake each of the kids who would ask me for change REAL hard.

I find myself repping (is that a word?) SF much more than LA, basically because I feel a closer affinity to it right about now. Maybe its because I lived there for the last year and its memories are still much more fresh in my head. Maybe its because my last month in the city was amazing from top to bottom. True, it was basically a long and drawn out goodbye filled with parties, birthdays and the joy of promise and transition. Most months were not like that. People were celebrating me and everything that was happening to me (well, except for Katie’s birthday night – and even though that wasn’t about me, it goes up there as one of the best and most memorable nights during that time). I know that my final thoughts and visions of the city were tainted because of that – it was definitely the best of times when I left. But damn if it makes me miss it all the more.

I gave so much shit to the city for the longest time I admit. I complained about its liberal ways and its pretentious manner. I got mad about how much things cost and being alone sometimes. When I step away from it all though I realize that, more than anything, those would be complaints about myself. Its so cosmopolitan and damn if I wouldn’t pay $1000 (if I had that, which I don’t) to eat at Salt House or Luka’s. I won’t knock Eugene. It’s a nice city so far and the people have been very nice, and hell, I’ve only been here about a month so I have to give the place a chance. But so far its not like being dropped in Berkeley in the middle of nowhere. Its like being dropped in Cerritos. Maybe this character will come out when fall really hits and it gets cold. Its been in the mid-80s for almost the entire time I’ve been here and yes I am complaining about it. I want “Oregon weather” damnit!

Back to San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. I will definitely say that I miss the East Bay as well, no doubt. I miss being able to drive around there, great places to eat, walk around, just be. SF though, is different. I want to get up on a Saturday morning, get coffee from Rockin’ Java, watch TV on the giant TV, make calls to my brother and friends on the East Coast and others like me who are up that early on a Saturday morning. I want to take the bus somewhere, anywhere, in SF and walk around. I want to meet friends for a late lunch, do some more walking. I want a round of calls to be made, everyone indecisive about what to do that night before finally settling on a bar we’ve been to 1000 times before. Or maybe come home from work (and yes I miss work too) after getting a beer around 5:30, meet a friend for dinner or bring it back home, sit around and watch a movie I’ve seen 15 times. That’s what I want to do RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

Things may change I know it. And I’d be willing to bet they will in many ways that I cannot predict. But tonight, Sept. 9, 2007, before my fourth week of law school, I’m saying that I’d like to go back home. I’m not dropping out by any means. I actually really like school. It just means that right now I will be looking for a job in SF when all is said and done. Well, if I still feel like I do at this moment. I want to take a cab to a restaurant I’ve never heard of but comes highly recommended and then to a bar around the corner. Or hit a show at a small venue followed by meeting friends at a house party. Or get breakfast with friends in Berkeley on a Sunday morning following a football Saturday. Or really anything. As long as its in San Francisco.