Bad Times and San Francisco

This, believe it or not, is my leg. Forgive me for exposing it, but I do show it to everybody so that I can get the sympathy vote. So this is what happened: it was a week ago yesterday. It was night. My niece Leah was here to hear the crash. I was coming in from walking Ollie and I must have gotten a foot caught between the storm door and entry or I caught my foot on the entry. Leah said my whole body was twisted. I yelled "I'm fine" and sort of jumped up and went to bed. The next morning I was anything but all right. My knee was the size of a cantaloupe and I didn't have a bruise yet. Each day the lump on my knee diminishes a little and the bruise seems to spread. I'd guess it's about 15 inches or more right now. I also have a bruised shoulder and elbow.

Today I paid my mortgage. I have $33 in the bank. This has made me feel pathetic. It also makes me feel afraid. So I'm bruised and poor. In an effort to remember better times, I will now share some of my wonderful memories of San Francisco which I visited at the end of October with Pat. We went to attend but also to present a workshop at the US Conference on AIDS. And we fit in as much other stuff as we could before and after.

We took all sorts of transportation: trolley, bus, taxi, car. We took a bus from our hotel in the financial district to the Pacific. Pat had to dip her toes in so she could say she did it. And she did! I loved San Francisco. It is a wonderfully live-able city. The transportation system is great (and I'm no fan of public transportation because I'm an agoraphobic scaredy cat. But I would use it if I lived there.) There's diversity, great restaurants, art, beautiful architecture, and fun to be had. And a beach! It's got it all. Also earthquakes, but perhaps that's to keep San Franciscans from growing complacent.

Pat allowed me to use my 6th sense for places to eat. She picked the places we would visit, like Pier 39. We were extraordinarily lucky. We saw the seals, who have been laying all over the pier for twenty years, just two months before they blew town for places unknown. Maybe they wanted to follow us back to the Truro where we went to visit seals at Head of the Meadow beach a couple of years ago. Pat and I are seal aficionados.

We went to the Slanted Door, recommended by friends who said it was very expensive. We sat at the bar. Pat had oysters and a glass of wine. I had a glass of wine. We left only to find out two months later that it is considered one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the country. We didn't even know it was Vietnamese. We went to the San Francisco Crab House and ordered this sizzling long tray of grilled shrimp, crab and mussels. Dinner came with warm wet towels which were definitely put to use. It was a fabulous repast and in front of us were large cargo ships carrying in goods from the Far East.

We had Indian food, Thai food, Japanese food. The first night we ate at a recommended Italian restaurant but it was probably not the best choice having just returned from Italy. I couldn't eat my pasta at all because it was a solid clump. All of our other meals were really wonderful.

I discovered H&M and Sephora; the first is an inexpensive clothing store started in France that caters to folks younger than I but I felt young in San Francisco and bought leggings and a sweater dress. The latter is a makeup store that Pat enjoys splurging in. I splurged too and bought all sorts of makeup that I occasionally put on when I don't want to feel like I have one foot in the grave. It doesn't help but it doesn't hurt.

We met friends of Pat's who were wonderful to spend Halloween night with. Gerry picked us up in his Mercedes convertible in front of the Hilton where we were staying. He was dressed as a pimp. That didn't make us look too good, but we jumped in the car. He gave us his San Francisco terror tour. (He doesn't just call it that on Halloween). We loved the views. Then we went to his house where we hooked up with his partner Franklin and we all walked to Kurt and Francisco's home for a wonderful dinner. Kurt and Francisco dressed as Indians with turbans and long white gowns that they had purchased in India. Franklin was dressed as a cowboy, all decked out in black. Pat and I dressed in black. I was the northern star. I had one florescent star on my chest. Pat went as the rest of the universe. She had stars stuck all over her. (If you knew Pat you'd know her costume was perfect for her). After dinner we walked along the Castro and watched the scene. It was wonderful and crazy and not unlike Provincetown with its passion for the high holiday, but it was BIG! We had a ball. It was a memorable and generous evening.

I didn't keep a journal in San Francisco so I can't remember everything we did. I went into a store call Katie Koos which doesn't have a website, I guess fortunate for me. It had some of the most spectacular clothes I'd ever seen. Clothes made for me in my dreams. I bought a necklace of a little frozen charlotte with a silver dunce cap on it. I wanted everything in the store.Then we went into a consignment sweater shop; I think it was called Four Bags Full or something else from that nursery rhyme, and the sweaters were not attractive or desirable, but they all cost about $600 and they were used!

And that is the end of my San Francisco chronicles which I hope were more exciting than my bruise and bank account story.