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September 10, 2004
My San Francisco Treat
I miss you already.
It all started with a simple request. I had promised Cynthia that I would get her a dozen or so curried pastries from the city of San Francisco should I ever go back there. The opportunity soon came around Labor Day, when T invited me over to the Bay Area for some R&R, something I really needed and wanted.
One delayed plane flight and four hours later, I landed in the Bay Area. The place hasn't changed since the last time I was here, which is nice.
Berkeley is a wonderful town. It is so quaint and artistic and busy and... I don't know... beautiful. T took me around the Berkeley campus, which was still busling with wide-eyed freshmen even around 9 at night. The campus is much more beautiful at night, and gave me a much better impression than the last time I visited this place, five years ago, when I was considering which undergraduate university to attend. A slight pang of regret hit me as I was eating the wonderful French food that they have down there.
We were both too tired to do anything, so we rented movies and crashed for the night.
T had to host an APC retreat that weekend, so on Saturday I set out on my own to the city to do a little sightseeing - aka - time to give my credit card a little exercise! I wasn't able to check into my hostel until 2PM, so for 4 hours I lugged around my baggage and shopping bags like an old bag lady. I must've spent 2 hours in the Diesel store alone, although I only made out with several of their fannypacks. My love for Diesel is slowly dimming as the impending Seattle store opening draws ever closer.
By noontime I was thoroughly worn out. The sun was beating upon the Bay Area in record highs, and the sheer weight of my shopping excursion was making my body ache. Luckily I was supposed to hang out with my cousins and my sister, so I sat at a coffee shop for however long waiting for them to come pick me up. I haven't seen Siri since her sister's funeral several years ago. Something about California has really calmed her down, made her content. She's really happy here, it seems. We had lunch in Chinatown (a very big mistake) and looked for pastry shops that sold curried buns, but to no avail.
The kids are awesome. Liam and Sarah are so bright and inquisitive. Liam saw the fannypack I was wearing and decided that he should get one as well. *wipes away a solitary tear* I really enjoy being a role model. Siri and Pat want me to move closer to them so I can play a more active role in the kids' lives. If only the job market were more optimistic...
One of my main goals on this trip was to visit the SFMOMA and Asian Art Museum again, but once I checked into the hostel I pretty much crashed and slept for the next four hours. I really should make more friends in the Bay Area; both Jane and Lloyd were out of town so I couldn't hang out with them. Instead, I took a nice long bath and waited for Ryan to get ready so we could hit the bars.
Ryan brought along his friend Jeff, a big fan of prefunking. He brought along a huge jug of Bacardi rum and between the two of them downed maybe like a third of the bottle! And I thought I was a heavy drinker. Nonetheless, both of them were substantially buzzed by the time we hit the streets of Castro. We immediately hit The Bar for some more drinks. I had a Liquid Cocaine and a Tokyo Tea; I couldn't finish the Tokyo Tea, knowing that downing the rest would entail worshipping the porcelain throne for the next few hours. I was so drunk at this point I was offering my Tokyo Tea to complete strangers, asking if they want to finish my drink. Luckily many people were willing to comply.
The rest of the night of quite a blur... I remember going to a very packed Cafe, evidently at a strip night. Whatever. We headed straight for the restroom to take a piss and left the place quickly. Ryan wanted to go to Pendulum to get his clubbin' on... but we were there for only five minutes before he started to get sick. We left the place just in time for Ryan to start vomiting everywhere. Everywhere. I was so drunk at this point I didn't even care that we was vomiting on my shoes and drooling on my pants. I was quite the supportive friend, rubbing his back and encouraging him to let it all out. He was making these terrible retching sounds that could be heard a mile away. The entire spectacle was happening in front of hundreds of bois too, but for some strange reason I didn't feel like I was having a good time, nor did it seem like a chore to take of Ryan.
We decided to call it a night. It wasn't even midnight yet. Even though it hadn't even been an hour since they picked me up we figured it was best to take Ryan home. Jeff, quite sobered up from Ryan's elegant public display of disgorgement, became our designated driver. I held Ryan's head steady in the back seat as he convulsed into a plastic bag. I had vomit and drool on my clothes, but you know what? I was A-OK with that. Because I was drunk. I don't even remember taking these pictures below.
I passed out quite gracefully on my bed in the hostel, and woke up in that state where you're still drunk, but can feel that impending hangover starting to take over. T was to pick me up around noon-ish, and so after I checked out of the hostel I trekked my way to Union Square like a transient and planted myself in front of the Macy's building for the next hour, reliving in my head the wonderfulness and craziness that has happened in the past few days/weeks.
It seemed T had a similar night as mine, taking care of the sick. We had brunch at a wonderful French cafe, but it was so hot I thought I was getting a fever at one point. My hangover lingered on, and so we took it easy. The rest of Sunday was spent recuperating, although we did manage to squeeze in time to check out Japantown and get some dinner at a curry house. No curried buns here, however. And you would think a pastry shop in Japantown would carry some!
Morning Morning. After bidding a fond "see you later" to T, I took the CalTrain down to Sunnyvale for a farewell barbeque with my cousin. I've never been to their new house, which is one of the Eichler buildings that were so popular back in the 1950s. Kind of like a more accessible version of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs, the Modernist design has held up pretty well over the years. The layout is very open with few walls. I like it here.
My appetite had been waning these past few weeks, and somehow being at my cousin's place brought it back in full force. I was chowing down on coconut shrimp, chicken, spanakopita, grilled asparagus, and curry like there was no tomorrow. I miss Siri's cooking.
Kay and Don soon met up with me, and soon we were at the airport waiting for our flight back to Seattle. For some reason I was still hungry, so I ordered a BBQ Chicken Pizza at the airport as a snack before getting on the plane.
So no, no curried buns this time. As the plane began to take off I stared out the window at the land below, pondering the state of this uncertain yet hopeful future.
Posted by Charlie at September 10, 2004 03:26 PM