a true night on the town...

so this will probably make everyone reading this uncomfortable, but before you read the following know this: the sun is up, the city is awake, and i am safe and sound.

i met up with a friend from austin, his girlfriend, and two of their friends in the mission district today after walking around for a few hours aimlessly looking for a thrift store to buy some pants. (i didn't bring any with me, and it turns out that they could come in handy) we had some beers at a funky bar, talked and talked, and then after the sun went down headed to another bar, made a taco stand run, laughed our asses of, talked politics and music, and then went our separate ways. i headed back to the north side of town where i was to crash at ingrid's house. the busses stopped running a solid half hour before i ambled to the bus stop, so i walked two miles to ingrid's, but alas, her cell phone was off, and i was locked out. so i sat on her stoop for a while reading my book, got excited every time someone walked close to her building thinking someone maybe coming with keys, but only crazies and drunk bridesmaids.

it started to get cold so i decided since i had my computer and a book that i would find a twenty four hour diner and surf the web. so i walked east for a while and met a nice homeless woman who i invited out for breakfast. i kind of knew she wanted alcohol and not food so i wasn't surprised when she told me she coudn't walk far, so i gave her fifty cents and asked her where i could get breakfast.

she pointed north and said, three blocks that way to the cala. i didn't know what the fuck cala was, but i walked the three blocks any way. a donut shoppe was open, but the bearclaws looked kind of gross so i headed up a few more blocks before turning around. i walked about ten more blocks and ran into the same woman, at the cala foods. "oh, you made it sugar." she said without a hint of "i pointed you in the entirely wrong direction, said i couldn't walk here but promptly did," and then asked me for more change which i gave her. i kept walking up some massive hills, saw a swift twenty-something tossing newspapers on stoops, and kept walking until i found a gelato shoppe that was closed but had wireless. so i sat on the sidewalk outside, checked email, read a couple of new york times articles, until my butt got sore, then i looked up twenty four hour places, found one six or so blocks away, walked there and had some fantastic people watching. coked out ravers stumbling out of twenty four hour clubs, a homeless woman ambling across three lanes of taxi traffic, only to wander into the diner, wail at one of the customers before being tossed out by a line cook, a crazed frederick douglass look alike running into the plate glass window, and a juicy omelette. drank some coffee, read a little, and then walked towards the water to see the sun rise. and what a fantastic sun rise!!! i find i only have the pleasure of seeing the sun rise in extreme situations, and maybe thats why i always think its so beautiful. but the sky hit this crazy blue before the birds started chirping, clouds swelled up over the skyscrapers like snake skin, and the moon faded back into nothing. so ingrid just called, and i'm headed back to her apartment to catch some zzzz's.

if she hadn't called, i was going to go to an episcopal service, but she says the priest is boring and a bed is tempting.

moral of the story:

if anyone had seen me wandering the streets they would have assumed i was a vagabond (not too far from the truth) and looked through me, past me, avoiding eye contact. in fact, as i had my backpack on and was wearing flip flops, the only "normal people" i saw averted my gaze and power walked to safety. there but for the grace of god go i.

a true night on the town. san francisco and i are now close pals.


p.s. don't be annoyed momma and papa. i probably shouldn't share things like this, but hey, thats what this blog is all about.

oh and...
i also waked past a cafe with all of its lights of but the door was open. two homeless men were inside drinking soy milk from the fridge and just kind of chilling out. not sure that they broke in per se, maybe they just tried the door and it was open? either way the owner is in for a surprise when he comes in next. one of the guys might still be sleeping in a booth. and i wouldn't blame him. when the city shuts down and you have no place to sleep, inside seems like such a privilege reserved for special people.