San Francisco

It's "everybody's favorite city"... and while it's extremely wonderful... I have to say that the weather just brings me down a bit.. It's a good thing I had other fun things to occupy me despite the rain and cold. For example, a long run during which it was raining, blowing a fierce cold wind and the sun never seemed to come up. During this run, I became lost in the Presidio, which of course, does not label their trails whatsoever, and what you end up doing is asking the guy in the clubhouse on the Presidio golf course how you can get out. He of course is about 17 years old, (maybe 18, since he's selling the bloody mary's at 8:30 am) and he of course, has no idea what is east, and of course does not realize where the fences surrounding the park are located. In this scenario, there's a lot of hill running. Let me emphasize the cold and rain again. My cotton shirt was completely dripping and I was quite sure some kind of frostbite was setting in. My hands were not blue anymore, but completely white. I'm running through Pacific Heights (Yes, a very ritzy neighborhood) and ask the people out walking the dogs.. (I later realize I was probably talking to the "help" for these homes) They look at me with pity and with an undisguised surprise when I ask which way is downtown... i just smiled and kept running up the hills.. (there interestingly weren't a lot of down hills... which doesn't make sense) so I finally got back.. Ran by Danielle Steele's home.. estate.. whatever you should call that sort of thing.

My hands were white, as I say, and I couldn't even get my shoes untied, much less grasp the thingamajig in my hair. I had to sit down in the shower so as not to lose balance. Anyway... so that was the High and the Low, all at the same time.

You will note in the picture above that the Bay Bridge is behind us. We are down at the Ferry Building (Slanted Door Restaurant) after having enjoyed some food.. I interestingly enough, recall having 3 glasses of red wine simultaneously in front of me. What is it with SF waiters? I mean, there's three bottles of wine, you just look around and put the new wine out for the people who are finished with the first glass.. Apparently you are supposed to drink some of each... Which only leads to badness in my case. The badness appeared in the form of walking INTO a pole or some stationary object smashing my tibia... I believe that if there weren't 3 full glasses of wine in front of me that this tragic event wouldn't have happened.

I was in SF once when I was like 22 yrs old, and I have to admit, I just didn't pay attention to much... But alcatraz had an impact on me then, so I didn't go again this time. Mostly it was eating, drinking... and then repeat... which worked out just fine.. We went to a place called Zuni, where yes, they do serve the best hamburger I've ever tasted (but only after 10 pm) . You know on those thingy's where you pick if you like hamburgers better than sushi? Well I always pick sushi. But this rivaled the best sushi experience... Zuni.

We walked everywhere "To Dinner". This was usually hedged in the idea of a little pub crawl. Little and Pub Crawl technically do not go together. Suffice to say that I was in a "juicy bar" whatever that means in Korea, I learned how to play dice (although my interest waned quickly), talked with a lady from Sicily who came here 23 years ago and loves Sicily better, but stays here anyway. Go figure. So on the pub crawls to the crowning dinner experience, it was usually a lovely time. The more challenging time, shall we say, came after dinner... You see, there were 20,000 Anesthesiologists (phew, that's a lot of letters) in town and they were sucking up all the cabs.. So when I've had probably a few too many, probably I'm cold anyway.. and the temperature has dropped a few more degrees with a bit more humidity and breeze... the painful truth of "No cab is coming down this road" would hit us, night after night. One night, while trying to walk to a one, "Pancho Villas Taqueria" we decided we were too tired and that a cab would be nice... Well, you can imagine the dejection when seeing none, or only cabs with people.

Which brings me to my thought for the day, "WE ARE JUST GOING TO CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE AND ACTUALLY ENJOY THE REST OF THE WALK" and lo and behold, and cab pulled up JUST as we were coming to this conclusion. A little bit of God helping out. Encouraging the positive attitude.

So anyway...
The highs are outlined above..
the lows, well, the weather.
What I learned about myself? That my mindset for the NYC marathon is just fine.. I'll be finishing that if my body allows. The rain, cold, wind, lost factor in that run really challenged my mind... and it was good. I met it.
What I learned about the group? That intense feelings don't have to tear you apart. That you can love someone and let them go and it is the right thing. That moving on is hopeful and good.