Mission San Francisco

Friday

5:45pm - I bust out of my office and dash across the trolley tracks to catch the Skate Express curbside. Steph and Kate are excited for my trip and we power gossip for 15 minutes until they slow down and push me out of the car at Terminal 1, Southwest.

7:10pm - mufukin' Southwest is late! Delayed!

9:40pm - finally in the air and the kid next to me, Esai, says he hasn't flow in a long time (he's 9) and says he's scared. I explain that he's probably more likely to be struck and fried to a crisp by lighting than go down in a plane considering how little he flies. Now he starts to worry about lightning, I shut up. 45 minutes later, he's over his fears and teases me because I turned down peanuts from the flight attendant. He says I should've given them to him! Note to self: next time accept complimentary handouts and distribute to children and seniors.

9:40pm - I forego a $45 cab and decide to be adventurous and hop the BART. A very adorable gay guy ends up being my BART-mate. We talk about Britney's new album and the scene in Hillcrest.

10:10pm - The BART lets me go at 24th and Mission and it's kind of a rat-in-a-maze feeling getting out and up to the street. I emerge to find homeless dudes, McDonald's and hardly any cabs to get me the last 10 blocks to K + A's address. Finally, I ask two serious looking lesbians coming towards me via the crosswalk if cabs are hard to get around here. The more serious one whips around and gets me a cab in 2 seconds.

10:30pm - Having french press coffee + coffee snot + wine + leftover wasabi potatoes + one mini spare rib with long lost friend Kathryn. Their kitchen feels like a theatrical set with its right-sized wooden table and little props along the window sill. There are doors on every wall for each character to exit or enter.

(Meyer - one of the characters in the kitchen)

12:30am - It's funny to see that my friend is now a coffee drinker and she still calls me "Jenny" and nobody buy my mom and new sister-in-law call me that because they're in Stillwater and that's my name there. However, all other people are given the most menacing look I can muster. But it's oddly comforting to hear it from K. After our first real face-to-face conversation in about 5 years, it's bedtime.

Saturday

9:00am - I get up and walk the Mission neighborhood. San Francisco General Hospital is a few blocks away and there's cheerily ominous 1900's red brick buildings mixed with newer impersonal concrete and glass buildings. I return and Kathryn and I get on bikes and head to a cafe called Ritual. This is more than just her mode of transportation it is a part of her personal culture. I love the look of the blue "fixy" bike with it's thin shiny fenders that I'm given to ride or fall off of. It's called a "fixy" because of it's fixed rear wheel which means the pedals remain in motion until you stop. There is no coasting on this bike or in life. Oddly, I kind of like the constant awareness of what my legs are doing. Maybe that awareness and sensation goes away if one rides a fixy a great deal.

11:ooam - After a very satisfying pancake breakfast made by K's boyfriend Alon, Me, Blue Fixy, & kathryn head for whole foods. When I moved to San Diego I thought the Whole Foods totally rocked and made the Mpls Whole Foods look like a 7-Eleven. The SF Whole Foods made the SD Whole Foods look like a fruit stand. And, I scored an aluminum bottle I'd just seen in a design magazine, Swiss-made by SIGG. We bought a football-sized quantity of skirt-steak to make Bul Go Gi and some Irish Cheddar Cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Noon - It's been raining the whole time we've been biking. I'm liking the rain after the wildfires of San Diego. Kathryn makes the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. After lunch we get to work making the marinade for the Bul Go Gi, which is really just chopping up some ginger and garlic and sacrificing it to the Blender God. After several hours of marination we get to enjoy the fruits of our blending. The skirtsteak has been grilled to perfection by Alon an we sit down and make the equivalent of Korean burritos out of rice, butter lettuce and miso and chili paste. Just when I think dinner can't get any better chocolate chip cookies (a recipe from Tartine Bakery) fresh from the oven appear before us ... yum.

Midnite: We head out in the rain for a nightclub called 12 Galaxies on Mission St. How do I describe it? It's like a Punk/goth/World-music/Brass rave. There's middle-eastern sounding singing mixed with both rockish and almost polka-like riffs by the brass players. The crowd is like a bundle of pistons powered by the music. The fashion of the crowd is oddly cohesive, fedora hats, leather vests, girls in baby doll dresses, patchwork ensembles of ties and t-shirts.

Sunday

morning: I wake up early again and take another walk. Mission street is intense! It is packed with shops for everything; Two bridal shops, a latino 99 cent store, a chinese 99 cent store, fresh meat and fish market. I could buy a wedding dress, steak for 50 guests, some nice chinese party favors and 60lbs of rice for confetti all in a 45 minute walk and have everyone meet me at the Buddhist Temple for the ceremony.

(99 cent store across from 12 Galaxies Bar)

Noonish: we bike to SF-MOMA and my favorite artist, Joseph Cornell, is being exhibited. The museum has so many pieces of his work on display it's overwhelming. I think I have now seen all of his works that have ever been exhibited in public. After our art attack it's time for food. We discuss oysters. I don't really like oysters but when Kathryn starts talking about them i start to like them! She doesn't just talk, she rhapsodizes about things that she's interested in. I'm not an espresso drinker either but between our pedaling and art-going and eating K's soundbytes about the espresso drinkers in her life and the importance of burr grinders had me throwing back macchiato's after every meal by the end of the trip.

4pm: Kathryn and I go to Five and Diamonds and now I know what I want for Christmas, this one-of-a-kind leather laptop bag ($400) and holster-utility belt ($180) except with red leather trim instead of all black. Thanks Santa! (or mom and dad or friends in switzerland or benevolent internet stranger.)

6Pm:My last hours in San Francisco are being spent at a lively Mission district spot called Pizzeria Delfina where the people waiting for a seat are on the sidewalk in circles of 3 and 4 with wine bottle stuck in the tree planters and wine glasses in hands or on planter ledge. We're having Margerita pizza, grilled fennel and greens, salt cod and polenta. A glass of wine, macchiato and a couple of goodbye hugs and the trip is over.

10:40pm - mofugin' southwest is delayed again! I see someone I've met before from Minneapolis but I'm too over-stimulated and over-tired to make conversation. We finally board and I nod off (hopefully without too much drool) and after 20 minutes I awake to a fantastic show of lights outside my window. We're flying so low I can see the traffic and piers and patterns of the coastline below. The contrast of suburban and city lights against dark water has me and my nose and cheeks pasted to the window. It's a waking dream.

11:20pm - We do the 747 bounce and I get a Syrian cab driver to take me home. I lent my keys and condo to Pippi from Minneapolis for the weekend so I have to scale the outside gate in the rain as gracefully and 007'ish as possible. Kathryn gave me a book before I left - A Place of My Own by Michael Pollen - but I'm too tired to start it, the Macchiato has worn off.