One Great Week

Man I have really been loving life since I quit work. My biggest fears about being unemployed were that I would be unmotivated, bored, depressed, and I’d sleep in way too late. Well, I have been slightly bored for maybe a couple hours at a time, but that is about the extent of it.

I went to the main San Francisco library on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I went there and back on foot. I can’t say it is a “nice” walk, as the further south you go, the crummier it gets. But it was neat going down a different street each day, just to confirm that there were no little shops that I was missing. The only things that I found were a grocery store on Leavenworth that I had been in once and since forgot about, and a restaurant on Jones, Alegro Romano, that I have never gone to but have been meaning to. I’ll need to make sure I go to these places.

One interesting thing to note is that on Hyde and Leavenworth, things get pretty ugly pretty quickly as you walk south. On Jones, however, it takes a bit for things to get ugly (but they definitely do get ugly). One funny story from Wednesday (the Jones day): As I walked down Jones, I spotted a tourist couple in one of their tourist cars (a tiny little open-air thing that just scoots around town). You might call it a two-person scooter. Anyway, if you know anything about the Tenderloin, you will know that it isn’t a tourist attraction. So the first thing I wondered when I saw these people is…what the hell are they doing in this neighborhood? And secondly, what could their GPS-guided tour possibly be telling them about their current location?

They were parked on the side of the road, and a man passed them going the other way on his bike. He said, “I’ll race you!” I found that pretty humorous, but the tourists probably didn’t, because their little scooty thing wasn’t starting. I saw the guy give the keys a turn, and nothing happened. I walked past them, but then I turned back figuring that these poor people could use some help. I said, “It won’t start?”

He replied “No, it’s starting.”

In a statement completely ignoring what he had just said, because it obviously wasn’t starting, I said, “Oh ok. Do you have a cell phone?” as I showed him mine.

“Yeah, we’re just parking it here.”

I figured, OK, if the guy doesn’t want help, then it isn’t my problem. I am guessing his girlfriend let him have it right after that.

Anyway, getting back to where I started – The main library is very nice, but mostly I just holed up at a desk and studied for a bit. Actually, I hit up the library cafe every day, too. Studying can make me tired, and sipping on a diet coke helps keep me awake.

The cafe is surprisingly nice. Strange, though, that they don’t let you bring in outside food. It makes me wonder where I am going to eat my lunch once it starts getting even colder.

Thursday, as I mentioned earlier, I made it to the Western Addition library. I also walked here. I walked along Scott street, and man oh man, the houses here are nuts. If you want to see the craziest entrance to a house, go to Scott and Pacific. The view was beautiful:

My apartment is approximately in the middle left of this picture.

In contrast to walking to the main library, it took a good long while for this super-ritzy neighborhood to degenerate into even a middle-class neighborhood.

The Western Addition library is pretty nice, too, although obviously smaller. I went outside to have my lunch and noticed a homeless woman having a lively conversation with…herself. Well, that’s OK. It wasn’t bothering me much. But then she started talking about a fight she had with someone. “Kablauw! Hahahaha!” she said. And then a few more times. She became less and less amused with the conversation…time for me to go back inside.

Evidently she didn’t like what she was saying to herself, and started a rather lively argument. In go the earbuds, but she was obviously bothering the other patrons too. Oh well, made for a more interesting day for me, at least.

And you’ve already seen how my quest for excellent bar-b-que went later that day. Well on my way back on the bus, I spied a tasty looking cheese-steak place. My hand instinctively pulled on the cord for the next stop, and in I went.

This place looked awesome. It looked very close to Jim’s Steaks in Philly. I thought I may have just found cheesesteak nirvana.

Now, at Jim’s Steaks, it is definitely a little soup-nazi-ish. That is, they’re going to be short with you, but they’re definitely going to get you your steak. This place was a bit different. Standing directly under the “order here” sign for approximately three minutes, I looked right at the cheese-steak guy who was standing behind the counter. Nothing. Out I go. I satisfied my craving for grease at Za Pizza later that night, and burnt my tongue on a slice of pepperoni, “not too hot,” I asked for. So much for customer service that day.

Yesterday, I decided it was high time to head over to Berkeley. I had only been there once, and I decided that I would like to go again. They have an excellent public library. It is a good-size library, and there are some really neat parts of it. They have a rather large science fiction section, as well as an impressive reference section. I found an Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1911. The reference section always makes me want to spend a whole day there. Unfortunately, I did have some work to do.

After studying in the library for a bit, I walked around town a couple of times looking for the perfect coffee shop. I guess I had an impression of Berkeley as being the home of great, cozy coffee shops. I will definitely have to say that none of them seemed particularly cozy. However, I did end up settling at Tully’s coffee where there was some outstanding customer service. I do believe I will be writing them a letter.

Both Friday morning and afternoon, I caught the cable car. What a joy it is to ride. Confused, due to the lack of signage, on what was the official way to signal that you would like to get off at the next stop, I struck up a short conversation with one of the cable car operators. What a charismatic bunch those guys are.

This coming week, I hope to check out at least one or two more cities. Maybe Mountain View, Palo Alto, or San Jose.