We got the uHaul into Provo Utah on Saturday the 29th. We met up with my friend from Forest World, Sean and got to see his band play at a venue. Utah people are crazy nice...but in that eerie way almost(this is excluding Sean and his friends, we stayed up eating breakfast burritos, and spent the next morning discussing the finer points of growing up in the Mormon faith and the crazy shit that goes on there)It was crazy to see that reserved lifestyle and hear about it from the people who lived it in the center of the beast. It was good to see him again and though and the next day I finally got the see the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats.
We winded up in a hotel in Reno but after the crazy mountains and driving we didn't gamble much, I was wiped, but we were offered pills by a prostitute with what appeared to be either her most recent client or her pimp in the car next to her...thank you Nevada for the memories!!!
We made it to California on Monday and got our stuff into storage and finally ditched the uHaul (thank god, those suck to drive especially in the city!) We shacked up in the Best Western on 9th st and is where i'm current writing this. We have been in town for a week tomorrow and 5 of the 7 days have been spent in this hotel.
Technically at this point we are with out a real home of our own...in other words we are homeless. We had checked out of the hotel for a few days, Friday and Saturday, finding places to crash on each night, though Saturday was too close of call for comfort.
The first week has been great for me getting to know the city. Tuesday while Dillon was in class, I wandered around the Financial District, followed Embarcadero after seeing the Bay Bridge...
through the Fisherman's Wharf, where I found an amazing arcade with tons of vintage nickelodeons and pianos that played songs by themselves. I played a retro bowling game, and the basketball game with the hoop that moves. Following that up i walked out on a pier and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and walked up Russian Hill to see the famous Lombard Street...but to me the more famous street is Steiner...and yes I still hear Mrs. Doubtfire say it every time I see a sign.
Wednesday was filled with driving around the city viewing apartments and getting applications. I got to see my first glimpses of the ocean ever. Yes you read that correctly, E V E R! Awestruck is the only was I can sum up what I feel about the ocean, and while I got a sneak peak that day, Thursday I was actually at the beach for the first time, feeling the sand and the sea foam and touching the Pacific Ocean, really seeing it. I still can't imagine how enamored I am with it. I had always thought it was too desolate let the prairie, but it's alive and beautiful. I got to meet up with my old acquaintance Chelsea who I haven't seen in years, and experience that with her, it was good catching up with her.
Back to Wednesday real quick, we saw Jaguar Love, Butterfly Bones and My First Earthquake at Cafe du Nord, and it was a great dance show. If you like Passion Pit, Cut Copy or Hot Chip, you will love Butterfly Bones, I met the guys and they are all way nice, so the networking has been taking off here.
Thursday was meeting my cousin Melissa and her friend Scott for drinks in the Castro, followed by brown bagging a beer to drink and walk on the street and winding up at the karaoke lounge Encore. I have had my second best karaoke performance there the last time I went, but got screwed over by the d.j not giving me enough time to run from outside to the stage, so in my drunken stubbornness I left Dillon high and dry at the bar and decided to take off by in the tenderloin on a Thursday night alone...brilliant choice I know. After walking back to the hotel to find there was no vacancy that night, I had to walk back in the rain, but I'm glad I did because when I got back I got to meet Thomas (Beard) one of Dillon's old friends, who is genuinely just a great guy. He saw i was being dumpy so he bought me a beer and got me back into an o.k. mood.
Waking up around noon Friday we went to get a coffee hangover cure and ended up sitting outside just talking with Beard's roommate and amazing artist in his own right Chris. Man his clay work is just outstanding, and his paintings are damn good as well. We ended up at the opening of 3 different art shows, and all 3 had some great things going on. Chris' gallery had this man, who if I had the money would be in my room, when I get one that is
There was also an installation by this 6-piece Dutch group called Antistrot who all sit down at the same time to make things that look like this
From there we went to the Mission where the night for me will be one I never forget, and were what I had hoped for in this move. I will go into more detail next time, but for now I'm done, since i doubt anyone has read all of this (really just look at the pictures and skim this, that's what I'd do) and I'm tired of rambling on. I'll leave you with a picture of one of my new bffs...
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