I had a v. nice day, even if it did involve going to the dirty east bay. It helped that I got a lot of sleep last night and so was starting to feel normal again - and I also wrote for an hour or so this morning, which felt great. Then, I walked down Post Street to a rental car place; while my current abode in Japantown is still quite nice and the neighborhood here is generally good, it seems that the Tenderloin is encroaching on the eastern part of Post. Post was always just a little sketch, but I walked it all the time from Lower Nob Hill to the SF office (or Union Square and the mall) back when I lived at Chandlord's place. I would still walk it today, but it felt grimier. So far my impression of SF has been mostly positive (it's definitely livelier than it was during any visit I've made during the pandemic), but I'll be curious to see how the rest of the week shakes out.
sssanyway, I picked up a rental car and immediately remembered how to drive in the city, which is a good thing since it's a next-level mess of one-way streets and ill-enforced traffic laws. I drove across the bay to Oakland, where I was 40mins early for my lunch (unheard of), so I sat in my car and wrote. Then, I met up with Victor for lunch, which was a real blast from the past - I'm guessing it's been well over a decade since we last saw each other. He was in my freshman dorm at Stanford, and we kept in touch for several years after college - but he and his wife moved away at some point, and we fell out of touch. We reconnected via LinkedIn recently, though, and decided to get together since I was going to be here. It was really wonderful to see him - and a little strange to pick up with someone again after fifteen years, but it seems to be one of my skills.
After we had lunch, I drove to Berkeley and wrote for another hour at a way-too-cool-for-me coffee shop (the building felt like it was just a hallway and everyone was sitting on the floor because there were no chairs (although there were posh cushions for the floor), and grabbed a table outside that was on a fairly steep hill). Eventually, John joined me, and we caught up for forty-five minutes or so. He was at my party with Jess on Saturday, but we hadn't really chatted, so it was nice to say hi.
Then I drove back to the evil city, and was pleasantly surprised that traffic wasn't a nightmare. When I got here, I wrote for just a bit more and then walked over to The Progress to meet up with Claude. We spent a couple of hours eating a variety of tasty things that I absolutely can't get in Iowa, and we also went deep on each other's lives. I may have convinced her to come visit me in Iowa, especially by offering up [censored]'s services to let her son play with a tractor or excavator, which would probably be the best thing to ever happen to that kid.
After we parted ways, I walked back to my hotel and met up with Chandlord, who was here for a drink with one of her coworkers who is also staying here. So, we chatted for a bit (and I referenced my blog to settle a dispute, which the coworker was in awe of). And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!
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