Ay Bay Bay — Lostinthewoodz

I’m writing from the sofa bed of our subterranean Bernal Heights Airbnb. The weather here is consistently cloudy. High 50s, Low 60s. Listening to Something to Feel by Mac Ayres as I write.

Feeling sleepy. Recovering from a loooong Lime ride, city hike, edibles yesterday. The plan is to go to Berkeley later and get coffee.

Coming back to the bay has been unexpectedly nostalgic. I left SF late 2018 to start my new job in NY. The day I left coincided with the 2018 California Wildfires (who knew there was a wiki entry). The city was dark with smoke and unbearable to breathe in.

All my time in NY I never looked back. In hindsight I think that’s because I lived in the shitty part of SF. Working in SOMA. Living in SOMA. Not much besides Metreon and MoMa.

In any case this recent trip to SF has been fire.

The Bay

Took the train/bus up to the bay. Arrived in San Mateo for ramen with ToAnnie and Harry at Taishoken Ramen. Decent tsukemen ramen (does all tsukemen taste fishy? Seems to be the case in every bowl I’ve had so far).

San Mateo’s pretty nice btw. Lots of good Asian food. Pleasant small town vibes. In our walk to get boba Annie explained that there’s a new initiative in all of the Caltrain stops to revamp the main streets. I love that idea. Felt like a nice community. Not the kind of place I’d want to settle down anytime soon, but a place I’d be happy to settle down in at some point in the far future.

We ended the night at ToAnnie’s apartment and played a board game called Necrons. Blood red moon from the smoke earlier that day. Cool breeze blowing through the open balcony door. Alternating roasting Tony as he thumbs through the manual for the thirtieth minute trying to figure out how to play the game. Fun night. Fun game too. Would definitely play again.

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Started the next day at Dragon Beaux for dim sum. Harry and I had been here years ago and tried their foie gras fried rice. Some random day of celebration. That memory triggered other random memories of celebrations.

Celebrating our 24th birthday with Harry at In Situ, the restaurant in the MoMa that curates different dishes from restaurants around the world.Eating with Will and Ray at House of Prime Rib the week before leaving SF for NY. Dinner with Tony, Peter, Andrew, Karen (and BB?) at Alexander’s Steakhouse to celebrate Andrew’s engagement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjS6bQ5OQ-o

Dragon Beaux was a feast. We walked off the food at Golden Gate Park. Found a random stream in the park and followed it upstream until we found the source. The infamous (enjoyable) cloudy weather kept us at a cool ~60 degrees.

Walked to the Sunset and went to Barbary Coast Sunset. Tried a Tet and Tonic (pretty good).

From there we got Lime scooters and rode down to Ocean Beach. Rode all the way uphill to Golden Gate Bridge. The cool cloudy weather. The wind zipping past as we sped down the hill (Harry and Tony ignored the stop signs. I was far more cautious). The beautiful blue ocean view. The lime scooter revving to its utmost ability carrying my fat ass up the steep incline. An inimitable experience. A moment that made me realize I could have done so much more in SF (and probably can do so much more in every setting).

From Golden Gate Bridge we rode down to Japantown and got tea at Tea Hut. Best grape tea I’ve had in my life. Ubered to the Metreon from there and hung out at the mall/went shopping. Got some Japanese cheese tarts

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The next day Harry and I went to Berkeley. Walked around campus. Sat on my favorite bench. Expected to feel like a grandpa with all these new undergrads but damn there were some old looking undergrads on campus too.

Met up with Michelle and James at Tacos Sinaloa. We spent the next few hours catching up. Michelle’s been in the bay (Lake Merritt) since graduation working at a tech company. James has been pursuing the actor’s life (just booked his first lead role at the San Jose playhouse!). Reminisced about our memories from taking theater together. Our old professor Chris Herold (best teacher of my life so far). People we used to crush on in the theater department (oh Mimi where have you gone).

Walked around campus some more and that was that. I expected to feel a bit more nostalgic throughout the day but that feeling wasn’t there. Maybe because times have changed and settings have changes but the people I knew back then seem more or less the same.

—

Went back to the AirBnb at Bernal Heights

Took a bit of a siesta after Berkeley and later met with Sam, Chai and Rosie at Farmhouse Thai. My “main” friend group back in college. A subset of the group at least.

Was a bit surprised at how happy I was to see them. I’m the type of person that doesn’t realize how much they missed someone until that person is back in their life.

Food was great. Conversation was fun. Chai proposed we share our roses. Petals, thorn, root—where petals are things we enjoyed over the years we hadn’t seen each other, thorns are things we didn’t like, roots were what we were hoping for in the future (something like that I fucked it up probably). Sam got annoyed at the metaphor and refused to answer the question at first. I tried to back up my boy Chai and complimented the metaphor.

Sam and I reminisced about the period in senior year where we got into an extended yo momma battle over a few months. Apparently I would strike truces and betray him when the mood struck.

Rosie had to get home early (she’d come all the way from Berkeley). Sam, Chai and I got drinks at True Laurel and ended the night afterwards. SF bars close so damn early. Totally forgot about that. By 10PM they had the lights on and kept hovering near our table to pressure us to leave.

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I was saddish in the days leading up to the SF trip. The idea that what I once had in certain friendships/groups could no longer be replicated. That we had scattered in the chaos like a billiard break to different pockets of life (how’s that for a simile?).

I don’t think this anymore. It’s easy enough to keep people a part of your life. Just make the effort. Hard to make the effort but just do it you lazy scumbag.

Well, fuck unless they’re dead. Luckily most of the people I know are still healthy and alive.

Music Update

On track to finish my draft song by end of this week.

Did my final performance for Hate Everything! Definitely feel like I learned a lot from this song. Never could have sung a song this high before so I’m improving for sure!

I still have issues staying on pitch when I’m recording/performing “for real”

Also struggled a bit with the highest notes BUT I’m getting there.