Day 34 – San Francisco (continued)

Day 34 = June 12

About Jason. He was a worship pastor in New York City at Mosaic. I never saw him lead worship there, we just met when my friend Emily and I helped with some city-wide worship events. We sang, Jason guitared, and a bunch of other persons were involved as well. Now Emily is married and living in New Zealand, and Jason is an Arts Advocate (/Pastor) in San Fran, the absolute other side of the continent. He is as excited about SF as he was about Brooklyn, which makes his loyalties a little suspicious, but hey… he’s a person who loves his neighborhood, which can’t be said of everyone. Oh & also, having been dating Kristen, the love of his life, there, hasn’t hurt his love for the town either I should think. She was out of town, so I didn’t get to meet her, but I heard good things & saw some happy pix. :)

So, his new position is at IKON, a small new-ish church start-up that is only a year or two old and meets in the San Francisco Chronicle building. It has 2 services and I went to the later one, for obvious reasons (sleeping in J ). On my way I had some bus complications (I waited at 2 wrong bus stops before finding the correct one, because one street was split in two over a freeway which was a little confusing). No matter. But once I was on the ground, motoring my way as fast as my little legs could carry me over to the Chronicle building, a woman caught my eye. She was a slightly older African American woman, and she leaned out and said to me, “Where are you going?” I said, “5^th & Mission!” (I don’t know why I’m so honest) She said, “You ever been to church?” Me: “That’s where I’m goin’!” She said, as I left her behind, “Well, it’s GREAT in here!” almost to herself and it sounded like she really meant it. The doors must have swung open around there and I think I heard some great gospel music pouring out. It made me wish I wasn’t in such a hurry and that I had 5 min. to peek in and see what was up. That was over at Taylor & Ellis for you San Franciscans. Check it out sometime! :)

I liked IKON. One of my favorite songs they did was “Your Love is Strong” by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. After looking it up online, I think their version was even better than the original, but here ‘tis if you’d like to check it out.

After church, Olga – my poetry friend who I met thru Jason but hadn’t met before in person – and I went over to Blue Bottle for some coffee. Ok, just hot chocolate for me, but isn’t it beautiful?

One thing that is really interesting/unique about San Fran is their penchant for communal eating/drinking. They make maximum use of the small mileage of the city by installing long tables where everyone sits together. Blue Bottle for example:

We had a great talk. Was really nice to have some time together in person! If you'd like to check out Olga's baby/project extraordinaire, Vetted Word, here's the place.

Then I jumped on a train to go up to Jason’s neighborhood. He showed me the apt. he shares w/some guys from IKON and I met the roomies briefly, and then we went out for more exploring. First on his list (tho’ he couldn’t drink coffee because of his sickness) was Four Barrell, because I just needed to see how great it was. Ta-dah! –

Actually I think Tommy would be more appreciative of this, as he likes quality coffee. I’m not a very coffee-ish person, but I do like cozy venues.

Next was a lookout I was too hungry/tired to go to the day before. The full view of a city is important to get. I like that too, but I was also distracted by the various lovers getting their photos taken in front of San Fran without being blown off the lookout.

The hill had a ginormous cancer ribbon on it. I guess they have something different up there every year.

Then I wanted to attend the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair. It was the longest looking for parking I’ve ever spent I think. After a loooooooooooong while, I just suggested that Jason drop me off and I’d make it back on my own. So he went home for a nap, and I ventured into crazy street-fair life alone.

I encountered a lot of pro-marijuana organizations, and little dogs in cute outfits, and lots of tie-dye, etc. etc. It was pretty nice be at on a sunny afternoon, and I bargained a street vendor down on a little tie-dyed baby onesie with a peace sign for my friend Simona’s upcoming baby Asher.

After that, I consulted my notes and decided to save $2 by walking back to Fillmore instead of riding a bus. The nice thing about buses there – at least w/some of them! – is that they are connected to these lines that go over the road so if you need to go where they are going, you can kinda follow those and get where they’re going.

I then holed up in my host home, watched a movie I think, and took a nap. Jason checked in when he woke up from his but I said I was fine chilling for the eve. Later I went on over to The Grove and asked for my missing piece of pie which they apologized about and immediately delivered to me. I read for a while on my Kindle, and then I went walking up Fillmore. Up, and up and up to the view and down, down, down to the very sea (or about 50 feet away). I didn’t quite go up to it because there were no lights over the grass and I imagined it being full of high homeless people trying to sleep…and I also have a goal of not dying in any way my mother could say ‘I told you so’. I could see the search light spinning at Alcatraz in the distance. When I turned to go back, it was to a Great Effort that I returned. You walk down these hills at 45 degree angles, but getting back up them is another thing. It pretty much wipes you out.

Got back pretty late. Really wished I could have included these walks on my running blog, but alas it is only for running. Fell asleep immediately*.

* immediately usually means immediately after Tommy & I chat on the phone for a few min. every night...we are by no means very lucid and interesting in our late night goodnights and we both kind of hate the phone, but it's sweet nonetheless to hear each other's voices before 'signing out'. sorry if that is TMI, just thought it deserved a mention...)