"The grass is always greener..."
So, I'm back in San Francisco for two days.
And I'm remembering everything I loved about it here. The weather is gorgeous, the food is incredible, the views are stellar, and I love walking here. I'm staying at the Palomar Hotel, on the edge of SoMa and the Financial District. After I did some work in my room, I walked down to the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero at the end of Market (which hadn't reopened before I left) and checked out the renovations and all the food vendors there. They've done a beautiful job. The building is lovely, it has nice views and some benches to sit on while you enjoy them, and the food purveyors are all top notch. Organic produce, local businesses that started at Farmer's Markets, a California wine merchant, some great restaurants, and this local chocolatier. The chocolates are ridiculously expensive, but I'm probably going back tomorrow to buy a box. Yeah, I know, South Beach. But if I limit myself to one a week in weeks where I lose weight? What a motivator. These babies are little tiny works of art. I've never seen anything like them.
After I wandered around there a bit, I walked up to the top of Nob Hill (debated whether or not to do the Top of the Mark, decided against it), and then wandered back down to Union Square to see if I could get into one of my favorite restaurants, Scala's Bistro. Sadly, they were booked until 8:45, which was a bit late. So I went to Kuleto's, another place I love. I had a lovely salad and pasta (ate only half the penne), dutifully declined dessert, picked up a nonfat latte at one of the approximately 2,432 Starbucks that litter downtown, and returned to the hotel and it's free wireless connection. All in all, a lovely afternoon that made me wonder why I ever left.
Of course, there's examples of all the reasons I left, too. Hell, I'm back in the town I lived in for 18 months and there was literally no one I wanted to call to have dinner with tonight. And tomorrow I'm spending the entire day at the office of the company that brought me to this fair city and subsequently laid me off, so that's guaranteed to put the awk in ward. And I'm missing rehearsals, which brings up one of the other things that was weird about San Francisco: no theater for 18 months. None. Zip. I think I saw one show the whole time I was here. And I've gone pretty much from show to show to show since I got back to Boston - partly to fill the time, but mostly because I love it.
In other words - the good, bad, and all that's in between, in 36 hours. How often do you get that in your life?
And I'm remembering everything I loved about it here. The weather is gorgeous, the food is incredible, the views are stellar, and I love walking here. I'm staying at the Palomar Hotel, on the edge of SoMa and the Financial District. After I did some work in my room, I walked down to the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero at the end of Market (which hadn't reopened before I left) and checked out the renovations and all the food vendors there. They've done a beautiful job. The building is lovely, it has nice views and some benches to sit on while you enjoy them, and the food purveyors are all top notch. Organic produce, local businesses that started at Farmer's Markets, a California wine merchant, some great restaurants, and this local chocolatier. The chocolates are ridiculously expensive, but I'm probably going back tomorrow to buy a box. Yeah, I know, South Beach. But if I limit myself to one a week in weeks where I lose weight? What a motivator. These babies are little tiny works of art. I've never seen anything like them.
After I wandered around there a bit, I walked up to the top of Nob Hill (debated whether or not to do the Top of the Mark, decided against it), and then wandered back down to Union Square to see if I could get into one of my favorite restaurants, Scala's Bistro. Sadly, they were booked until 8:45, which was a bit late. So I went to Kuleto's, another place I love. I had a lovely salad and pasta (ate only half the penne), dutifully declined dessert, picked up a nonfat latte at one of the approximately 2,432 Starbucks that litter downtown, and returned to the hotel and it's free wireless connection. All in all, a lovely afternoon that made me wonder why I ever left.
Of course, there's examples of all the reasons I left, too. Hell, I'm back in the town I lived in for 18 months and there was literally no one I wanted to call to have dinner with tonight. And tomorrow I'm spending the entire day at the office of the company that brought me to this fair city and subsequently laid me off, so that's guaranteed to put the awk in ward. And I'm missing rehearsals, which brings up one of the other things that was weird about San Francisco: no theater for 18 months. None. Zip. I think I saw one show the whole time I was here. And I've gone pretty much from show to show to show since I got back to Boston - partly to fill the time, but mostly because I love it.
In other words - the good, bad, and all that's in between, in 36 hours. How often do you get that in your life?