i’m sad to be headed out of california shortly. i haven’t come close to going through all of my pictures, but i’ve cobbled together a few to create this little homage to the san francisco bay area. not enough pics yet to even get through a whole song; some of the pics are stanford pics from my 2002 work trip. so this was a rush job. i need to do a better one of these later. it is true that most of my pictures were not of san francisco, as my time was not spent primarily there, either, but my sentiment is for the whole area.

i didn’t even see any cable cars.

gosh, i’d like to just stick around here for a few more days or weeks or months…

but i didn’t bring my camera to berkeley tonight, so no pictures, although i must comment that berkeley is an absolutely lovely place.

here’s a few assorted pics from the last three days. i plan to keep these coming until i exhaust them. why not just post a whole album? i want to try to prolong the sense that i can still dream. that sense will probably start to evaporate tomorrow and be completely gone by friday.

I had wanted to get my first haircut in at least four months at a stylist Bay Area salon. Alas, stylish salons seem to be closed on Sundays AND Mondays. I happened upon a Great Clips in Pacifica.

Celina clipped my hair. I said I didn’t want much cut off, that I wanted to keep long hair. Celina tactfully reminded me that I had way too much hair around my ears. So, not much was cut off, but enough to make me look a little more presentable for the time being.

And I took another 111 picture between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay before realizing there was no way I was going to stay sane and make it to Monterrey.

Oops, I’m writing with some caps. Alas, it comes and goes, my casing style.

So I have a few hundred more pictures to share and a hundred thousand words to get out. Some other time. Big plan tonight is to drive all the way through Cisco to get to Berkeley just to have coffee with someone, and then I’ll come all the way back. I probably could’ve planned better by telling Someone, prior to Saturday afternoon, that I’d be in the area.

i’ve had tony bennett in my head for days, but i don’t know how much i’ll even see of san francisco. i’m just a tad weary from a 2008 of medical maladies, job stresses, and assorted bumps in the road. i should really be resting, not barnstorming. but today felt like barnstorming.

i didn’t get any sleep last night. left home for a new parking service off lumley rd at 4am. departed rdu at 6am. slept a tad en route to dallas. slept half-a-tad on the way to san jose. got to norman mineta international airport shortly after 10am. (got rid of capital letters a few days ago). worked out rental car stuff with hertz a little after 11am.

drove to foster city to check into tonight’s hotel, way back at noon. took bad advice from hotel employee and went to el torito, which is a decent-enough chain but a chain, nonetheless, and i had wanted to avoid chain restaurants. the first two suggestions had been chevy’s and baja fresh. then again, foster city is like a clone of crystal city in virginia or a densely-packed quadrant of rtp. it’s not meant to have any local character. and yet it does, because all of the greenery and flowers seem meticulously cultivated.

after lunch, took a look at the kite-surfing that goes on in the bay. had never seen kite-surfing. took a long walk on my bad feet. (i didn’t complain via blog about my toe, i don’t think. it either has sustained a stress fracture or gout; has not been pleasant in any event. both feet seem to have healed enough to allow ample walking here in california. i suspect i may not be able to move at all upon waking up tomorrow).

kite-surfing-watching was really an exercise in photography. i’ve been taking a photog class, did i mention? no, cuz then i’d be implying that my photog skills are supposed to be getting better. i think they are, but, well, i know they’re not that good.

so, long walk around a trail by the bay. went back to hotel room, crashed for a little while. prior to crashing, i had bought a giants baseball game ticket on stubhub.

i drove to a caltrain station in san mateo with the intention of taking the 4:57 train into sf for the 6pm game. i missed the train by 30-45 seconds. the next train would have been at 5:57.

i drove to at&t (previously pac bell park). i sat in waiting-for-a-stadium-event traffic for awhile until i was directed to a parking lot.

$30 for parking. my ticket had only been $25. I didn’t pay it.

i found a sketchy parking lot operation a couple of blocks away. $15.

watched giants lose to diamondbacks, 5-3. did a lot more walking, exploring much of the stadium rather than stay in bleacher seats. liked bleacher seat. did not like bleacher crowd. did not like bleacher crowd because i am lame and averse to fun; i realize this. the bleacher crowd could have been bar patrons from some youth-populated hotspot in downtown raleigh. i realize i totally don’t fit in. but this is a topic for another time.

i took a lot of photos at at&t park.

did not spend a saturday night exploring nightlife in san francisco. first, because i’m lame and wouldn’t even know what to do. second, exhaustion. but after i went back to the hotel, i still went out again; exciting trip to long’s drugs for some toothpaste.

now, past midnight, or 3:25am according to my laptop. i took 221 photos today. i aim to go through them soon, not six months from now like is my wont. wont. i should never use that word. who do i think i am using that word?

what’s with all the writing? dunno. fingers anxious to do some typing. old-fashioned journaling.

so much more to say. will just pick out a few pictures now.

tomorrow, if i ever get out of bed, will be a san francisco day, i think.

i do think i like this area better than the triangle. i really ought to try to line up a job interview for monday. i’m not even kidding, about the ought-to, not that i really have one. i’d need to get a haircut, anyway.