Jen

Lately I’ve had an overload of Billy Joel songs on my mind. It’s beginning to get a little scary. I usually start off with a little “Tell her about it” then move to “Movin’ out” (you know that part where he says “heart att-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack, you oughtta know by now….” It repeats in my head over and over.) Then by the end of the day, I usually go for “Just the way you are” or “Don’t ask me why.” The only thing that gets these songs out of my head is either the theme to Inspector Gadgit or Doogie Howser M.D. Curse my mind!

San Francisco was a lot of fun, although crazy busy. Sunday was our only full day in the city, and we basically walked to every neighborhood that we could. As you may or may not know, Matt and I are still searching for a more permanent place of residence. Los Angeles has definitely grown on me, but I miss an efficient form of public transportation. That is why we are still considering going back home to the lovely land of Chicago and have added San Francisco as another option. Our goal in San Francisco was to see how easily it is to move around (which it is) and what neighborhoods looked promising. Obviously, the North Beach Area is amazing – very close to downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy and the wharf (although very cheesy, it’s still nice) – and we liked the Mission area for it’s similarity to the Bucktown/Wicker Park areas at home. Anyway, I’m still undecided, but Matt is very gung-ho for San Francisco right now, so we’ll see.

Matt also likes the street people in S.F. more. In L.A., if you are walking alone, more than just to get to your car or enter some sort of shop or work, most likely you are a crazy street person that has conversations with yourself or trees or light posts or whatever is nearest that can’t talk back. It’s true. I was at the corner of Lincoln and Pico and noticed someone walking alone, looking fairly normal, and there it was, a spoken comment on something and then a laugh. He wasn’t on the phone, he wasn’t listening to anything, he was just walking.

Anyway, back to San Francisco. Matt and I were walking somewhere talking and I was talking about something that I can’t remember, and a guy walked past us and turned to me and said “shampoo” which I thought was pretty funny. This is much better than the person in L.A. who stopped Matt and then told him he was going to hell. Good times.

On our way home, we stopped in Livermore (Beck! you’re the one who turned me on to this place!) and sampled some fine wine at the cute little wineries in the neighborhood. This was a great way to end our trip, although I couldn’t “sample” as much as I had liked.

What else is going on? Anymore sightings?